Interactions of migration and population dynamics with ecosystem services

Abstract

Economic systems necessarily require levels of mobility, including migration by individuals, in response to ecosystem service variability in space and time. Yet ecosystem services are most often modelled as being fixed in space, with management of ecosystems also focused in specific places. Migration is a social system whereby people move location in order to avail themselves of economic opportunities or avoid risks. Migration flows have major consequences for ecosystem services in source and destination areas. Loss of ecosystem services can create environmental risks leading to involuntary displacement of populations, in the case of sudden disaster events, or alter the balance of advantages and disadvantages of source and destination areas. However, migration decisions are driven by multiple, intersecting factors, and climate and other environmental hazards both increase and decrease migration outcomes across and within localities. This chapter outlines such relationships and suggests that development planning and interventions need to account for the spatial distribution of populations, the structure of populations and their mobility and migration patterns.