Environmental Change in Refugee-Affected Areas of the Third World: The Role of Policy and Research

This paper reviews the current nature of policy responses to environmental change in refugee assistance programmes. Based on a review of existing documentary material and a survey of UK-based NGOs, it is suggested that although refugee assistance agencies are aware of environmental issues, this is rarely translated into effective policy measures to identify and combat environmental degradation. Various existing methods used to calculate environmental impacts are considered, but a number of pitfalls are identified. It is suggested that little is known about the processes that lead to accelerated environmental change in situations of forced displacement, and that research providing deeper understanding of local environments and resource management systems is required for environmental policies to be effective.