migration – DESERTIFICATION

The connection between migration and land degradation

Photo: Burkina Faso: 20 000 trees are planted to create living hedges. Credit: UNCCD

UN Launches Campaign to Invest in Degraded Lands

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – The number of international migrants worldwide has continued to grow rapidly over the past fifteen years – reaching 244 million in 2015, up from 222 million in 2010 and 173 million in 2000.

Behind these numbers, says the Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), are the links between migration and development challenges, in particular, the consequences of environmental degradation, political instability, food insecurity and poverty.

The 2017 World Day to Combat Desertification (#2017WDCD) on June 17 will therefore look closely at the connection between migration and land degradation by addressing how local communities could build the resilience against existing multi-fold development challenges through combating desertification and land degradation.

UNCCD is mobilising global support with the rallying call: “Our land. Our home. Our Future.” The slogan draws attention to the central role productive land can play in turning the growing tide of migrants abandoning unproductive land into communities and nations that are stable, secure and sustainable, into the future.

The UNCCD has also released the campaign logo for use by any group, organization, government or entity that will organize a celebratory event for the Day. The new logo, designed by Beth Johnson, is an all-encompassing symbol of UNCCD’s endeavours.

It combines the key elements of the Convention in an elegant manner that can be instantly interpreted by an international audience. The elements are: the landscape representing land stewardship; the hand showing human presence; nature suggesting hope, progress and life; the circle symbolising an inclusive convention with global reach; the traditional UN laurel wreath demanding respect and demonstrating authority.

The backdrop to the new corporate logo is that following landmark decisions at COP 12 (conference of parties to the UNCCD) in Ankara, the UNCCD is set to become a driving force in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 15 “Life on Land” and target 15.3 on land degradation neutrality.

Read the full article: In Depth News

Mush Irrigation Scheme in Ethiopia for opportunities for best water management practices

Mush irrigation scheme in Ethiopia provides opportunities for improved crop and water management

by SIMRET YASABU

Citation

Okwany, R.O.W. and Schmitter, P. 2016. Performance assessment of Mush Irrigation Scheme in Ethiopia for opportunities for best water management practices. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

Permanent link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10568/77284

The invisible frontier of land degradation, poverty and migration

Desertification: An Exposure Story

Submitted by DrylandSystems on June 16, 2016

https://drylandsystems.exposure.co/desertification

Links between conflict, imperilled rural livelihoods and migration

Photo credit: FAO

In Syria farmers and livestock keepers are often left with no other option than to abandon their fields and animals.

FAO Director-General: food security and the migration crisis

Graziano da Silva stresses links between conflict, imperilled rural livelihoods and migration

The millions of people who are being forced to flee from war, poverty and other hardships are a tragic reminder of the urgent need for peaceful solutions based on social justice and improved economic opportunities for all. Key to achieving this is the protection of and investment in rural livelihoods, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today.

“Rural development and food security are central to the global response to the refugee crisis. War causes hunger and hunger too, kills and forces people from their homes,” he said.

“Whether living in camps or finding themselves on the move, people are in a particularly vulnerable situation. The world needs to give a comprehensive response that offers hope and concrete solutions to refugees, and this response must consider their present and future food security, and the rehabilitation of their rural livelihoods.”

“Supporting agricultural based livelihoods can contribute to both helping people stay on their land when they feel safe to do so and to create the conditions for the return of refugees, migrants and displaced people,” added Graziano da Silva.

“Most of the displaced hope to return to their lands as soon as the conflict is over, but the impacts of conflict on food security often last long after the violence has subsided,” he said.

Agriculture continues to be the backbone of livelihoods for the majority of people in conflict and post-conflict situations.

Read the full article: FAO

Fertile land and sustainable water sources are diminishing at a frightening rate

Photo credit: Excellent

No such thing as a free lunch

“Before we used to get some good rains that enabled us to get enough food but in the recent years it has been gradually decreasing and we are now not able to get enough food, even though we put efforts in farming.”

Joseph Kilonzo, Mumbuka self-help group, southeast Kenya

Migration and conflict over sparse resources are already on the rise, and if current trends continue, hunger and poverty are likely to become more widespread.

Every country in the world uses its land for food and water. For those of us who are lucky enough to enjoy abundant water from a tap and buy any food we want from a supermarket, it’s not something we have to consider very often.

But the reality is that fertile land and sustainable water sources are diminishing at a frightening rate. In fact, desertification of land poses one of the greatest challenges of our times. 12 million hectares of land (greater than the size of Portugal) is lost to desertification every year. This equates to an area where 20 million tons of grain could have been grown.

Until recently, smallholder farmers in the world’s poorest and driest regions were bearing the most immediate effects of desertification, but the loss of arable land is quickly becoming a global problem.

California in the United States, for example, declared a state of emergency earlier this year due to its fourth consecutive year of severe drought. Usage of water for households, business and farmers has been severely restricted, having a real impact on people’s incomes and day-to-day lives. As a result, farmers in California are planting less crops, reducing food production, which in turn is having a negative impact on food prices.

If current trends continue, it is thought that land degradation over the next 25 years could reduce global food production by up to 12 per cent, resulting in a 30 per cent increase in world food prices. Migration and conflict over sparse resources are already on the rise, and hunger and poverty are likely to become more widespread, reversing hard-won development goals.

Read the full article: Excellent-Pioneers of Sand Dams

A five-year action plan to bolster anti-smuggling capabilities and help victims

Photo credit: IRIN

A group of West African would-be migrants, who failed to complete their journey to Europe, await repatriation outside the International Organisation for Migrants’ reception centre in Niamey, Niger.
© Boureima Balima/IRIN

Dreams that wither and die in the African desert

By Boureima Balima

EXCERPT

Not a lone case

Since the beginning of 2015, more than 5,600 people who attempted to migrate to Europe have been returned to their countries of origin from Niamey, according to Paloma Casaseca, a program assistant here for the IOM.

“This number is double that of last year,” Casaseca told IRIN. “And these are essentially the people who failed in their journey, either because of lack of resources or health issues, or as a result of expulsions by the host country.”

IOM estimates that more than 100,000 West Africans will cross Niger this year on their way to Europe.

But many don’t even reach the coasts of places like Algeria, Libya or Morocco to try their luck on the perilous boat journeys that are the best-known feature of this complex migration phenomenon.

See: Somaliland losing youth do to allure of Europe
Vast expanses of sand make for difficult access routes, particularly aboard old pickup trucks and other dilapidated vehicles. When a car breaks down, passengers often die of dehydration before they can be rescued. Those that are found are sometimes sent back home. Others are forced into hard labour or prostitution by the smugglers.

“In Niger, we have no figures to express the crisis of the Niger desert, that engulfs probably just as many fatalities each year as the Mediterranean,” Casaseca said.

Reform needed

At the IOM reception centre in Niamey, many migrants told IRIN they were not aware of the full danger of what they were undertaking. They had merely heard that there was a road that could take them to Europe.

“Many friends and brothers have successfully traversed the wilderness to go to Europe and so why shouldn’t we follow the same path?” asked Bouaro Idrissa, a 27-year-old from Senegal, who was also about to be sent home from Niamey.

Read the full article: IRIN

Increased desertification of unstable areas

Photo credit: Trade Arabia

Climate change ‘may worsen instability in ME’

Climate change could aggravate existing instability in the Middle East, a diplomat has warned.
French Ambassador to Bahrain Bernard Regnauld-Fabre said rising sea levels and increased desertification posed serious security concerns, reported the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

One of the reasons was the potential displacement of large populations, which might have to relocate to escape flooding.

However, he added that renewable energy could hold the key to a more peaceful Middle East.

“In Egypt, an increase of 50cm, or almost 20 inches, in the sea level would cause millions of people to flee the Nile Delta, with security consequences for the entire region,” he explained.

“Increased desertification of unstable areas, such as the Sahel (in Africa), would foster the growth of criminal networks and armed terrorist groups, which are already thriving there.

“Similarly, climate disruption would exacerbate the threats that are currently concentrated in regions from Niger to the Arabian Gulf.”

Read the full article: Trade Arabia

The effects of climate change are among the drivers of migration

Photo credit: Irish Examiner

We need to address deep-rooted causes of African migration

by Michael Werz and Max Hoffman

They say the effects of climate change, such as drought, flooding and the undermining of agriculture, are among the drivers of migration and policymakers need to face up to that.

The migrant crisis in the Mediterranean is symptomatic of deep dislocation in the Sahel region and sub-Saharan Africa — dislocation exacerbated by climate change.

Climate change is affecting such basic environmental conditions as rainfall patterns and temperatures and is contributing to more frequent natural disasters like floods and droughts.

Over the long term, these changing conditions can undermine the rural livelihoods of farming, herding and fishing. The resulting rural dislocation is a factor in people’s decisions to migrate.

Migratory decisions are complex, of course, and nobody would argue that climate change is the only factor driving them. But climate change cannot be ignored. The second-order effects of climate change — undermined agriculture and competition for water and food resources — can contribute to instability and to higher numbers of migrants.

Read the full article: Irish Examiner

Homeless and hungry in East Africa

Photo credit: UNICEF ETHIOPIA

Sudanese Refugees in Ethiopia (file photo).

East Africa: Over 11 Million East Africans Homeless and Hungry, Says UN

By Kenneth Agutamba

The number of displaced people in the East African region stood at 11.4 million by end of September, a new situation analysis report shows.

According to the report, released by the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), at least 2.47 million people of the total of displaced population are refugees, while another over 8.97 million are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and others severely affected by conflict.

This represents an increase of 1.4 million people.

Experts say it is a major humanitarian problem for regional governments with the charity office warning that funding for aid response is proving to be a challenge at a time of critical need.

“Out of the $4.44 billion requested for humanitarian response, only $2.54 billion had been received by December 2,” says the report.

The statistics are provided in the context of populations facing serious food insecurity situations.

‘265,000 Rwandans hungry’

The report says at least 12.8 million people in some 10 countries in the region , including Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, are actually facing severe food insecurity.

The report claims that in Rwanda, at least 265,000 citizens and 74,590 refugees are hungry in a country of about 11 million people.

Read the full article: allAfrica

Global Landscapes Forum in Peru (CIFOR / LAND-L)

A message from “Kovacevic, Michelle (CIFOR)” <M.Kovacevic@cgiar.org>

In preparation for next month’s Global Landscapes Forum in Peru, young professionals have just launched a series of virtual discussions about issues of key importance to them – fracking, food supply chains, rural-urban migrations, REDD+ and oil palm.

Join the discussion by clicking on the links below and posting a comment or video at the end of the articles. Links to all the discussions can be found on www.landscapes.org/youth

English	Spanish
Fracking: Can communities, governments and businesses agree on an integrated approach?	“Fracking”: ¿Pueden las comunidades, los gobiernos y las empresas coincidir en un enfoque integrado?
How sustainable is your food supply chain?	¿Es sostenible la cadena de suministro de alimentos?
How can we address rural-urban migration of youth in the post-2015 development agenda?	¿Cómo podemos hacer frente a la migración rural-urbana de los jóvenes en la agenda de desarrollo post-2015?
How can youth ensure REDD+ initiatives address oil palm expansion?	¿Cómo puede la juventud garantizar que las iniciativas REDD + aborden la expansión del aceite de palma?

The climate, migration, and security nexus is a key test case in N.W. Africa ( Towards Recognition)

Read at :

http://www.towardsrecognition.org/2012/04/climate-change-migration-and-conflict-in-northwest-africa-rising-dangers-across-the-arc-of-tension/

Climate Change, Migration And Conflict In Northwest Africa: Rising Dangers Across The Arc Of Tension

Posted by Kayly Ober

Northwest Africa is crisscrossed with climate, migration, and security challenges. From Nigeria to Niger, Algeria, and Morocco, this region has long been marked by labor migration, bringing workers from sub-Saharan Africa north to the Mediterranean coastline and Europe. To make that land journey, migrants often cross through the Sahel and Sahel-Saharan region, an area facing increasing environmental threats from the effects of climate change. The rising coastal sea level, desertification, drought, and the numerous other potential effects of climate change have the potential to increase the numbers of migrants and make these routes more hazardous in the future. Added to these challenges are ongoing security risks in the region, such as Nigeria’s struggles with homegrown insurgents and the growing reach of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has expanded out of Algeria.

For the United States and the international community, this region is critical because of its potential for future instability. The proximity of Algeria and Morocco to Europe, Nigeria’s emerging role as one of Africa’s most strategically important states, and Niger’s ongoing struggles with governance and poverty all demand attention. Northwest Africa’s porous borders and limited resources, which allow Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to flourish there, suggest that there is no time to waste in developing better and more effective policies for the region.

The climate, migration, and security nexus is a key test case because it is likely to exacerbate all of these existing risk factors. Climate change alone poses a daunting challenge. No matter what steps the global community takes to mitigate carbon emissions, a warmer climate is inevitable. The effects are already being felt today and are projected to intensify as climate change worsens. All of the world’s regions and nations will experience some of the effects of this transformational challenge.

Changing environmental conditions are likely to prompt human migration, adding another layer of complexity. In the 21st century the world could see substantial numbers of climate migrants—people displaced by the slow or sudden onset of climate change. While experts continue to debate the details of the causal relationship between climate change and human migration, climate change is expected to aggravate many existing migratory pressures around the world. Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are projected to increase the number of sudden humanitarian crises in areas least able to cope, such as those already mired in poverty or prone to conflict.

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UN Launches Campaign to Invest in Degraded Lands

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Mush irrigation scheme in Ethiopia provides opportunities for improved crop and water management

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FAO Director-General: food security and the migration crisis

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No such thing as a free lunch

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Dreams that wither and die in the African desert

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Climate change ‘may worsen instability in ME’

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We need to address deep-rooted causes of African migration

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East Africa: Over 11 Million East Africans Homeless and Hungry, Says UN

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Climate Change, Migration And Conflict In Northwest Africa: Rising Dangers Across The Arc Of Tension

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