At the 5th World Water Forum in March 2009, four successful sessions and panel discussions on water-related environmental migration and displacement were organised by the UNU-EHS, in partnership with UNW-DPC and GAP in Istanbul, Turkey. The outcomes showed that migration is an actual adaptation strategy and that it is necessary to restructure the way it is being managed for the results to be beneficial to all parties concerned.

The “Teaching Adaptive Water Management”, a training course for instructors, will take place at the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany, from 12-14 May 2009.

The course aims at current and future instructors of water management, primarily those teaching in centres of higher education, who are interested in including adaptive water management concepts and methods in their teaching curricula. It is intended to increase their capacity to train the next generation of water managers.

Please apply as soon as possible by sending an application to: or from the Institute of Environmental Systems Research of the University of Osnabrück .

A call for an explicit recognition of the humanitarian consequences of climate change, including migration and displacement, was made by key stakeholders at the “Climate Change and Human Mobility: Survival or Adaptation Strategy?” side event, organized by UNU-EHS at the Bonn Climate Change Talks, on 6 April 2009. This was a step towards the topic being recognized and included in an environmental international treaty dealing with climate change, the successive Kyoto Protocol.

The four international expert panelists at the 5th Bonn Dialogues agreed that education is significant to prepare people to cope with risks and disasters. Dr Badaoui Rouhban (UNESCO), Prof Benouar Djillali (USTHB), Dr Zinaida Fadeeva (UNU-IAS) and Dr Manu Gupta (SEED) also stressed that local cultures and traditions can help when implementing risk reduction behavior in the long term.

The next Bonn Dialogues on Global Environmental Change will be held as a special event of UNESCO's World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development and will take place on April 1st 2009 at 6:30 p.m. at the Deutsche Post Tower, Bonn. This time, the panelists will discuss the role of education, training, and adaptation and coping strategies used to deal with the world's growing environmental hazards.

ALL WELCOME!

For more information and registration please visit the website of the series.

The UNU-EHS publication InterSecTions, issue 5/2007, “Control, Adapt or Flee: How to Face Environmental Migration?”, was used as a source for the Vijverberg Session Climate Change and Migration report meeting which took place in the Hague in January 2009.

This year’s World Water Day on 22 March under the motto "Shared Water - Shared Opportunities" focuses on waters that cross borders to draw attention to the importance of sharing freshwater resources and their sustainable management.

UNU-EHS is also examining conflict and security related to shared water resources within two projects: MICROCON and WISDOM. Internationally shared waters link people but can also give reason to conflict.

Official website of the World Water Day 2009.

Dr. Juan Carlos Villagrán de León, head of the risk management section at UNU-EHS, moves on to his new position as Programme Officer in charge of capacity building and outreach activities within the recently established UN-SPIDER program in Vienna, Austria, which is conducted by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, UN-OOSA.

Prof. Michelle Leighton, Dr. Mohamed Hamza and Prof. Susan L. Cutter were chosen as the new cohort of Chairs on Social Vulnerability for 2009-2012.

The 55th Session of the UNU Council was hosted from 1-5 December 2008 for the first time by the Vice Rectorate in Europe in Bonn, Germany. The event also coincided with the UNU-EHS’ five year anniversary, making the occasion all the more memorable.

28.11.2008 The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the United Nations University (UNU) signed a memorandum of understanding to work towards a better perception of environmentally induced migration and vulnerability caused by the effects of desertification, land degradation and drought, on 28 November at the UN campus in Bonn.

Find the UNCCD press release here.

Stakeholders say that environmental migration is a pressing global issue that should be acknowledged by policy makers so that concrete measures can be implemented.

The environmental migration phenomenon is accelerating; alarming numbers have come to surface stating that over forty countries will no longer exist by the end of the century because of climate change, and that by 2050, there will be over 200 million environmental migrants. In the latest Bonn Dialogues series, environmental migration stakeholders met with the public to debate the critical measures and policies that should be made to deal with this vital issue.

The United Nations University in Bonn marks its 5 year anniversary and the hosting of the 55th Council Members meeting with an open scientific symposium entitled “Sustainability at the Margins: Highlands and Drylands” on 3 December 2008 at the University of Bonn from 6.30 pm in lecture hall 1, main building, Regina-Pacis-Weg 3. ALL WELCOME!

Download the invitation with the list of speakers and the programme with the topics.

The upcoming Bonn Dialogues takes place at the Haus der Geschichte Bonn at 6 pm. This year's event entitled "Environmentally Induced Migration - Concept or Reality?" brings together experts and the public to investigate the links between environmental changes and migration.

Downlaod the flyer and registration form for the event
in English or German.

More information on the Bonn Dialogues Series here.

22.10.08

At the international conference for “Environment, Forced Migration & Social Vulnerability”, that took place in Bonn from 9-11 October 300 experts and scientists called for immediate and joint action as environmental migration was identified as an increasingly pressing global phenomenon that affects all nations.

The press release can be found in English here and in German here.

For EFMSV media coverage, please click here. To see pictures of the event, please click here.