According to the authors of the report, the assessment of such outcome or fallout of felt climate change impacts leading to extensive or mass migration might “contribute to an accelerated pace of resource extraction, infrastructure development and land conversions like intensified agriculture, catalyzing or deepening social and environmental conflicts”.
By Salam Rajesh
Migration is as old as the Earth’s history, but today climate change is driving unprecedented changes in migration patterns and often irreversible impacts on many species, according to a new report published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP).
The report “Planet on the move – Reimagining Conservation at the intersection of migration, environmental change, and conflict” (Hsiao, E., et al., 2024) specifies that the “adverse impact of climate change, along with other natural hazards like floods, fires, and storms, is the largest cause of new displacements”.
The report synthesizes that changes to the character of human migration dynamics can create new challenges for conservation by amplifying pressure on coastal areas, water basins, rangelands and other vulnerable but vital ecosystems.
Illustrating this specific observation, the report is of the opinion that ‘climate change may increase rural to urban migration, especially where there are alternative livelihoods opportunities, such as in many rapidly expanding, despite being poorly planned, underserviced and under-regulated peri-urban areas’.
The assessment on such outcome or fallout of felt climate change impacts leading to extensive or mass migration might ‘contribute to an accelerated pace of resource extraction, infrastructure development and land conversions like intensified agriculture, catalyzing or deepening social and environmental conflicts’, according to the authors of the report.
Many parts of the world are currently reeling under extreme weather events, and the underlying resource crunch, especially depleting water resources, has more than often been cited as the main reason for inducing extensive migration of people across regions, influencing conflicts as is being seen in several African countries, and perhaps equally in the Middle East.
This reflection also find some truth in the recent land-based conflicts of certain magnitude within Manipur State in India’s Far East where in-migration of outsiders from neighboring regions due to internal tensions and erosion of land resources had influenced conflicts of interest amongst ethnicities, while at the same time extensive environmental degradation and resource crunch had also contributed to internal migration, from rural to the peri-urban areas and vice versa.
On this note, the IUCN report forewarns that ‘forced displacements have environmental and social impacts across migration arcs – that is, in places of origin, transit and destination – including furthering environmental change, causing or amplifying violent conflict and/or human-wildlife conflict, deepening impoverishment and generating new forms of displacement’.
To mitigate such developments that are fairly negative in perspective and in outcome, the report suggests that holistic approaches to understanding human and other species migrations and their interplay in the context of global environmental change are understandably crucial in resolving issues, more importantly that leads to armed conflicts.
The IUCN CEESP’s chair, Kristen Walker Painemilla voices deep concern when she reflects that, “As we bear witness to unprecedented shifts in climate, the devastating consequences of environmental change, and the heartbreaking fallout of conflicts, it becomes increasingly evident that our approach to conservation must evolve to address these interconnected challenges”.
The IUCN’s director general Dr Grethel Aguilar shares a similar worried note saying that, “We live in a world where up to 700 million people could be driven from their homes by climate change and land degradation by 2050. Worryingly, this migration can converge and interact with armed conflict”.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s director general Amy Pope observed that according to the World Bank, 80% of potential displacements linked to climate change could be prevented through proactive measures, which is why her organization is working intensively with communities to prepare for and prevent crises, relying on existing Indigenous and traditional knowledge and practices.
Echoing Pope’s observation, the IUCN report suggests that ‘conservation approaches can increase landscape-wide socio-ecological resilience through nature-based and ecosystem regenerative livelihoods and informed decision-making that respects local and Indigenous knowledge and socio-natural systems, but these need to be built from the bottom-up through shared decision-making and governance’.
This thinking process further reflects upon the viewpoint that ‘the growth of displacement related to environmental change and conflict suggests the need for reimagining conservation in ways that extend beyond area-based protection measures’ as is being suggested in the report. The suggestion is also on transboundary or trans-national conservation strategies where migration occurs across inter-national political boundaries in general.
Suggestion on peace building measures vis-à-vis the climate crises and environmental degradation in a major scale leading to conflicts of interest within communities and between larger interests, the report’s finding opines that ‘to prevent and mitigate conflicts, the conservation community can better engage in both internal and external dialogues focused on transforming divisive narratives, aligning social and ecological values and reforming practices’.
It further suggests that ‘international laws and policies need to improve adaptive capacity and resilience in places of origin to prevent and mitigate displacement, protect people and other species, reduce impacts and resolve conflicts in places of transit and destination, as well as build positive peace across the migration arc’.
Although on a lower scale, much parts of North East India had witnessed demographic changes with influx of migrants and illegal immigrants from different neighboring regions due to various reasons of social, political, economic and environmental perspectives and ultimately leading to escalation of conflicts in long-term measure and the loss of peace particularly.
A right direction to resolve conflicts could be where the ‘conservation community take a more proactive stand on the factors driving and compelling the migration of human communities and other species’.
And more understandably, ‘the conservation must clearly reject activities and partnerships that maintain or exacerbate the status quo in such domains as unsustainable resource extraction, environmental degradation and exploitive consumerism’.
This later observation notwithstanding reflects upon the intrusion of major players – the rich and powerful industries particularly – in resource rich areas where impacts of climate change had forced the out-migration of underprivileged and marginalized local communities to the peri-urban pockets.
The IUCN’s report has a sober end message for the world community, anticipating the worst to come in a future time. ‘If the displacement of species, including humans, continues along current and predicted trajectories, then the conservation community faces an enormous challenge that will likely have ripple and cascade effects in the decades and even centuries to come’.