Connecting Global Priorities Biodiversity and Human Health

efforts. In a number of West African countries,
for example, the presence of displaced populations
led to the transfer of skills for sustainable
cultivation, plant management and resourcebased
entrepreneurship between these groups and
host communities, as well as fostering improved
environmental consciousness and awareness of
conservation issues (Oucho 2007).
As mentioned above, strategies to reduce
environmental degradation and restore
ecosystems offer the potential to provide muchneeded
income-generating opportunities in
refugee and IDP situations as well as enhance
biodiversity. A number of successful projects
demonstrate the benefits of collaborating with
displaced populations as well as host communities
for effective and contextually appropriate disaster
responses, which reduce the risks associated with
further resource overexploitation and provide
livelihood support for impacted groups.
In Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi, refugees
have established the “Education and Plantation
Strategies Association” (EPSA), which aims to
boost local incomes through the planting of
6000 fruit trees both within and beyond the
camp’s limits. EPSA members grow seedlings
from the fruit they eat and have started a small
nursery near the camp, while the running of a
sustainable agriculture and gardening course has
seen the creation of a community garden and
the introduction of a permaculture project for
additional livelihood opportunities (Stapleton
2014).
This section has illustrated the complex nature of
the relationship between displaced populations,
biodiversity, human security and well-being.
While refugees and IDPs often rely directly on
local ecosystem goods and services to meet a
range of short- and long-term needs essential
to their well-being, the ongoing degradation
and overexploitation of natural resources in and
around settlements threaten their ability to fulfil
basic daily requirements, partake in sustainable
livelihood activities and achieve autonomy. There
is therefore an urgent need for context-specific and
participatory interventions to reduce the demands
placed upon local ecosystem goods and services
by displaced populations, and to foster the more
sustainable extraction and utilization of natural
resources. As this chapter has demonstrated,
integrative, cross-sectoral approaches, such as the
ecosystem approach, are required and may hold
the key to meeting these challenges.
UNDP BANGLADESH / FLICKR
250 Connecting Global Priorities: Biodiversity and Human Health