Attachments
Executive summary
In 2023, the Asia–Pacific region recorded 12.76 million disaster-induced displacements – nearly half of the global total (IDMC, n.d.). About 1.1 million of those displacements were recorded in the Lower Mekong1 where the increasing impacts of climate change combined with other, ongoing, global challenges is putting communities and individuals under unprecedented pressure (IDMC, n.d.).
Countries across the Lower Mekong rank as some of the most hazard-prone in the Asia–Pacific region and globally. The escalating impact of disasters, adverse effects of climate change, and environmental degradation significantly affect livelihoods, resilience and human security. As a result, people have been either compelled to leave their homes and, in some instances, their countries of origin or find themselves trapped in areas at risk and in situations of high vulnerability. Analysis of the Lower Mekong shows a projected 6.3 million climate migrants by the year 2050 in the subregion (Clement et al., 2021).
Across the Lower Mekong, the number of people moving in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation is expected to rise considerably – although the dynamics are highly complex (Clement et al., 2021). The nexus between migration, the environment and climate change (MECC) is multidimensional, producing different kinds of movement, including disaster displacement, planned evacuation, changing pastoralist mobility patterns, labour migration and planned relocation strategies. There is a long history of migration within the Lower Mekong, with people struggling with the impacts of climate change increasingly likely to use established corridors to migration for livelihood opportunities (IOM, 2023a). Displacement, most often in the context of disasters and sudden on-set climatic changes, is already a reality.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has reported approximately 16.8 million displacements in the context of disasters across the Lower Mekong since data became available in 2008 (IDMC, n.d). Planned relocations are also used as a key survival strategy in the Lower Mekong, with relocation projects developed and implemented across the Mekong River Delta since the early- 2000’s
Covering 46 national instruments across Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam, this report reviews the state of the migration, the environment and climate change (MECC) nexus in the Lower Mekong.
The integration of human mobility in national policy planning, particularly climate change and disaster risk reduction policies, should spur the development of clear mandates for government-led research, data collection and analysis specific to the MECC nexus. This report seeks to illustrate existing policy instruments and data collection practices of interest, particularly through the integration of more strategic human mobility provisions into national policy instruments. It also seeks to highlight data gaps and limitations that could support national governments, regional and international actors and communities in better understanding, mitigating, addressing and preparing for environmental mobility, which will be intertwined with all dimensions of the climate crisis over coming years and decades.