IRP at 19th IMISCOE Annual Conference

Human Migration and Natural Resources: Global Assessment of an Adaptive Complex System

The session aims to present the main findings of the Global assessment of the International Resource Panel, UN Environment Programme on the nexus of natural resources and migration.

The availability, access to and use of natural resources are key intervening variables through which to understand, analyse and govern local to global scale relationships between climatic and environmental changes and population distributions and movements. While much debate and research has focused on the effect that climatic change might have on the migration of people worldwide, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role and governance of natural resources in this relationship. This report makes a tentative first step in looking at the range of ways in which migration and natural resource and natural resource management interact. The report provides evidence of, and policy suggestions on how to manage the multiple, non-linear and bidirectional relationships between natural resources and population movements using an Earth System Governance framework.

The session was led by Dominic Kniveton, Panel member of International Resource Panel (Professor of Climate Science and Society, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex) and Marianne Gjørv, Senior Adviser, Section for the High North and Bilateral Relations, Marine Environment and Industry Department, Norwegian Environment Agency.