In the Caribbean and Pacific islands, more than 50% of the population lives within 1.5 kms 0f the shore. In 2004, the Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Commission on Human Rights announced that the States threatened with extinction for environmental reasons would be mainly in the Pacific Ocean, but also with some of the  affected in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean.  States at risk are:

Tuvalu – population 11.468

Nauru – population 12.809

Kiribati – population 100.798

The Maldive Islands – population 339.330

The Bahamas – population 299.697

All States listed above are islands or groups of islands.  One State which will not disappear but which risks losing a significant proportion of its surface area for environmental reasons is Bangladesh.

International migration has always received more attention due to implications for receiving industralized countries, despite its small figures in global migration trends. The focus on communities that this research project promotes tends to usually attract less attention (and of course, also less funding…) because of the internal displacement, most possibly within national boundaries, that causes in mostly developing countries.  However, so far organized affected communities play a central role in the relocation process and are typically the ones orchestrating first steps to migrate.

This section will always be under construction. If you know of communities moving or planning to move in relation to environmental change please let us know.

Documents you may like to check:

Human Rights Situation of Indigenous Peoples in States and Territories Threatened with extinction for environmental reasons

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByrSGyaVA6h0X2JEZE94S01XaUU/view?usp=sharing