Environmental refugees : defining environmental migrants, and long term solutions to deal with environmental migration

Environmental degradation and population migration is becoming growing concern to the international community. An increasing number of environments around the globe are suffering from deterioration and an increasing number of individuals survive in an environment which can barely support life. As environmental degradation continue, many will have to migrate to a new location. Some will move within their own countries. Others will cross international borders. Those who have the means might leave at an early stage of environmental deterioration. Many, often women and children, will wait until the last possible moment to leave their homes and will feel a sense of desperation similar to that of the millions of refugees around the world today who flee political and social unrest. Those who migration due to the degradation of their environment are environmental refugees. Environmental refugees will only be created if certain conditions exist in a region. This form of migration is also mostly the result of drastic changes in able to cope with relatively rapid changes in the environment. In addition, situations of environmental migration seem to be more common. The goals of this thesis are to provide a definition of environmental refugees and ta identify potential source regions of environmental refugees. These are clearly the first steps towards finding short term and long term solutions to prevent further suffering and to curtail future environmental refugee flows