Abstract
There is growing interest in helping people in developing countries cope with climate change by reframing population relocation as an adaptation strategy. However, there is also ongoing uncertainty surrounding what the advantages and disadvantages of resettling poor and vulnerable communities might be. This article helps address this knowledge gap by considering what might be learned from recent and ongoing state-led relocation programmes in rural Africa and Asia. It draws on a review of planned displacement and resettlement in eight countries, and six months’ experience researching a relocation programme in central Mozambique, to make three arguments: first, there is a need to uncover long-standing governmental perceptions of rural populations and the ways in which these affect state-led responses to climate shocks and stresses; second, it is necessary to develop a more sophisticated understanding of human choice, volition and self-determination during resettlement as adaptation; and third, greater attention should be paid to how development narratives are generated, transmitted and internalized during climate-induced relocations. Taking into account socioeconomic, political and historical realities in these ways will help to avoid situations in which present-day interventions to assist populations experiencing or threatened by climate displacement simply repeat or reinforce past injustices.
Highlights
One of the main ways in which climate change impacts will be felt by society over the few decades is via an increased prevalence, frequency and intensity of weatherrelated extremes, such as flood and drought (Goodess, 2011)
In China, Rogers and Xue (2015) have shown that pre-existing state-led relocation schemes designed to alleviate poverty and prevent environmental degradation are being repackaged as climate change adaptation measures, earmarked in the country’s National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy as a means of moving people out of areas considered to be vulnerable to climate disasters
As stated at the outset of this article, there is growing interest in helping poor and vulnerable communities cope with climate change by reframing population resettlement as an adaptation strategy
Summary
One of the main ways in which climate change impacts will be felt by society over the few decades is via an increased prevalence, frequency and intensity of weatherrelated extremes, such as flood and drought (Goodess, 2011). The article demonstrates that the relative advantages and disadvantages of resettlement as adaptation need to be considered in the context of the broader socioeconomic and political narratives in which they operate, especially in national settings in which often complex displacement and relocation processes have helped define state-rural relations over many years. In the text that follows, the term ‘resettlement’ is generally used to refer to human movement in the context of climate change and ‘relocation’ is employed in relation to state-led programmes
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