François Gemenne will participate to this workshop taking place over two days. The first will concentrate on questions of evidence and conceptualisation and will provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to present their findings from the field. The second will concentrate upon questions of protection and response, and provides a forum for researchers, activists and policy makers to consider the efficacy of the frameworks currently in place for protecting and aiding those displaced by environmental transformation, and to debate how more effective mechanisms might be developed, with a view to developing recommendations for action.

This workshop seeks to address this lacuna by bringing together academics, activists, policy makers and development practitioners to share research, experience and analysis on the subject. In particular, the workshop hopes to address the following questions:

     * How can we conceptualise the relationship between environmental change and migration, particularly ‘forced’ and ‘economic’ migration? 
What do the concepts of resilience, adaptation and transformation bring to our understanding of this relationship?
     * What empirical evidence is available to underpin existing analyses of the links between environmental change and migration? What are the gaps and how are they being filled?
     * To what extent does migration related to environmental change give rise to new challenges for humanitarian response or notions of sustainable development? Should those who migrate as a result of environmental change be afforded specific forms of legal and social protection?
     * How important are questions of political economy in determining the relationship between environmental changes and migration locally, regionally and internationally?
     * How is environmental change likely to influence migration patterns in the 21st century at the local, regional and international level?

See more : the Conference website