Displaying items by tag: Environment

Security of tenure has a direct influence on people’s vulnerability to disasters and their capacity to recover. Tenure type directly affects the likelihood of displacement and the chances of a rapid return. Tenure security does not necessarily mean having formally registered, legally recognised and inheritable ownership. It can also mean formal and informal, short- and long-term ways to secure shelter by individuals, households, communities and enterprises, including renting, ownership and leasing of land. Contemporary studies suggest a move away from trying to ‘solve’ land rights issues by documenting and enforcing top-down ownership models in favour of flexible, incremental approaches based…

In the two decades prior to President Alvaro Uribe’s election in 2001, illicit crop production in Colombia grew from 3,500 to 144,000 hectares, representing an annual increase of 25.6%, with Colombia producing more than 70% of the world’s cocaine. This trend was coupled with a worsening of the armed conflict, which according to Uribe was due to guerrillas’ involvement in the drug trade. Drug-trafficking was deemed to constitute one of the main sources of funding for Colombia’s guerrilla groups; according to government figures, between 1991 and 1996 $470 million was raised from the illegal sale of narcotics, representing 41% of…

Climate change is projected to increase the likelihood and severity of a wide range of extreme weather events, many of which particularly affect urban area. Given urban areas’ high population densities, often including high concentrations of vulnerable people, increasing urban disaster risk should be a key concern in discussions of the adverse impacts of climate change. This article presents two specific examples of increasing risks due to climate change in urban environments, and illustrates how Red Cross/Red Crescent societies address these concerns. The first case is the increasing risk of heat waves, illustrated by the 2003 heat wave in Western…

The Mount Nyiragongo eruption on 17 January 2002 destroyed a large part of the centre of Goma, a busy commercial centre in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Homes, schools, churches and businesses were ruined. An estimated 80,000 people – about 16,000 households – became homeless, and a very large number lost their workplace, their employment and their income, as well as assets and savings. The aid response, both by the UN and NGOs, focused on this loss of shelter, and defined entitlement to assistance according to its loss. But the most damaging loss was not to people’s homes,…

Despite a ceasefire agreement in February 2002 and a gradual transition from war to peace, Sri Lanka still has a significant internally displaced population. Although numbers have declined considerably in the past two years, there are still some 360,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) – including, according to UNHCR, over 80,000 in nearly 300 welfare centres in the north and east. While there have been numerous attempts to describe and analyse this population, very little is actually known about the risks and vulnerabilities facing Sri Lanka’s IDPs, in particular the 200,000 or so in parts of the country still nominally controlled…

The idea of considering the environment as part of humanitarian assistance might seem illogical. The midst of a humanitarian crisis may not look like the best time to start trying to hug trees; trying to combine environmental action with humanitarian aid could jeopardise both. Still, not considering the environment during a humanitarian crisis risks a number of significant negative outcomes. The environment is a major contributing factor to the origins of most humanitarian crises. Failing to consider the links between the crisis and the environment means that humanitarian aid will be based on an incomplete and incorrect understanding of the…

The Environmental Response Network (ERN) is a project of Green Cross UK. It has grown out of a three year project to test the feasibility of establishing an environmental resource related to disasters. It is expected to become operational in the summer of 1999. The overall objective of the ERN is to offer a resource comprising environmental expertise, information and training related to disasters in order to: • help integrate environmental considerations into emergency preparedness and response mechanisms; • promote sustainable long-term reconstruction following a disaster; • link environmental knowledge and expertise to the decision-making process in disaster management. The…

University College, London, 18 March, 1999 This conference set out to raise public awareness of how important environmental issues in disaster prevention, preparedness and response are. It was also a forum for Green Cross to announce the results of its three-year project to find ways to give such issues earlier, adequate attention in disaster-related work (see earlier piece on the ERN). Participants included those from international agencies and NGOs operational in disaster preparedness and response, experts and donor organisations. The proceedings opened with a definition and history of disasters which offered a chilling insight into future ‘pressure points’ that may…

Kingston upon Thames, UK 19 March 1998 The aim of this workshop, which brought together 25 representatives from relief and development agencies, environmental organisations and donors from the UK and Europe, including Russia, was to increase understanding and move towards consensus on best practice of environmental responses in emergency situations. The one-day workshop was organised by the Green Cross UK, one of 16 national organisations working to promote sustainable solutions to environmental destruction and degradation, and presided over by Mikhail Gorbachev. One of the hopes for the day was to explore the potential role of the Environmental Response Network, a…

Berlin, 28 March-7 April 1995 The First Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCO), held in Berlin between 28 March and 7 April earlier this year, was born out of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Broadly speaking, the Convention enshrines a commitment by all signatories to ensure that by the year 2000, their emissions of greenhouse gases would be stabilised at 1990 levels. However, this commitment is generally perceived as not imposing strict enough obligations, particularly on industrialised countries, and there is general concern that the 1995 Spring Conference did little to improve this situation.…