Cities are becoming crowded and polluted. The world is experiencing disasters left and right with massive casualties never before recorded. Climate change is becoming the defining issue of our era.
A study reveals that high deforestation rate is associated with high poverty incidence and that a 10 percent increase in population density alone will result to a 5 percent decrease in forest cover. Rapid population growth cannot be ignored as a crucial factor that exacerbates the demand on resources and ecosystems.
The Philippine celebration of World Environment Day 2008, hopes to link the celebration into the Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Framework, giving a human face to environmental issues. The celebration also aims to empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development and promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards population, health and environmental issues.