Search Protocol
We developed a systematic search to examine links between family planning and environmental sustainability, building on the 2016 Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability Assessment (FPESA) protocol. To capture this intersection, we organized keywords into three thematic groups reflecting the pathway from reproductive agency to environmental outcomes: reproductive agency, population dynamics, and environmental sustainability. Demography was included as the mediating layer in this pathway—changes in reproductive agency can scale to shifts in fertility and age structure, which in turn influence resource use, emissions, and ecosystem pressures.
In the summer of 2024, we searched for peer-reviewed articles in two databases—Web of Science and EBSCO Global Health—using our three thematic keyword groups (reproductive agency, population dynamics, environmental sustainability), linked with Boolean operators (AND/OR).
All selected articles thus had to include topics related to reproductive agency, population dynamics, as well as terms associated with sustainability. We searched for these topic terms in the title, abstract, and keywords of the articles.
Our search through the two databases produced 3,989 results (933 records from EBSCO Global Health and 3056 from Web of Science). Additionally, we conducted hand searching of key authors, which led to the identification of 628 records. We limited our results to articles and reviews published in English and French between January 2016 and June 2024, and included articles previously identified in the FPESA report.
We further filtered out irrelevant subjects—including technical medical and engineering fields—and studies centered on plants or other non-human species.
After removing duplicates, all articles were screened for relevance by reviewing article titles, abstracts, and, when necessary, full-text content. Only papers with explicit linkages between reproductive agency, population dynamics and environmental sustainability were retained. This resulted in 170 peer-reviewed papers.
List of keywords by categories:
Reproductive agency terms: birth control; childbearing; contracept*; CSE; decreas* family size; demographic transition; desired fertility; family planning; fertility desir*; fertility intent*; fertility preferences; growing population; intended pregnancy; low* family size; population control; population dynamics; population growth; population pressure; population stab*; pro-choice; pro-life; reproductive autonomy; reproductive freedom; reproductive health; reproductive justice; reproductive rights; sex ed; sexual health; sexual rights; small* family size; stab* population; TFR; total fertility rate; unintended pregnancy; unplanned pregnancy
Population dynamics terms: anti-natal*; birth rate; demographic transition; growing population; natal*; overpopulation; population control; population dynamics; population growth; population pressure; population stab*; pro-natal*; stab* population; TFR; total fertility rate
Environmental sustainability terms: anthropocene; biodiversity; carbon emissions; carrying capacity; climate change; climate crisis; climate emergency; ecolog*; ecological footprint; ecosystem; environment*; environmental degradation; environmental shocks; environment* sustainabil*; famine; food security; global warming; natural resource; natural system; overshoot; regenerative capacity; resilien*; resource depletion; resource scarcity; soil fertility; sustainable development; waste; water scarcity.
An asterisk (*) indicates the use of a "wildcard term," meaning that the search encompassed words with different letters replacing the asterisk. For example, a search for the term "contracept*" would yield results containing the words "contraception" or "contraceptives." Additionally, “CSE” stands for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, and "TFR" stands for "total fertility rate," a demographic term that quantifies the average number of live births per woman in a population at any given time.
