Adansonia-Consulting

During the last decades the number of humanitarian crises leading to large-scale displacement of populations increased. Most of them are in developing countries in the tropics. Mainly for logistical but also for political reasons tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people are often hosted in a few large camps in remote areas. The risk of overexploiting the natural resources in the vicinity of the camps is high due to their high demand for water, food, firewood, pastures (if they have livestock) and agricultural land. Long-lasting environmental damages may occur in the refugee-hosting areas especially when refugees or

internally displaced people are settled nearby protected zones of high biodiversity value or in other extremely vulnerable ecosystems as e.g. areas with aride climate. In humanitarian crises, especially during the emergency phase, environmental issues are often neglected since most relief organisations are only concerned with life-saving activities. We strongly believe, however, that environmental aspects should be taken care off from the very beginning of a humanitarian crisis in all field of assistance: This will not only help to minimise environmental damages and costs for subsequent rehabilitation measures but will also favour a peaceful cohabitation between refugees and local communities depending on the same natural resources avoiding thereby new conflicts.