The Global Mechanism (GM) and the Community of Sahel- Saharan States (CEN-SAD) co-organized an experts’ consultation in Tripoli (Libya) from 26 to 29 November 2007, entitled ‘Desertification, Migration and Local Development’. This initiative was launched under the partnership between the two institutions on crosscutting issues that are crucial for sustainable natural resource management (NRM) and in the fight against poverty in the Sahel-Sahara region.

According to the United Nations University’s Institute for Environmental and Human Security, environmental
degradation and climate change will result in 50 million refugees throughout the world by 2010.

Desertification affects 30% of the earth’s drylands. At present, there are about 200 million migrants worldwide,
most of whom are environmental migrants. Most of the populations affected by desertification and recurrent drought are to be found in Africa, especially West Africa.

The Sahel-Sahara region is both a major source of migratory flows northwards and a preferred transit route for migrants from other areas, some of whom settle in the Maghreb. Migration has many causes: socio-economic, environmental, political, or a mixture of these. For the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), it is therefore important to increase understanding of the links between poverty, desertification and migration, as well as the effects that changing global trends in local and international mobility have on the new migratory flows affecting the region.

The links between desertification, poverty and migrationcan be identified by examining the impacts of the various ecological crises that have affected the region since the early 1970s, which were the first triggers for internal and international migration within the region. However, not enough is known about the impacts of migration on the countries of origin, making it difficult to assess the impact of natural resource degradation on migratory processes.