| Abstract: | The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Refugee Policy Group (RPG) organized a meeting during January 1992 in Nyon, Switzerland, on migration and the environment. The meeting called attention to the need for strategies to help people forced to leave their homes because of environmental degradation, to increase the understanding of traditional coping mechanisms for dealing with environmental change, to address the root causes of environmental migration, and to minimize the impact of refugees upon local ecosystems. Building upon problems identified at the Nyon meeting, 60 international experts convened at Chavannes-de-Bogis during April 21-24, 1996, to identify effective, practical measures to prevent, mitigate, and rehabilitate environmentally-induced displacements and the negative environmental impacts resulting from mass migrations. Participants included environmental and migration specialists, government officials, and representatives of international and nongovernmental organizations. |
