Migration , Population Change , and the Rural Environment MIGRATION , POPULATION CHANGE , AND THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT

The movement of human populations across the planet has character ized human societies throughout history. Historically, resource scarcity or depletion has induced this movement. In recent years, rural populations and their relationships to their environment are again attracting growing interest, especially in connection with population change and particularly migration. Rural areas contain most of the world’s forested land (tropical rainforests, sub-tropical forests, and temperate forests) and other lands (such as agricultural, semi-arid, and drylands); they supply humankind with most of its food. Such environments also contain most of the world’s gene pool. While tropical rainforests and coral reefs have attracted the most attention because they have the highest density and diversity of species per unit area, other biota (such as highland forests, wetlands, savanna, drylands, and deserts) also contain unique floral and faunal diversity. Human population growth and intrusion threaten, to varying degrees, all of these biota. This article considers issues pertaining to the linkages between rural populations, migration from and to rural areas, and the environment—focusing on developing Abstract