This study explores the interlinkages among population, environment and
poverty and presents empirical evidence in a developing country like Pakistan. It gives
alternative views on population environment linkages. It explains poverty trap, market
based harmony, and dual effect of poverty on the basis of a link between population growth
and natural resource degradation. In addition, the paper also highlights social and political
instability through population-poverty-environment spiral. It also presents empirical
evidence on population-environment-poverty nexus in Pakistan. It also compares environmental
sustainability index and human development index for selected Asian countries.
The paper also gives scores for different components of environmental sustainability index
for Pakistan and compares these with India. The paper concludes that the causal relationship
between poverty and environment works in both directions, often through changes
in GDP and population. Population stress does not have any significant direct effect on all
aspects of environmental status in Pakistan.