Argentina - The IOM Regional Office for South America, with support from the Chilean Ministries of Environment and External Relations, is this week hosting a three-day workshop on climate change and migration for South American government officials and civil society experts.

The workshop, taking place in Santiago de Chile, aims to strengthen the current dialogue on migration and climate change and help experts to work together on issues of common concern at the regional level.

Topics being discussed by the 47 participants include: climate change, adjusting to the changing environment, climate, land degradation, health, and public policies focused on human mobility, and resilience and disaster risk management.

Environmental factors have long had an impact on human mobility, as people have historically left places with harsh or deteriorating conditions. But the scale of migration due to climate change and environmental degradation is now expected to rise, impacting lives and livelihoods.

Such migration can have positive and negative effects on both the local coping capacity and the environment in areas from which these migrants originate, as well as in their temporary or permanent destinations.

In recent decades, changes in precipitation, rising temperatures, and increases in the scale and nature of natural disasters, have been the most important effects of climate change in the region.

In the past 15 years the number of people affected by hurricanes and floods has increased markedly. Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela, in particular, have been affected by major flooding.

During the period 2010-2013, the number of people affected by flooding was some 8,575,000 - almost half of them in Colombia.  In Perú, events associated with climate change have been linked to 67 per cent of recent natural disasters.

The capacity of countries and their residents to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change varies from country to country, as well as the ability to identify and provide assistance to people displaced from their homes and land. 

Countries in the South America are developing public policies aimed at risk reduction. But they are also looking at policies that address the socio-economic impact that forced migration due to climate change can have on affected populations.

IOM partners who contributed to the development of the training modules linked to the workshop include: UNCCD, UNISDR, UNESCO, University of Neuchâtel, the South American Network for Environmental Migration (RESAMA); Latin American Population Association (ALAP) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).

For more information, please contact

Elizabeth Warn
IOM Buenos Aires
Email: ewarn@iom.int