ABSTRACT
Both population and the environment are commonly perceived to be in crisis. The so-called Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 and the Cairo Population Conference held in September 1994, reinforced these views, with alarmist media reports following. Debates concerning the relationship between population and the environment are however, not new and present day discourse on the subject can be traced back to Malthus' influential Essay on the Principle of Population published in 1798. Since then, the debate has broadened, with research demonstrating the highly intricate relationship connecting people with their environment. This chapter focuses on the complex theoretical debates concerning the linkages between these two emotive issues and uses examples from sub-Saharan Africa to illustrate them. We will begin by discussing, briefly, some general aspects of population distribution and growth, the notion of environment and contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. Both the Malthusian and Boserupian views have been criticised for being oversim-plistic.
