Population, Health and Environment - Migration

Human migration poses huge challenges to saving the Earth's rich biodiversity, and is likely to grow in intensity as climate change and other global trends cause migration on a previously unknown scale.

People migrate for many reasons - to escape environmental degradation, seek new economic opportunities, or leave areas that are unsafe. It can be sudden and unexpected - like that caused by natural or man-made disasters - and is often influenced by external factors such as trends in world trade or global politics.

When large population movements occur, coastal areas and forest frontiers are among the places where biodiversity is most seriously affected.

Conservation practitioners around the world are facing migration issues, but are not always aware of the steps they can take to reduce their impact on the environment.

What WWF is doing
WWF worked with Conservation International and the University of North Carolina to identify ways to influence different types of migrations or to directly reduce their impact on the environment.

This includes interventions in areas of origin and destination and advocacy at the policy level. The results of this study are documented in People on the Move: Reducing the Impacts of Human Migration on Biodiversity.

More detailed information on ways to reduce the impacts of migration during armed conflict can be found in The Trampled Grass: Mitigating the Impacts of Armed Conflict on the Environment.