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The 2016 Iranian Census reveals that 14 of the country’s 31 provinces have sub-replacement fertility. The province of Tehran, where a woman on average gives birth to 1.5 children during her reproductive period, has the lowest fertility in Iran. However, the ‘two-child’ norm prevails in the country and even a woman of young reproductive age still values having at least two children on average. In other words, there exists a gap between a woman’s actual and desired fertility. This paper examines the demographic and socio-economic factors influencing the gap between actual and desired fertility in Tehran city based on a sample survey of 400 married women aged 15–49 years, conducted in 2015. The findings of the study reveal that the women of Tehran would be able to meet their fertility desires of two or more children if they were able to achieve their intended number of children they stated in the survey. However, should these women face any socio-economic constraint, they would be very likely to restrain their fertility desires and have fewer additional children than they initially intended, and thus continue with the sub-replacement fertility as being observed in Iran today.

The internal migration of Bengali people to the CHT since the 1970s has been a significant factor in the long-standing ethnopolitical conflict in this region. The prevailing view is that while poverty and environmental disasters were push factors in this migration, government settlement programmes were primarily responsible for this population shift. This article offers a fresh perspective on this historic migration by exploring its environmental causes. It shows through an analysis of a questionnaire survey and interviews with Bengali settlers in the CHT that climatic events such as floods, cyclones, and riverbank erosion contributed to the migration decisions of the majority of the respondents. Government protection and provision of land and social networks in the CHT were mediating factors that enabled Bengali migrants to settle permanently in the CHT. This insight challenges the conventional narrative that the settlement was primarily politically motivated and confirms that complex migration motivations cannot be reduced to single drivers.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)., Using information collected through semi-structured questionnaires in 483 households, this paper examines the relationships between livelihood risks and livelihood capitals amongst rural farming communities in China’s Shiyang River Basin. Based on an index system of livelihood risks (health, environmental, financial, social, information and connectivity risks) and livelihood capitals (human, physical and natural, financial and social capitals), relationships are measured and evaluated through a linear regression model. Results suggest that health risk and social risk have clear negative effects on livelihood capitals. This finding may support evidence-based policies intended to reduce health risk and social risk threats as well as underpinning improvements in rural farmers’ capacities to withstand livelihood risk and to enhance well-being. View Full-Text

We identify the 10 major terrestrial and marine ecosystems in Australia most vulnerable to tipping points, in which modest environmental changes can cause disproportionately large changes in ecosystem properties. To accomplish this we independently surveyed the coauthors of this paper to produce a list of candidate ecosystems, and then refined this list during a 2-day workshop. The list includes (1) elevationally restricted mountain ecosystems, (2) tropical savannas, (3) coastal floodplains and wetlands, (4) coral reefs, (5) drier rainforests, (6) wetlands and floodplains in the Murray-Darling Basin, (7) the Mediterranean ecosystems of southwestern Australia, (8) offshore islands, (9) temperate eucalypt forests, and (10) salt marshes and mangroves. Some of these ecosystems are vulnerable to widespread phase-changes that could fundamentally alter ecosystem properties such as habitat structure, species composition, fire regimes, or carbon storage. Others appear susceptible to major changes across only part of their geographic range, whereas yet others are susceptible to a large-scale decline of key biotic components, such as small mammals or stream-dwelling amphibians. For each ecosystem we consider the intrinsic features and external drivers that render it susceptible to tipping points, and identify subtypes of the ecosystem that we deem to be especially vulnerable.

Timor-Leste, the newest nation in Asia stands out demographically. The nation-building process of Timor-Leste faces significant demographic challenges due to the population growth which is the fastest in Asia and almost the fastest in the world. This unprecedented growth is primarily an outcome of the extremely high total fertility rate of Timor-Leste which is amongst the highest in the world. Amidst the worrying socio-economic condition in this new nation, it is of great concern that if the current fertility rate and its implied population growth continue as predicted, the population of Timor-Leste will double in 17 years. This paper offers an insight into the future of Timor-Leste’s demography with a particular focus on the impact of rapid pace of population growth on the health sector. The analysis is largely based on 2004 census data, as well as drawing on the broader literature and qualitative research already carried out by the lead author into the reasons behind high fertility in Timor-Leste. On this basis, the authors extrapolate key impacts of this projected population growth, and implications for the health sector.