Environmental Resource Management in Refugee Camps and Surrounding Areas: Lessons Learned and Best Practices
Publisher: Georgetown University Institute for the Study of International Migration
Author(s): Douglas A. Howard, Lahra Smith, Nili Sarit Yossinger, Lara Kinne, and Mark Giordano
Date: 2017
Topics: Humanitarian Assistance, Land, Renewable Resources
With more than ten million people trapped in protracted refugee situations in more than thirty countries, the environmental impact of refugee camps on both refugee residents and host communities and ecologies has become a direct and operational area of concern. This is particularly the case where camp populations are as large, and often larger, than the local communities hosting them. Increased refugee camp populations are often hypothesized to trigger soil erosion, loss of habitat and wildlife, air pollution, water depletion and contamination, as well as energy and transportation problems.
Funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration, this report presents a comparative evidence-based assessment of this hypothesis based on fieldwork in Ali Addeh refugee camp in Djibouti and Aysaita camp in Ethiopia.
The research team carried out interviews with refugees and stakeholders in 4 languages, and collected survey data from over 700 households. The interviews included questions about natural resource use such as fire, fuel and water, changes in natural resources over time, comparisons between home area and/or pre-camp context, organizational assistance, resource sharing, resource conflicts, perceived challenges, and best practices. This information was supplemented and cross-checked using a remote sensing and geospatial analysis-based survey of land cover and land use change over the period of encampment.