UN calls for efforts to manage migration due to environmental effects

NAIROBI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The UNited Nations (UN) delegates who attended the just concluded fourth session of UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi on Friday called for efforts to manage migration as a result of environmental effects.

The delegates linked the current environmental degradation to global migration, adding that climate change and other kinds of environmental degradation are forcing people to leave traditional settlements.

"We need to look at weather patterns and advice populations accordingly so that they are not caught UNaware with the weather related vagaries," said Jeffrey Labovitz, director of the Regional Office for East and Horn of Africa of the International Organization for migration.

There is a need to develop programs to help tackle the problem that started as internal displacements but has since traversed the boUNdaries, Labovitz said on a side event.

The five-year drought in eastern Africa proved that environmental degradation and climate change are the main causes of drought and migration in the region, he said.

The connection between migration and climate change is complex and requires a joint effort to manage, he said.

"We need institutions and policies in the coUNtries of origin to make migration a choice rather than a desperate necessity," he added.

"We must work together and share experiences to help us minimize the adverse drivers of migration as one family," said Satya Tripathi, head of New York Office at UN Environment.

The fourth session of UN Environment Assembly, UNder the theme "Innovative Solutions for environmental challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production," was held on March 11-15 in Nairobi, Kenya.