ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been a certain reluctance in some development and conservation circles to acknowledge the significance of population issues. Westerners are cognizant of their own roles in consuming the world’s resources and understandably consider it inappropriate to warn others about population expansion. Additionally, there is growing recognition that, for instance, in forest management, public participation is often used for the purposes of the managers, donors and project leaders, rather than for local people’s purposes (for a thorough examination of these processes as they apply to women’s reproductive rights, see Braidotti et al, 1994; Reardon, 1995; Rocheleau and Slocum, 1995; Turshen, 1995). And finally, forest managers – usually men, and usually outsiders – typically feel uncomfortable dealing with the women who live in forests. Childbearing behaviour, they believe, is too personal, and outside the realm of forestry or ecological expertise. For all these reasons, many people are fearful of addressing broader population issues in remote forested areas and may even consider it unethical.
