Refugees, Environment and Development

The research presented in this volume was motivated by a concern to address an emerging political debate over natural resource management issues in refugee situations. The text seeks to ensure that a plurality of voices are heard in defining policies and projects.

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Refugees, Environment and Development is concerned with the complex interrelationships between forced migration, natural resource management and 'sustainable development'. The book challenges the growing rhetoric that refugees 'cause' environmental degradation, and that environmental decline is promoting a new wave of 'environmental refugees'. Drawing on examples from Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as detailed case studies of the Rwandan emergency of 1994-96, and lesser known refugee movements to Guinea and Senegal in West Africa, the book argues against a neo-Malthusian view of the relationship between population, environment and migration. The author explores alternative approaches to the dynamic processes of social and environmental change in refugee situations.This is an ideal text for undergraduate and postgraduate students concerned with environment, development and migration studies, as well as policy-makers and practitioners in the field.