What is PHE?

PHE is an approach to development

Development

-Land use:*Green development, a concept that includes consideration of community-wide or regional environmental implications*Land development, altering the landscape in any number of ways...

 that integrates Population, Health, and the Environment (PHE) to effectively serve people and their resources worldwide. A PHE approach integrates health

Health

Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...

 or family planning

Family planning

Family planning is the planning of when to have children, and the use of birth control and other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexuality education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and...

 with conservation

Conservation

Conservation may refer to:* Conservation movement, to protect animals, fungi, plants and their habitats** Conservation biology, the science of the protection and management of biodiversity...

 efforts to seek synergistic successes for greater conservation and human welfare outcomes than single-sector approaches.

Why PHE?

More than 1 billion people live in ecological hotspots, many of which are remote areas of critically important biodiversity

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...

 under intense pressure from human activity. Conservation work is usually located in these remote areas to protect the remaining biodiversity. In the developing world, the communities in these remote areas often suffer from ill health because of limited access to health services or family planning. These communities also tend to suffer from poor nutrition

Nutrition

Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....

, water supplies or sanitation

Sanitation

Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...

. Inadequate health care

Health care

Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

 in these communities is usually because of economic struggles. Livelihoods in the rural communities depend on natural resources and small-scale agriculture, which can force people to use natural resources unsustainably because of pressures such as rapid population growth

Population growth

Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....

 or health issues. This can be damaging to ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

s and the biodiversity in these rural areas.

Conversely, people’s health relies on the health of their environment

Environmental health

Environmental health is the branch of public health that is concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment that may affect human health...

. Their surrounding ecosystem provides them with goods and services such as water, food, medicine, fuel wood, building materials, and other resources. Damage or disruption of these natural goods and services can have severe consequences for human health.

Projects that take the PHE approach work to create healthier communities and ecosystems. These projects aim to bring better health services to remote communities to improve participation in conservation efforts. PHE projects also promote family planning services to help slow population growth that can put pressure on natural resource

Natural resource

Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems....

s. That means PHE approaches strive to simultaneously improve access to health services while helping communities manage their natural resources in ways that improve their health and livelihood even as they protect the environment. Beyond this, the PHE approach also targets synergies between human health and ecosystem health by including a wide spectrum of development and conservation targets such as the sustainable management of natural resources, improving livelihoods, food security

Food security

Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past...

 and nutrition, and by maintaining or restoring habitats and ecosystem functions. By focusing on the synergy

Synergy

Synergy may be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.The term synergy comes from the Greek word from , , meaning "working together".-Definitions and usages:...

 between communities and their environment, the PHE approach conserves biodiversity while at the same time improving environmental health conditions for the local people. PHE is effective at achieving a wide range of positive results over multiple sectors.

History of PHE

In the late 1980s conservation organizations and practitioners began to realize the benefits of improving the quality of life

Quality of life

The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of...

 for people by managing biodiversity and natural resources. These projects were initially called integrated conservation and development projects

Integrated Conservation and Development Project

Integrated conservation and development projects are biodiversity conservation projects with rural development components. This is an approach that aspires to combine social development with conservation goals. These projects look to deal with biodiversity conservation objectives through the use...

 (ICDP) and addressed a wide variety of community development needs. At the end of the 1990s it was realized that ICDPs were not achieving conservation or development goals as successfully as anticipated. This was because the scope of ICDPs was often too broad. One of the lessons learned from ICDP attempts was that the success of the projects depended on the ability to focus on key interventions and avoid excessive complexity. From the lessons learned from early ICDPs the conservation sector gave birth to the PHE approach with a new generation of integrated projects.

Program designer

Program designer

A program designer is the person responsible for the overall design of an internet or interactive project. Relying on a broad base of visual, media and computing skills, the program designer shapes the project's look and functionality from initial stages to completed project...

s began to realize that efforts to conserve biological diversity (biodiversity) in developing countries was most successful in long-term indicators when local people perceived their efforts as serving their economic and cultural interests. This gave birth to the integrated development approach. To achieve success it was found that ICDPs had to consider the linkage between conservation and development objectives in every unique place that the project was implemented. The first step to determining the linkages is to consider where the conservation and economic development

Economic development

Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...

 goals intersect. Development interventions should then be introduced where this intersection occurs.

One of the most important lessons learned from ICDPs in the last 20 years was the failure to equitably involve projected beneficiaries as partners in all phases of project implementation, from design through evaluation, has led to consistently disappointing project results. It must be recognized that local participants are not a homogenous group of community members but differ widely in terms of access and dependency of resources, economic positions and their sensitivity to environmental change

Environmental change

Environmental change is defined as a change or disturbance of the environment by natural ecological processes, and is described in the following articles:*Climate change*Environment...

s. These lessons learned from past ICDPs has lead the design of the stakeholder analysis

Stakeholder analysis

Stakeholder analysis in conflict resolution, project management, and business administration, is the process of identifying the individuals or groups that are likely to affect or be affected by a proposed action, and sorting them according to their impact on the action and the impact the action...

 where individuals or groups vested in the project are identified and incorporated into all stages of project design and implementation.

Drawing on what was learned from ICDPs, the conservation sector piloted the PHE approach during the 1990s with the first generation of PHE integrated projects. Since then USAID (the United States Agency for International Development

United States Agency for International Development

The United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas...

), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation

David and Lucile Packard Foundation

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a private foundation that provides grants to not-for-profit organizations. It was created in 1964 by David Packard and his wife Lucile Salter Packard. Following David Packard's death in 1996, the Foundation became the beneficiary of part of his estate...

, Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....

, and the Summit Foundation have worked to strengthen the approach. The PHE approach has pushed on with the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...

 (MDG) in mind. As the PHE approach advances it has demonstrated to have the kind of synergies needed to reach these goals.

Past PHE Project Profiles

Successful Communities from Ridge to Reef, Kenya:
This project was implemented in an area designated a UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 reserve in the Kiunga National Marine Reserve. The reserve has outstanding marine biodiversity of over 11,000 species, 60-70% of which are endemic to the Indo-Pacific

Indo-Pacific

The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...

 Ocean. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with funding from USAID, was able to provide communities that depend on the reserve’s resources access to family planning through a mobile clinic. Members of the community began to actively participate in conservation activities once they know WWF was willing to help them meet basic health needs.

Healthy Families, Health Forests, Cambodia:
When refugees from the Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

/Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 war in 1970s returned to their homes they found their land had been destroyed through logging and agriculture. With USAID support, Conservation International

Conservation International

Conservation International is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, which seeks to ensure the health of humanity by protecting Earth's ecosystems and biodiversity. CI’s work focuses on six key initiatives that affect human well-being: climate, food security, freshwater...

 helped the Khmer Daeum refugee

Refugee

A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

s to replenish their land and supplied the refugees with their first-ever access to family planning. Healthy families were able to develop long-term plans for sustainable land use

Land use

Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...

 and local women created associations that mobilized the community to increase income earning opportunities and strengthen participation in conservation activities.

Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management (IPOPCORM), Philippines
Rapid population growth in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 has led to deforestation

Deforestation

Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....

 and destruction of coral reef

Coral reef

Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...

s. Only 3% of original forest cover remains and only 5% of coral reefs are intact and in pristine condition. This uncontrollable population growth, coupled with the depletion of coastal resources led to the development of the Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management (IPOPCORM) project with support from USAID and PATH Foundation Philippines Inc. The IPOPCORM Project focuses on communities in the Philippines’ most endangered coastal reef areas and works to improve food security and livelihoods by promoting family planning and sustainable fisheries management

Fisheries management

Fisheries management draws on fisheries science in order to find ways to protect fishery resources so sustainable exploitation is possible. Modern fisheries management is often referred to as a governmental system of appropriate management rules based on defined objectives and a mix of management...

. The program has earned strong support from local mayors and community members who have appreciated IPOPCORM’s focus on improving livelihoods.

Population and Resource Management in Madagascar
Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

’s greatest concentration of unique plant and animal species can be found in Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

. These species have been historically threatened by rapid population growth leading to deforestation. USAID/Madagascar planned for the development of an innovative population and environment

Environment

In general, environment refers to the surroundings of an object, or the Natural environment, all living and non-living things that occur naturally on EarthEnvironment may refer to:...

 program in the region that linked community-based natural resource management

Natural resource management

Natural resource management refers to the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future generations ....

 with interventions to improve family health and planning while allowing for better preservation of the island’s unique biodiversity. The program had worked with local communities in order to support family planning services, sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment...

, good governance, improved food production, alternative livelihoods, and environmental education

Environmental education

Environmental education refers to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably. The term is often used to imply education within the school system, from primary to...

.

Community-Centered Conservation Efforts in Tanzania
The Jane Goodall Institute

Jane Goodall Institute

The Jane Goodall Institute is an international wildlife and environment conservation organization with branches in many countries. It was founded in 1977 by English primatologist Dr...

, with funding from USAID/Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

, constructed the TACARE project to eliminate poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

 and support sustainable livelihoods, while alleviating the depletion of natural resources in the country. The community-based approach aimed to improve the livelihoods in Tanzanian communities while promoting conservation and an understanding of the need to preserve biodiversity. This approach provides family planning methods, information, and counseling by community volunteers that has resulted in a greater acceptance of family planning. With funding from USAID/Washington the TACARE approach is being replicated in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Andean Highlands of Ecuador
A collaborative operations research effort by CEMOPLAF, World Neighbors

World Neighbors

World Neighbors is a non-profit international development organization that works with some of the most remote and marginalized communities in ecologically fragile areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America...

, and the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

’s Population-Environment Fellows Program was supported by USAID. The study showed quantified benefits of integrating family planning efforts and information with agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

and natural resource management in the area.

Resources

Oglethorpe, J.; Honzak, C. ; Margoluis, C.,Healthy People, Healthy Ecosystems: A Manual on Integrating Health and Family Planning into Conservation Projects, World Wildlife Fund (WWF),2008 http://www.k4health.org/system/files/sites%252Fdefault%252Ffiles%252FHealthy%2BPeople%2BHealthy%2BEcosystems-WWF%2B2008.pdf

Brown, Michael and Barbara Wyckoff-Baird. Designing Integrated Conservation and Development Projects, The Biodiversity Support Program, November 1992 http://www.worldwildlife.org/bsp/publications/bsp/designing_eng/title.htm