Ecopop (''ECOlogie et POPulation'', "Ecology and Population") is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

voluntary association established in 1971 dedicated to the preservation of

non-renewable resources A non-renewable resource (also called a finite resource) is a natural resource that cannot be readily replaced by natural means at a pace quick enough to keep up with consumption. An example is carbon-based fossil fuels. The original organic mat ...

and the reduction of

overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a state in which the population of a species is larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale migr ...

. Ecopop is a member of ''European Population Alliance'' (founded 2012). Founded under the mathematical trend of exponential growth of

world population In demographics of the world, world demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently alive. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded eight billion in mid-November 2022. It took around 300,000 years of h ...

and the finiteness of natural resources, and inspired by the

Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing list of global issues, global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in R ...

, the association is formed as part of the nascent

ecology movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...

as ''Arbeitsgruppe Bevölkerungsentwicklung'' ("working group for population development"). It was renamed to its current name in 1987. It was active throughout the 1970s to 2000s in organising conferences and podiums on population growth.

Popular initiative

In 2011, the general assembly decided to launch a

popular initiative A popular initiative (also citizens' initiative) is a form of direct democracy by which a petition meeting certain hurdles can force a legal procedure on a proposition. In direct initiative, the proposition is put directly to a plebiscite o ...

with the aim of reducing population growth in Switzerland. The initiative was officially declared valid on 4 December 2012. It was submitted to the voters on 30 November 2014, who rejected it (74.1% NO votes). The initiative proposes to insert two articles into the

Swiss Federal Constitution The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation (SR 10; (BV); (Cst.); (Cost.); ) of 18 April 1999 (SR 101) is the third and current federal constitution of Switzerland. It establishes the Swiss Confederation as a federal republic of ...

: #reduction of net population growth due to immigration to a maximum of 0.2% of total population per year #at least 10% of Swiss federal development aid is to be invested in programs to encourage voluntary

family planning Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Things that may play a role on family planning decisions include marit ...

. Throughout the 40 years of its existence the association had ostensibly been part of the ecology movement, proposing

degrowth Degrowth is an Academic research, academic and social Social movement, movement critical of the concept of economic growth, growth in Real gross domestic product, gross domestic product as a measure of Human development (economics), human and econ ...

out of

Malthusian Malthusianism is a theory that population growth is potentially exponential, according to the Malthusian growth model, while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of trig ...

concerns mostly aimed at an academic or intellectual public, and during the 1970s it explicitly denounced populist or xenophobic motivation for immigration control advocated by

James Schwarzenbach James Eduard Schwarzenbach (5 August 1911 – 27 October 1994) was a right-wing Swiss politician and publicist. In the 1970s he was head of the short-lived Republican Movement. He also was publisher of a broad spectrum of right-wing literature ...

. Nevertheless, in the political climate of the immigration debate in Switzerland, especially due to the proximity of Ecopop's initiative to the immigration referendum of February 2014, which resulted in widespread fears among the political and economic elite of deteriorating relations with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, critics tended to accuse Ecopop or its supporters of (variously) xenophobic, racist, fascist, selfish or hypocritical motives. These attacks were mostly based on the initiative's second paragraph dedicated to global rather than national population growth, as the idea of foreign aid invested in curbing population growth in developing countries was attacked as politically incorrect and some leftist critics went as far as equating it with

child euthanasia in Nazi Germany Child euthanasia () was the name given to the organized killing of severely mentally and physically disabled children and teenagers up to 16 years old during the Nazi era in over 30 so-called "special children's wards". At least 5,000 children wer ...

. Recommendations by parties and organisations were predominantly negative, even

Green Party of Switzerland The Green Party of Switzerland (; ; ; ) is a green political party in Switzerland. It is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council. History The first ...

, the

Green Liberal Party of Switzerland The Green Liberal Party of Switzerland (, GLP; , PVL; , PVL; , PVL), is a green-liberal political party in Switzerland. Founded in 2007, the party holds eleven seats in the Federal Assembly as of the October 2023 election. The party was formed ...

and

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

Switzerland took a negative stance, as did the notoriously immigration-critical

Swiss People's Party The Swiss People's Party (, SVP; , PPS), also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (, UDC; , UDC), is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Marcel Dettling, it is the largest party in ...

(on the national level, with several cantonal sections in support). While leftist opposition to Ecopop is mostly expressed as criticism of xenophobia, centrist and right-of-center parties oppose it because of its economic repercussions, as a cap on

immigrant worker Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worker ...

s in Switzerland would deprive the economy of flexible recruitment of specialists as well as deteriorate

Switzerland–European Union relations Switzerland is not a member state of the European Union (EU). It is associated with the Union through a series of bilateral treaties in which Switzerland has adopted various provisions of European Union law in order to participate in the Union's ...

.Ruedi Studer
«Ecopop schadet unserem Land»
''Blick'', 31 October 2014.

References

{{Authority control Environmental organisations based in Switzerland Population concern organizations Degrowth Anti-immigration politics in Europe Politics of Switzerland Environmental organizations established in 1971 1971 establishments in Switzerland

Popular initiative

See also

References