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Climate Change 2016
October 27-29, 2016
Volume 7, Issue 9(Suppl) J Earth Sci Clim Change
ISSN: 2157-7617 JESCC, an open access journal
conferenceseries .com
October 24-26, 2016 Valencia, Spain
World Conference onClimate Change
Environmental change-migration nexus in the Philippines: Overcoming limitations and filling in the gaps
Elena Giacomelli
University of Trento, Italy
Environmental migration has always been part of human history. The need for prompt actions to overcome the limitation
is not due to its novelty, rather to scientific and empirical evidences on the current (and possibly future) effects that
environmental change will have on people. In recent years, environmental change and natural hazards increased their intensity
and frequency. In countries such as the Philippines and the Pacific Islands, where the environmental problems are categorized
as existential and security threats, such challenges need to be tackled and solved in order not to become unmanageable issues.
Current researches and work done on environmental migration demonstrate how this issue is still weakly conceptualize
and contextualize. The main limitations are: firstly the lack of a common definition and reliable data; secondly the lack of a
linkage between environmental change and internal migration in policies measures and practices; thirdly adaptation measures
considered as the main (an only) strategy; and lastly the lack of adequate financial resources and operational capacities,
especially in developing country such as the Philippines. There is a need to deepen and broaden the range of conceptual tools
for researchers interested in the relationship between environmental change and mobility. In particular, in the international
debate, there is still missing a clarification of terminology. It is important to underline how to overcome these limitations
the measures proposed needs a holistic and simultaneous intervention both from the international community and national
states, especially those considered as highly prone to environmental change and natural disasters. The role of this research
is to be instrumental within the environmental migration discussion in order to find a way to include this issue inside the
international and national political agenda. It is beyond the scope of this thesis to draw definitive conclusions on the nexus
between environmental change and its consequent migration impact. Yet, this thesis can be regard as a starting point for
potential future investigations on this still hidden phenomenon of migration due to environmental change.
Biography
Elena Giacomelli obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations, participating in two exchange programs: one in Universidad de
Valencia (one year), one in the University of Melbourne (one semester). She is currently enjoying and actively taking part in the Master’s degree in International
and European Studies at the University of Trento. Within this program she studied as an exchange student at the Metropolitan University Prague and at the
University of Adelaide. She participated in the research project "Current Migration to Europe: Research of Smart Population Dynamics”. She worked as an intern
in the Australian Population and Migration Research Center. She developed her Master’s thesis on the theme ‘Environmentally Displaced Persons’ taking as case
study the Philippines. She won a scholarship to conduct her research in the Third World Studies Center in the University of the Philippines. She will graduate the
13 of October 2016.
Elena Giacomelli, J Earth Sci Clim Change 2016, 7:9(Suppl)