ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Human migration from one place to another due to different reasons has been linked to destruction of ecosystems as the migrants struggle to settle in the new areas, thus impacting on the prevailing climatic conditions.

Addressing the sixth Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-VI), Prof Araya Asfaw of the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre in Ethiopia observed that migrants end up clearing forest cover to create space for settlement, destroy wetlands and in some cases destroy natural habitats for wildlife.

“When people move, they deforest, and they destroy wetlands,” said Prof Asfaw, noting that most of the migration activities happen in the Horn of Africa region.

Trees are generally known to sequester carbon dioxide, which is the main driver for global warming. And when tree cover is cleared to create space for human settlement, experts say that it directly impacts on the climate.

There is evidence that forced migration is a serious, protracted, and in some areas, an expanding problem across Africa, particularly south of the Sahara.

According to the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA), conflicts and insecurity are major causes or drivers of forced migration in Africa. Across the continent, in Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, OSAA notes that including violent conflict and insecurity have resulted in forced displacement, both within and across borders, with dire consequences for vulnerable populations, including women, children, the aged and disabled.

A detailed study titled ‘Global Trends’, which tracks forced displacement worldwide based on data from governments, partner agencies and UNHCR’s own reporting, found a total 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, compared to 59.5 million just 12 months earlier.

This, according to experts, has highly contributed to distortion of the ecosystem, hence, impacting on climate change. This trend is expected to continue as conflicts continue to sour in many parts of the world.

The experts therefore called for integrated policies that can help address such issues.

Apart from forced migration, Prof Asfaw also pointed out that due to the increasing population and search for better livelihoods, there has been increased rural urban migration in the recent past, a trend that is also expected to increase in the near future.

So far, noted Prof Asfew, Ethiopia’s is an example whose population has been increasing steadily, and it has grown four folds in the past decade, putting more pressure on urban centres.

A study by Jukka Heinonen of Aalto University School of Engineering points out that the per capita emissions related to city Sustainability lifestyle are substantially higher than those related to rural and semi-urban lifestyles in the Finnish context.

Other people argue that urban dwellers often use vehicles for commuting shorter distances compared to rural dwellers, hence emitting more carbon into the atmosphere. Urban dwellers as well use coolers such as refrigerators, which emit hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

HFCs, also known as "super greenhouse gases," are known to be the most potent greenhouse gases because the combined effect of their soaring use and high global warming potential could undercut the benefits expected from the reduction of other greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Experts say that HFCs are 3,830 times more potent than CO2 with a lifetime of 14 years.

Though the world is currently negotiating the phase-down of the HFCs, it remains a huge concern because the phase-down is likely going to take some years, while the world population and the need to use cooling systems continue to increase.

“We expect most of the African population to urbanize, and this is going to have an impact on climate change,” said Ibrahim Ceesay, the Chairperson of the Africa Youth Alliance on Sustainable Development, noting that most of the people who move to urban areas are the youth.

The experts therefore noted that human migration is an important subject to be considered at all levels of climate discourse.

PAMACC News Agency