Climate and other environmental changes sometimes drive people to migrate, especially if the land no longer supports a population’s way of life.
Climate and other environmental changes sometimes drive people to migrate, especially if the land no longer supports a population’s way of life. In turn, mobile populations alter the environment in which they settle.
Migration dynamics and their interactions with climate and environment in rural areas are poorly understood, according to a new perspective paper led by Colorado State University. The paper, published in Nature Sustainability, proposes that greater focus on these processes is needed to develop sustainability policies for dealing with inevitable climate and land change and related migration.
Displacement of large numbers of people caused by disaster or conflict captures the public’s attention, and studies of migration typically focus on international or urban migration. However, most migration occurs within national borders in response to slow changes unrelated to disaster or conflict.
Read More: Colorado State University
A Fulani (Fulbe) herder moves livestock in Senegal in 2015. Most migration happens within national borders in response to slow changes such as a decline in land productivity from drought. Loss of forage for livestock sometimes prompts agropastoralist families to migrate. (Photo Credit: Jonathan Salerno)
