Environmental dispossession has potential to re-
configure the geo-political landscape—its borders and
perhaps sovereignty itself. Sustainability necessitates
that the transformation be peaceful. Climate-related
migration (or “ecomigration”) (Reuveny 2007a) should
be permitted to occur where it must. International
law, must accommodate re-settlement from states that
disappear or collapse, in whole or in part; the opening
of once frozen frontiers to exploitation and settlement;
and, migration within, from, and to those places, tem-
porarily or permanently. Most acute is the need to
address cross-border migration. The status and rights
of environmentally dispossessed persons, and the cor-
responding authority and obligations of states, must
be defined in law.
The challenge will be great. Ecomigration in large
numbers over a lengthy period will be a much harder
proposition on a planet of nine to ten billion people
than anything that has gone before (Gillis and Dug-
ger 2011). Unmanaged and clouded in legal ambigu-
ity ecomigration, within the larger strategic context
of risks, threats, and vulnerabilities, could trigger or
aggravate armed conflict, albeit more likely of a non-
international character (within a state) than of an in-
ternational character (between or among states). The
international community, comprised of states dis-
posed and in many cases pledged to defend territorial
integrity, is unready and inflexible. It will take much
time to make necessary changes in law, policy, and
attitude.
We will begin by looking at the right of states un-
der international law to preserve territorial integrity.
Next, we will look at the law governing migration,
and finish by considering the scope of climate change
and ecomigration, and what strains may arise.
sharon
(sharon)
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