Ibukun Taiwo
Guatemalan farmers increasingly voice concerns about the dangers they face when climate change impacts force them to migrate and settle in new communities. In response, national authorities are working to better manage the risks to human security emerging from climate-induced migration, and they have called on CGIAR researchers to develop a training course for civil servants.
Guatemalan farmers are under pressure from climate change impacts.
“People no longer have the confidence to prepare their land. We have to plant corn, but many people wait for the rains, and it takes too long for the rains to come. Others sow earlier, but then the cornfield dries up, and it is a very complicated problem for us,” explained Adriel Mejia Domingo, who is a community mayor in Caserío Chisnán, a village located in the Guatemalan Highlands. “That’s also a reason for migration, because once you don’t produce you have to look for alternatives, to look for a job outside your community.”
While previously well-suited for farming, this region increasingly sees high temperatures and erratic rainfall, and it is now part of what is known as the Central American Dry Corridor. Here, droughts and long dry spells are challenging farmers’ traditional practices. Some are forced to migrate to cities or neighboring countries to find work. Others might be pushed to turn toward more illicit activities. At the same time, the increasing competition over water and other natural resources is causing tensions and can spur conflict within communities.
Researchers from the CGIAR Research Initiatives on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration (FCM) and on Climate Resilience (ClimBeR) have consulted stakeholders and existing literature to identify the links between climate, migration, and risks to human security in Guatemala.
Together with partners, CGIAR has progressed the conversation on these challenges by co-hosting the second and third National Forum on Migration and Climate Change (in 2023 and 2024) and by contributing to an intersectoral working group on climate change and migration. In May and October 2024, CGIAR researchers also conducted training sessions on climate change, migration, and human security for a total of 54 representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINEX), and national and international organizations.
A new, but urgent challenge
Guatemala, along with other countries in Central America, is considered a primary hotspot for climate change. Guatemalan farmers, many of whom rely on rain-fed agriculture, are particularly vulnerable. At the same time, the country’s history of violence and conflict reduces their resilience and capacity to cope with climate shocks.
Still, the direct links between climate, migration, and human security have just recently started to emerge. At a 2023 workshop led by CGIAR, stakeholders zeroed in on climate-induced migration as a key risk to human security, particularly as people on the move are vulnerable to human trafficking, robberies, kidnapping, and other threats. As migrants, they remain vulnerable to poverty and social marginalization even once they have arrived at their destination.
“Every day, thousands of Guatemalans cross borders in search of better living conditions, and this is due to the impacts of climate change, with prolonged droughts and heavy floods that threaten their livelihoods,” said Andrea Lucrecia Fión Góngora, head of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change at MARN. “This is why we have work to meet the needs of the people in the countryside through policies and actions for a better Guatemala.”
Góngora was speaking at the third National Forum on Migration and Climate Change, an event which in both 2023 and 2024 was co-organized by CGIAR and its partners to allow representatives from the national government, academia, community organizations, and UN agencies to present research, exchange knowledge, and discuss new strategies, policies, and priorities.
These national events are one way in which CGIAR has engaged key stakeholders, not least the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in productive dialogue on climate, migration, and human security challenges. Both CGIAR and IOM have also contributed to discussions in the Intersectoral Working Group on Climate Change and Migration (IWGCCM), a multi-stakeholder platform co-led by MARN and MINEX.
“Our collaboration is important because the link between migration and climate change impacts that generate displacement is very new in Guatemala and very innovative,” explained Joaquim Torrinha, program coordinator at IOM. “Our joint work has allowed us to combine the strengths of our two organizations and to advance the issue in such a way that it is already included in Guatemala’s National Climate Change Action Plan and in the National Migration Policy.”
Training civil servants
With the links between climate, migration, and human security being just recently acknowledged, national stakeholders have repeatedly requested training to increase understanding and capacity to manage these challenges.
“Our focus is to strengthen the capacity of both government officials and the agencies we work with. This is where CGIAR is a strategic partner for building capacity of our civil servants, through workshops, training, and conducting studies at the national level,” said Fabiola Mazariegos, director of migration affairs at MINEX.
The need for training on these issues has also been highlighted in recent national policies, including the National Climate Change Action Plan and the National Migration Policy.
That is why CGIAR researchers, in partnership with migration experts at IOM, have launched a training course on the nexus between climate, migration, and human security. Its curriculum covers topics such as terminologies, knowledge and data, public policy, programs, finance, and loss and damage, and it is being offered to MARN and MINEX staff as well as other relevant stakeholders.
The first training session, conducted for 33 ministerial staffers in May 2024, focused on introducing participants to the nexus between climate change, migration, and human security. A second session, which took place in October 2024, aimed to enhance inter-institutional coordination by deepening participants’ understanding of the how climate change, human security, and migration linkages are accounted for across public policies at departmental, national, and regional levels. In attendance were 21 representatives from MARN, MINEX, the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED), the Guatemalan Institute of Migration (IGM), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Disasters in Central America and the Dominican Republic (CEPREDENAC).
Feedback from participants acknowledged that it is necessary to reflect more deeply on the links between climate change and risks to human security: “Understanding how migration is interlinked with climate change is important for the MARN because these are issues that go hand in hand,” offered one participant. Such testimonies indicated that the training course did increase participants’ knowledge, thus equipping them to better manage the challenges to human security emerging from climate-induced migration.
This improved understanding is already prompting new initiatives within MARN: the Desertification Unit within the ministry’s Climate Change Department has invited CGIAR researchers to co-develop a proposal for an initiative to further investigate the interlinkages between human migration, drought, desertification, and land degradation. The proposal, which is taking shape under the umbrella of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), was discussed during the 16th UNCCD Conference of the Parties.
CGIAR will continue to offer the training course and collaborate with MARN on the joint proposal in 2025 under the upcoming Climate Action Science Program.
Author: Marianne Gadeberg, Independent Communications Consultant. Photo Credit: Fabiola López, IOM
This work is carried out with support from the CGIAR Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration and the CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience. We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: https://www.cgiar.org/funders/