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World
Information Centre on
Environmental
Refugees
Last updated: January 19, 2009
Environmental refugees, réfugiés environnementaux,
umweltflüchtlinge, refugiados medioambientales, refugiados ambientais, Экологические беженцы, اللاجئون
البيئيون , milieuvluchtelingen, rifugiati
ambientali, environmentální uprchlíci, miljöflyktingar, miljøflygtninger,
ympäristöpakolaisten,
környezeti menekültek, inguruarengatiko
errefuxiatuak.
NEWS:
LiSER’s
keynote presentation
at EFMSV
conference
11 October
2008 in Bonn
Climate
Change and International Security,
Paper
from the High Representative and the
European
Commission to the European Council,
Brussels
March 3, 2008
Join the Toledo Initiative On
Environmental Refugees and Ecological Restoration
Up to 332 million
people in coastal and low-lying areas
could be diplaced
says UNDP-report (27 Nov 2007)
and film
South Asian Monsoons Displace Millions (August 2007)
Kofi Annan launches ‘Global Humanitarian Forum’
This website was found by people
from 118 countries
(current as of Oct 19, 2008)
“The Plight of
Environmental Refugees;
The Need to
Restore Damaged Homelands”
by Stuart M.
Leiderman
Environmental
or climate
refugees
(April, 2007)
Environmental refugees
More
often we read about people getting in trouble because their livelihoods has been
damaged due to natural or human causes. We see people sitting on the roofs of
their houses, or in the tops of trees trying to escape rising water; people
under the remains of their houses after an earthquake; people who become
disabled for the rest of their life due to a nuclear disaster.
The number of incidents, that cause people
to flee from environmental problems, is increasing rapidly. In 1999, Mr.
Serageldin, chairman of the World Water Council, in 1999 already stated that
more people flee due to environmental problems than due to war. At that
moment he estimated the number of environmental refugees to be 25 million and
he estimated the number to be quadrupled for 2005.
Despite
the huge number of people involved, there is no single organisation that
focuses explicitly on the problems of nor offers help to these refugees, who
we define as environmental refugees.
Who
are we? We are an organisation called LiSER, an organisation that focuses on
the identification and recognition of environmental refugees. In this leaflet
we will explain who are the environmental refugees and why they deserve our
explicit attention.
Definition
The
UNEP, the environmental program of the United Nations defines environmental
refugees: “as those people who have been forced to leave their traditional
habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental
disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that jeopardized their
existence and/ or seriously affected the quality of their life.
By
’environmental disruption’ is meant any physical, chemical and/or biological
changes in the ecosystem (or the resource base) that render it temporarily or
permanently, unsuitable to support human life.” (Environmental Refugees,
Essam El-Hinnawi, UNEP, 1985)
Causes
There
can be a number of reasons for the deterioration of a specific environment.
One can think of natural causes like hurricanes, thunderstorms, volcanic
eruptions, earthquakes, etc. Other causes of deterioration are purely
human-induced, for instance logging of tropical rain forests, construction of
(river)dams, nuclear disasters, environmental pollution, and (biological)
warfare. But very often a disaster can be a combination of human and natural
factors, such as floods or drought due to extreme weather events, extreme
climate events or global warming.
The in between…
After
some disasters, such as large scale flooding, people can return to their
habitat and start rehabilitation and reconstruction; very often with a future
flood as a possibility.
Other
disasters create permanent displacement as in the case of the construction of
an electric power dam in a river valley.
Sometimes
-for instance after a period of drought- the displaced people indeed can go
back to their original livelihoods, but in fact without any prospects for the
future. Environmental refugees are not only deprived of opportunities for the
future but usually also from legislative recognition and support.
International
law
The
international refugee legislation is fifty years old and originally was meant
for the huge number of displaced people after World War II. The Treaty of
Geneva, dealing with refugees, has a number of criteria to define the status
of a refugee. Only persons with a well-founded fear of persecution due to
their race, religion, nationality, political convictions or social class, are
considered to be ‘refugees’ and are granted the rights that belong to this
status. The main conditions are that a person finds himself in a foreign
country and does not have legal protection in the country of his nationality.
In
2008, people are on the move for other reasons than just war or violence. At
this moment the international law does not yet recognise such reasons. This
means that in many cases environmental refugees can not count on any material
or juridical support.
LiSER
foundation was founded in 2002 because, despite the
huge numbers of environmental refugees, there is no organisation that focuses
on environmental refugees world-wide.
Environmental
refugees are often not labelled as such, and are not recognised by the
general public. The main reasons for the lack of attention are the different
reasons for environmental degradation, the vast variety of periods for which
persons stay environmental refugees, and the needs of the people involved.
Furthermore, the causes and consequences of an environmental disaster might
lay far away from each other, in time as well as in space. Very often, one
can not pinpoint a single and clear cause for the disaster. In some cases it
is impossible to pinpoint the responsible persons.
LiSER
was founded by people who are involved in refuge care, environmental
organisations, human rights organisations and development agencies. The main
goal of liSER is to see these various organisations join together by
broadening their original working goals and mandate to environmental
refugees.
LiSER
wants to enforce the material and juridical position of environmental
refugees. Firstly, LiSER focuses on these refugees who lack any means or
possibilities to rebuild their own subsistence.
For
the near future we have the following objectives:
-
an analysis of the problems of environmental refugees: who is
involved, how many are involved, what are their main needs, etc.
-
to enforce the juridical position of the environmental refugees where
ever they are.
-
putting the issue of environmental refugees on the agenda of refugee
care organisations, environmental organisations, human rights organisations
and the development agencies
Education
You
can contact LiSER if you want to organise an information evening about
environmental refugees. You can contact us to make an appointment.
Contact
Are
you interested or want to know more about environmental refugees or about
LiSER?
You
can contact us at:
LiSER Foundation
Zandlaan 34
2121 VS
Bennebroek
The Netherlands
Tel: ++31 23 5332892
E-mail: info@liser.org
Web: www.liser.org
Giro: 9321158 on name of Stichting Living
Space
Chamber of Trade: no. 34174170.
“Prepare
now to define, accept and accommodate this new breed of ‘refugee’within
international framework”, says UN Under Secretary Hans van Ginkel (Bonn,
Germany, 11 Oct 2005)
L’Appel
de Limoges, 23 Juin 2005 (french)
“For
a safer world in the 21st century we must shift from a culture of
reaction to a culture of prevention….”
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