Rising seas are endangering the habitability and very existence of several small island nations, mostly in the Pacific and Indian oceans. This is the first book to focus on the myriad legal issues ...posed by this tragic situation: if a nation is under water, is it still a state? Does it still have a seat at the United Nations? What becomes of its exclusive economic zone, the basis for its fishing rights? What obligations do other nations have to take in the displaced populations, and what are these peoples' rights and legal status once they arrive? Should there be a new international agreement on climate-displaced populations? Do these nations and their citizens have any legal recourse for compensation? Are there any courts that will hear their claims, and based on what theories? Leading legal scholars from around the world address these novel questions and propose answers.
One of the most significant impacts of climate change is migration. Yet, to date, climate-induced migrants are falling within what has been defined by some as a ‘protection gap’. This book addresses ...this issue, first by identifying precisely where the gap exists, by reviewing the relevant legal tools that are available for those who are currently, and who will in the future be displaced because of climate change. The authors then address the relevant actors; the identity of those deserving protection (displaced individuals), as well as other bearers of rights (migration-hosting states) and obligations (polluting states). The authors also address head-on the contentious topic of definitions, concluding with the provocative assertion that the term ‘climate refugees’ is indeed correct and should be relied upon.
The second part of the book looks to the future by advocating specific legal and institutional pathways. Notably, the authors support the use of international environmental law as the most adequate and suitable regime for the regulation of climate refugees. With respect to the role of institutions, the authors propose a model of ‘cross-governance’, through which a more inclusive and multi-faceted protection regime could be achieved.
Addressing the regulation of climate refugees through a unique collaboration between a refugee lawyer and an environmental lawyer, this book will be of great interest to scholars and professionals in fields including international law, environmental studies, refugee studies and international relations.
The climate crisis brings with it environmental, social, and economic impacts, in addition to environmental ones. Within these social and economic impacts, the shelter context is one of the most ...alarming. Additionally, this crisis was coupled with the advent of the pandemic, which, in addition to the health crisis, widened the inequality gaps, harming the most vulnerable people. Faced with this situation, this article aims to analyze whether the current international legal framework offers straightforward solutions to the distress of climate migrants. In the end, it concludes that it is necessary to establish legal status for the environmental refugee. Such a status can combine the international human rights regime and experiences adopted in regional environmental protection systems. Environmental refugees are a reality and require a concrete response.
Mangroves supply various goods and provide invaluable ecological services to humanity. They serve as habitat to different species of fishes, provide a variety of plant products, improve water ...quality, provide fish and shellfish for local communities, ensure coastal stabilization, provide food chain support for near-shore fisheries, and undertake carbon sequestration. They also serve as source of fuel, medicinal ornaments, and honey for the local population. Despite these socio-economic and environmental benefits of mangroves, its depletion is a continuous practice in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. This is caused primarily by anthropogenic activities, including over exploitation, oil spills, and crude oil exploratory activities. These activities have destroyed livelihood structures, affected global warming control measures, and affected the coastal system stabilization of the Niger Delta region. This paper reviews existing literature and analysed identified gaps. The review indicated a lack of participatory framework for mangrove conservation in coastal communities in the Niger Delta despite the desperate need given the level of mangrove degradation in the region. In addition, mangrove conservation policies exclude community participation and negates co-management frameworks for mangrove conservation and protection in the region. This paper reviews the impacts of land contamination on mangrove ecosystems and socio-economic activities of local communities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. A framework for mangrove conservation in the coastal communities is also proposed, with emphasis on the need to develop the capacity of a critical mass of locals and provide low-to medium-level manpower in mangrove restoration in the Niger Delta region.
•Limited mangrove conservation knowledge exists in coastal communities in Nigeria.•This exacerbates mangrove conservation and protection efforts.•A co-management approach could benefit communities and other stakeholders.•Government policies and stringent regulation, necessary for mangrove conservation.
In the 2012 documentary, My Louisiana Love , United Houma Nation (UHN) artist and activist Monique Verdin shares maps that display how her tribe was forced into the wetlands of south Louisiana by ...settler colonialism (5:40-6:00). In Can't Stop the Water (2014), a documentary about the Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw (BCC), the tribe dubbed America's "first climate refugees" by The New York Times , Chief Albert Naquin describes his community as made up of "refugees from the Trail of Tears" (4:29-4:35). The issues of subsidence, seawater intrusion from canals dug by gas and oil companies, and rising waters impact all of south Louisiana's residents, yet the state's coastal Indigenous peoples whose cultures and economies are directly tied to the diminishing land are most immediately affected. My Louisiana Love and Can't Stop the Water address these issues within the Indigenous communities at the center of their narratives, communities with a legacy of displacement directly resulting from Plantationocene practices who are forced to consider relocation again in the near future. These documentaries unblinkingly indict the petroleum industry, underscoring the ways it has participated in the destruction of the Gulf Coast with little involvement in its restoration. This article analyzes the efficacy of the films in portraying the challenges faced by their communities and the activism each work depicts and engenders, as well as illuminates the role that southeastern Indigenous Louisianans have played and continue to play in the Plantationocene.
Out-migration, environmental degradation, and changes in land distribution are all key processes of rural transformation in the developing world, but few quantitative studies have investigated their ...interactions in migrant origin areas. This study uses survey data from the southern Ecuadorian Andes and an event history model to investigate the effects of land ownership and environmental conditions on out-migration to local, internal, and international destinations. The results indicate that the effects of land ownership and other factors differ strongly across migration streams. Also, negative environmental conditions and landlessness do not consistently increase out-migration as commonly assumed in the literature.
Climate change is forcing us to consider the right of people to leave their disappearing homelands, and the shape this right should take. Climate Change, Disasters and People on the Move proposes ...international protection as a solution with three pillars: granting protection against return to the country of origin (non-refoulement); preventing future displacement; and facilitating safe, orderly, and regular migration in the context of disasters and climate change. Dr. Aylin Yildiz Noorda uses the theories of common concern of humankind and community interests to operationalise her proposal, providing a blueprint for future claims.
Humans on the Move Dawson, Grant; Laut, Rachel
11/2021, Volume:
20
eBook
In Human Mobility and Climate Change, Grant Dawson and Rachel Laut examine the sufficiency of legal frameworks to address human movement relating to climate change impacts and the progressive ...transition to a more adaptive approach.
This book addresses political knowledge of climate change and its relation to labelling people affected by climate change, either as ‘climate refugees’ or as ‘climate change-induced displaced people ...or migrants’. By questioning the knowledge of climate change and subsequent labelling of people, this book will spark debate in studies of global climate politics and transnational policy networks. Rather than considering the issue of climate change as a given phenomenon, the author explores how the politicized knowledge of climate change has been produced in international negotiations and how that knowledge is transmitted from global forums to local country levels via climate change action plans and resilience projects. This book introduces the concept of multi-scalar knowledge brokers (MKBs) – individual actors who work at multiple levels (local, national, and international) to transmit the knowledge of climate change from global level to local level. The author uses the primary case study of Bangladesh to demonstrate how the dominant actors in global climate politics – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the World Bank, as well as the USA and the UK – interact with the government and local NGOs in Bangladesh regarding transmitting the knowledge of climate change, labelling the uprooted people, and implementing resilience projects. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of international relations, environmental politics, climate change studies, political ecology, political geography, and migration and displacement studies.
In response to changing climatic conditions, people are increasingly likely to migrate. However, individual-level survey data reveal that people mainly state economic, social, or political reasons as ...the main drivers for their relocation decision-not environmental motives or climate change specifically. To shed light on this discrepancy, we distinguish between sudden-onset (e.g., floods and storms) and slow-onset (e.g., droughts and salinity) climatic changes and argue that the salience of environmental conditions in individuals' migration decisions is shaped by the type of climate event experienced. Empirically, we combine individual-level surveys with geographic information on objective climatic changes in Vietnam and Kenya. The empirical evidence suggests that sudden-onset climate events make individuals more likely to link environmental conditions to their migration decision and, hence, to identify themselves as "environmental migrants." Regression analyses support these results and are consistent with the view that slow-onset events tend to be linked with migration decisions that are more economically motivated.
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