Climate change and conflict

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Title: Myanmar: Responding to humanitarian needs in Northern Shan
Description: "When armed groups clashed in a small township in the eastern part of Myanmar’s Northern Shan State back in March 2021, it was not the first time that the villagers felt threatened. Ethnic armed group disputes over territory, as well as confrontations with the Myanmar Military – locally known as Tatmadaw - are deeply rooted and people here have lived in an environment influenced by conflict and instability their entire life. As a result, the area is also known to be contaminated by old landmines and other explosive remnants. In late March 2021, fighting once more came too close and this time the villagers saw no other option than to flee to save their lives. While the current political instability in Yangon and other major urban centers of Myanmar is often what is in focus in the media, the rural ethnic armed group conflict and waves of fighting with the Tatmadaw persist but is often less known to the outside world. In this instance in Northern Shan fighting this time was between the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) alliance – all of them armed groups well known across Myanmar. Following clashes in the area that had continued some places for over five days, a group of 447 women, children and elderly made their way to an old Buddhist monastery five to six hours walk away from their village. The men were left behind in the village to look after and protect the farmlands and houses. It was at this interim safe haven that DRC and local humanitarian partner organisations were able to meet the newly displaced who were provided with emergency kits to help them and their host community cope with the crisis. Covid-19 compounding crises The recent intensification of conflict affecting people throughout Myanmar is leading to daily reports of new displacement and humanitarian needs are rising to alarming levels. In addition, a new wave and rapid spread of COVID-19 in Myanmar is right now sweeping through Myanmar, with a reported 90% of the country affected. The currently circulating Delta mutation of the virus is even more infectious than previous variants, resulting in unprecedented infection and casualty rates, and health facilities nationwide struggling to meet the rapidly growing demand for testing and treatment. As the pandemic continues to exhaust all remaining capacities it creates new fear across the conflict-ridden country, and in particular so among the most vulnerable and isolated communities. First Line Emergency Response through ECHO The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has worked with support to conflict-affected people in Myanmar since 2009 and in Northern Shan State since 2016. With recent developments in the country, new instability and not least the pandemic, DRC was among humanitarian organisations in Myanmar selected by the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission (ECHO) to strengthen locally led emergency response mechanisms. These new efforts through the so-called First Line Emergency Response (FLER) project are critical to ensure access to life-saving aid and enhance outreach in isolated areas of Myanmar. Working with local partner organisations DRC has been present in Northern Shan State since 2016, and has worked with EU Humanitarian Aid funding of emergency responses in Northern Shan State since March 2020. In March 2021, the FLER project was launched in two townships in collaboration with several local partner organisations in this north-eastern part of Myanmar surrounded by five other states and bordering China to the east. DRC works closely with other ECHO implementing partners – Danish Church Aid (DCA) and Oxfam as well as several local partners, to ensure that the townships that are most affected by conflict are covered by FLER activities. Meikswe Myanmar – meaning ‘Friends of Myanmar’ – has worked with DRC since 2019 and is one of the partners now working with DRC to implement the First Line Emergency Response programme. As a well-known and widely trusted civil society organisation Meikswe Myanmar is anchored in local communities and has been operational since 2004. Their expertise, insight and detailed local knowledge gathered though a network of civil society organisations across Northern Shan State is crucial when navigating in environments that are highly sensitive and complex and where even practical outreach is a challenge. Reaching people trapped in conflict Planning of the First Line Emergency Responses in Northern Shan State is spearheaded by DRC with its partners as well as representatives of local communities and civil society organisations. They meet to discuss, design and develop the project and define the intervention in detail. The planning process helps DRC and partners to ensure that local coordination structures are in place and that the most vulnerable and crisis-affected are identified and provided with adequate assistance. In areas where roads are often damaged or communities are isolated after years of conflict, and where communication infrastructure is weak at its best, logistics is one of the everyday challenges for people in these remote areas as well as for those who try to reach them. ‘Once we get there, providing protection, emergency aid and if needed Emergency Mine Risk Education is a very first step to assist people in need here,’ tells Martin Vane, Country Director, DRC Myanmar and explains: ‘DRC and our FLER partners are furthermore working with grassroots actors to strengthen local capacity even remotely in order to build people’s resilience to future shocks. In this sense FLER aims to be distinct from other emergency response mechanisms in that local actors are the default responders and the aim of the mechanism will be to support their capacity to provide humanitarian assistance. This includes developing preparedness measures, training, prepositioning of stocks and other supplies. When people are able to return to their villages, they might need to travel through mined areas again and then once they are back, they often have to start all over, resuming farming activities, and maybe also reconstructing their houses.’ Conflict and climate change The First Line Emergency Response programme is now implemented by DRC through Meikswe Myanmar in two townships in Northern Shan State. Both are areas affected by a complex of decades old and new armed conflict affecting the population and creating widespread internal displacement within Northern Shan, but also spilling into Southern Shan and Eastern Shan states. Conflict is not the only threat here. Natural hazard threats are seasonal and people are all too familiar with Myanmar’s extreme weather events such as increasing hot summers and colder winters, floods, landslides and other extreme events that continue to be seen to intensify due to effects of climate change. Most people here are living in deep poverty and are already vulnerable to shocks from conflict and instability. Adding to this the weather events that are growing in scale and intensity, while also becoming more and more unpredictable, then the little means and weak resilience to cope is easily depleted. The risk of being trapped in displacement These risks altogether make entire communities prone to displacement that easily becomes a protracted situation. Many displaced individuals, families and entire communities now find themselves trapped and not able to sustain themselves in their interim safe haven, nor return home to the areas from where they fled. ‘As public services are limited or not existing and there is often no national institutions to rely on, we know from our local partners and the people we reach through the emergency responses, that every bit of aid and support makes a big difference,’ says Martin Vane, DRC Myanmar. DRC’s current First Line Emergency Response programme funded by EU Humanitarian Aid runs until March 2022 and aims to reach nearly 30,000 men, women and children with emergency aid and lifesaving support as well as support to strengthen local resilience to cope with crises..."
Source/publisher: Danish Refugee Council via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-08-06
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: BEYOND BORDERS - Our changing climate ? its role in conflict
Description: Executive summary: • Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer than any preceding decade since 1850, and in 2015 temperature rise exceeded 1.0°C, compared to pre- industrial times, for the first time. These changes will have an escalating, negative impact on our environment, economies, livelihoods and security globally. These impacts will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable groups in society, and those who have contributed least to climate change will be first and worst affected by it. If unchecked, some predict that climate change could draw up to 720 million people back into extreme poverty and create millions or even billions of climate refugees. A study published in 2013 suggested that the effects of climate change could precipitate as much as a 56% increase in the frequency of intergroup conflicts across the world. • Climate change can take the form of slow-onset environmental degradation, such as the melting of polar ice caps and rising sea levels, increased salinization of groundwater and soil, droughts and desertification from changed precipitation levels. It can also take the form of sudden-onset disasters including storms and floods, heatwaves and wildfires. The number of weather-related natural disasters has risen on all continents since 1980. From 1970 to 2012 there were 8,835 disasters related to climate, of which 3,496 took place between 2001 and 2010. More than half of these were related to rainfall patterns; both floods and droughts are increasingly evident in many parts of the world. • Climate change is resulting in the destruction of livelihoods, infrastructure and communities and ? without further action ? is likely to force people to leave their homes and drive forced migration. In 2016 extreme weather-related disasters displaced around 23.5 million people. Since 2008, an average of 21.7 million people were displaced each year by such hazards. This does not include the people forced to flee their homes as a consequence of slow-onset environmental degradation, such as droughts. • EJF defines all these people as climate refugees: ?persons or groups of persons who, for reasons of sudden or progressive climate-related change in the environment that adversely affects their lives or living conditions, are obliged to leave their habitual homes either temporarily or permanently, and who move either within their country or abroad.” • Rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns will have widespread, large-scale negative impacts on food production and food security. Between 1985 and 2007, droughts drove a 13.7% loss in cereal production, compared to just 6.7% in losses between 1964 and 1984. Drought is one of the key factors for agricultural failure and it is expected that the increase in intensity, frequency and duration of such droughts - all consequences of climate change - will bring about significant declines to crop yields. • Environmental change can be seen to drive conflicts over land or resources, which in turn can lead to the displacement of people. Forced migration can be triggered by environmental conflicts, but forced migration due to the scarcity of food or extreme weather events can also in itself trigger conflicts. The interaction between different social, economic and political variables ? as well as environmental factors ? are strong influencers of wars and armed conflicts in vulnerable countries. • This report includes a focus on impacts of changing weather patterns on food security, and how this helped fuel the Syrian war. The Syrian war, now in its seventh year, has resulted in more than 470,000 deaths and 13.5 million people require humanitarian assistance. 6.6 million people have been internally displaced and nearly five million people are residing in camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon as well as an estimated 1.2 million seeking refuge in Europe. Whilst the war was not solely a result of climate change, the intertwining effects of drought, rural to urban migration, and the increasing unrest due to a lack of government measures to avoid water scarcity, unemployment and growing inequality, corruption and political oppression are clear. • EJF urges the international community to acknowledge the reality of climate change and take urgent action to limit the crippling effects on our global community. We note the imperative for greater consensus and support for vulnerable nations to increase their resilience to climate risks and adapt to their impact. We call for an international agreement that will clarify the rights and ensure the protection of climate refugees, with the immediate appointment of a United Nations Special Rapporteur to convene, initiate and guide preparatory discussions towards this end. Most important of all, is the need to end our ?carbon addiction? and meet our shared international commitment under the Paris Agreement, to cut greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that temperature rise is kept below 1.5°C on pre-industrial levels"
Source/publisher: Environmental Justice Foundation
Date of publication: 2017-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2018-01-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict
Description: "Introduction: Despite the existence of institutions designed to promote peace, interactions between individuals and groups sometimes lead to confl ict. Understanding the causes of such confl ict is a major project in the social sciences, and researchers in anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology have long debated the extent to which climatic changes are responsible. Recent advances and interest have prompted an explosion of quantitative studies on this question..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Science" - AAAS 13 SEPTEMBER 2013 www.sciencemag.org
Date of publication: 2013-09-13
Date of entry/update: 2018-01-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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