Field visits to Lebanon & Cameroon to analyse the environmental impact of migration

13/12/2016

As part of a study funded by the Global Disaster Preparedness Center, Groupe URD will be conducting field visits to Lebanon and Cameroon, two countries faced with the mass arrival of refugees fleeing respectively the Syrian crisis, and the Central African and Nigerian crises. This study will aim to understand and measure the environmental impact of forced migration.

The rapid arrival of very large numbers of refugees in concentrated areas tends to accentuate the impact that populations will have on the environment, due to the fact that humanitarian operators manage people and infrastructure based on short-term considerations. This leads to increased pressure on raw materials and ecosystems, and tends to create tension with the host population.

The study has two objectives:
to identify environmental and social pressure that exists around the sites where displaced people settle, the consequences that these can have, and possible solutions adapted to each context;
to find ways to reduce these tensions and encourage programmes to adopt approaches based on long-term sustainability.

These themes are currently being promoted by Groupe URD and different working groups, such as the Humanitarian Environment Network and the OCHQ/UNEP Joint Environment Unit, with the aim of extending environmental considerations within humanitarian programmes and organisations, and thus increasing the resilience of host and refugee communities.

The findings of this study will be shared within networks involved in improving how environmental issues are taken into account in humanitarian response and will be integrated into the training courses provided by Groupe URD in partnership with UNEP.