Vegetation Changes Attributable to Refugees in Africa Coincide with Agricultural Deforestation.

ABSTRACT: The recent adoption of the Global Compact on Refugees formally recognizes not only the importance of supporting the nearly 26 million people who have sought asylum from conflict and persecution but also of easing the pressures on receiving areas and host countries. However, few countries may enforce the Compact out of concern over the economic or environmental repercussions of hosting refugees. We examine whether narratives of refugee-driven landscape change are empirically generalizable to continental Africa, which fosters 34% of all refugees. Estimates of the causal effects of the number of refugees-located in 493 camps distributed across 49 African countries-on vegetation from 2000 to 2016 are provided. Using a quasi-experimental design, we find refugees bear a small increase in vegetat

SUBMITTER: Maystadt JF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7737498 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature