Climate change and disasters (Forced Migration Review 49)

An introductory note on FMR 49, 'Disasters and displacement in a changing climate', from the Editors.

In order to make progress on disasters, climate change and human mobility, it is essential to bring together different strands of the discussion to develop a comprehensive response that also anticipates future challenges associated with climate change. While the international community has already been addressing many aspects of disasters, climate change and human mobility, in order to really make progress it is essential to bring together different strands of the discussion so as to develop a comprehensive response that also anticipates future challenges associated with climate change. The Governments of Norway and Switzerland are contributing to the development of future responses to disaster displacement through the Nansen Initiative. - See more at: http://www.fmreview.org/climatechange-disasters/contents#sthash.ApuUh5PC.dpuf

The Nansen Initiative consultative process has identified a toolbox of potential policy options to prevent, prepare for and respond to the challenges of cross-border displacement in disaster contexts, including the effects of climate change.

In order to avoid displacement when possible, displacement and human mobility issues need to be better integrated within national and regional adaptation planning processes.

Researchers have much to do, not only to understand climate- and disaster-induced migration but also to transmit their understanding for the use of policymakers and practitioners.

A movement of people is rarely explained by environmental or climatic factors alone. Therefore an analysis which does not take into consideration the cultural consequences of climate change for affected societies is incomplete.

The key to successfully addressing the challenges of environmental, climatic and natural disasters is integrating migration concerns – including displacement – into all climate change, disaster risk reduction and development policies and frameworks.

West Africa has a very mobile population and high vulnerability to natural hazards. It also, however, has a number of regional cooperation agreements and may therefore be a useful testing ground for addressing cross-border disaster displacement.

The impact of climate change induces systemic patterns of socio-economic erosion that also affect the dynamics of disaster displacement and that require parallel responses.

Formalised temporary protection arrangements in Africa could significantly improve access to territory and human rights for people displaced across borders by disasters. Such arrangements must adhere to states’ existing protection obligations.

Oman and Mongolia reflect the modern climatic and social challenges to mobile pastoral livelihoods.

The international community has been slow to develop climate change-specific instruments to guide the relocation process beyond those that relate to displacement generally.

Preparing for planned relocation

Placing contemporary deliberations about relocation within a longer historical and intellectual framework reveals unexpected connections and salutary lessons.

Post-disaster resettlement programmes can be unsuitable and ineffective, often exacerbating the vulnerability of people to the effects of climate change.

Global attention should place a primary focus on the application of best practice and the development of innovative initiatives to solve climate-related internal displacement, rather than on grappling with the far rarer movements of people across borders.

Brazil is developing a long-term solution for filling a legislative gap affecting environmental migrants.

There is a startling range of positive examples of national law, policy and practice all across the Americas that states have used to respond to the migratory consequences of disasters.

Predictable measures are needed to provide protection for people displaced across borders by disasters, where there is currently a gap.

How can the category of ‘climate refugee’ be considered within international law in the 21st century?

Climate change mitigation policies and ‘green solutions’, such as biofuels, are also creating displacement.

Stateless people and migrants are at greater risk of displacement and are less likely to receive assistance; in turn, environmental displacement (especially multiple migrations) heightens the risk of becoming stateless.

Strategic litigation to protect individuals at risk can usefully support higher-level protection initiatives.

Residents’ strategies are generally aimed at either protection from or adaptation to flooding. Large-scale migration from the floodplains of rivers has not been seriously considered, even in high-risk zones.

The Philippine government’s ‘One Safe Future’ programme relocated disaster-affected poor families in areas where structures enabling opportunities are lacking.

Experience in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan suggests that resettlement as a strategy for mitigating disaster-induced displacement can create significant protection risks.

The ‘migration with dignity’ policy is part of Kiribati’s long-term nation-wide relocation strategy.

The adaptive characteristics of customary land systems deserve greater recognition in disaster or climate change policy frameworks.

Focusing on climate-induced migration, rather than mitigation, can be at odds with grassroots demands and can make the future uninhabitability of some Pacific Islands appear as a foregone conclusion.

The voices of scientists, academics, politicians and development practitioners dominate the climate change debate, yet local knowledge, values and beliefs are essential elements of navigating the way forward for affected communities.

Voluntary adaptive migration across int'l borders will be a critical component of an overall adaptation strategy for at-risk individuals and households in the Pacific in order to increase their resilience to natural hazards and prevent future displicement

Communities can strengthen their resilience by integrating disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and poverty reduction measures.

Sea-level rise threatens communities of the Lakshadweep islands. But what happens when belongingness, religious beliefs and the identity of being an islander make them stay?

A starting point for adapting to longer-term climate change could be adaptation to short-term climate variability and extreme events. Making more informed choices about the use of remittances can enhance the adaptive capacity of receiving households.

Many climate change-affected communities have already been using migration as a means to adapt to and withstand the challenges to their livelihoods and security. Strengthening of existing protections for all migrants is clearly advantageous.

The concept of ‘environmental refugees’, or ‘climate refugees’, has been progressively abandoned, as having no legal basis. I want to argue that there are good reasons to use the term.

The Nansen Initiative has highlighted significant questions about how the international community should collectively think about displacement and mobility issues relating to natural disasters and climate change, and how to improve the governance thereof.

Tribes in coastal Alaska and Louisiana in the United States are among the communities at immediate risk of displacement due to climate change impacts.

The 30th anniversary of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration offers the opportunity to consider the achievements of the Cartagena process and the specific characteristics that make it so remarkable.

Trafficking of people for their organs is an emerging transnational crime that has failed to receive sufficient international attention.

Among refugees in Jordan, utter boredom – the result of restrictions on mobility, prohibitions on employment, and feelings of marginalisation – is an unmistakable source of anguish.

Distrust between refugees and their state of origin must be given due consideration in institutional approaches to repatriation of refugees, on the Thai-Burma border and in other refugee contexts worldwide.

Harm to animals resulting from forced migration of people is intricately interwoven with and contingent upon the simultaneous suffering of humans.

An introductory note from the Editors of a special mini-feature on 'FGM and Asylum in Europe' in FMR 49.

With some 71% of female EU asylum applicants from FGM-practising countries estimated to be survivors of this harmful traditional practice, it is time to accept that this subject demands greater scrutiny and a more dedicated response.

Asylum authorities in the European Union need to establish better procedures to help address the specific vulnerabilities and protection needs of women and girls who have undergone or are at risk of female genital mutilation.

The ‘medicalisation’ of female genital mutilation should be denounced on two counts.Firstly, it is usually anatomically more damaging and, secondly, it goes against the ethical basis of the medical profession.

The new Istanbul Convention provides a powerful tool for more effectively guaranteeing the protection of asylum seekers at risk of gender-based persecution and at risk of FGM in particular.

Former refugee women are now working as professional educators among immigrant and refugee communities in Finland to tackle ignorance of the impact and extent of female genital mutilation/cutting.