Examined here is the problem of persons compelled to flee from their areas of habitual residence. The number of such displaced persons (refugees), both nationally internal and cross-border, already in the many millions, nonetheless keeps increasing by perhaps 3 millions per year. Many of the uprooted continue to flee owing to persecution, oppression, or war. However, these triggering events appear not to have been worsening markedly in recent years. Other, more strictly environmental, refugees flee from such natural disasters as flooding, drought, and volcanic action, although these triggering events have also not been increasing in frequency or severity.It is thus suggested here that the continuing increases in refugees result from transgressions of the carrying capacity — that is, of unsustainable increases in human (and associated livestock) numbers, often associated with site deterioration or actual habitat degradation. Such displaced persons have been referred to as ‘environmental refugees’. It is clear that in the long term the poignant dilemma of the ever-increasing numbers of refugees can be addressed only in terms of achieving environmental security within a framework of comprehensive human security.
The notion of establishing transfrontier nature reserves in order to ease political tensions and prevent conflict goes back at least as far as 1924, when representatives of the then Czechoslovakia and Poland attempted in this fashion to solve a boundary dispute that was one of the loose ends of the First World War (Goetel 1925; Westing 1993b, p. 15). And the World Conservation Union (IUCN) (Gland, Switzerland) itself has shown a continuing interest in transfrontier reserves for some 35 years or more now (Goetel 1964; Nicol 1974; Č eřovský 1993), inter alia producing or cosponsoring a number of valuable monographs on the subject (Thorsell 1990; Č eřovský 1996; Hamilton et al. 1996). Establishing any nature reserve nowadays becomes a truly formidable challenge in the face of strongly competing interests for the same land, whether from modern or traditional societies. Thus, trying to bring this about with two (or occasionally even three) sovereign states involved would seem to add a gratuitous layer of complexity that spells almost certain failure. So why try? Two principal lines of argument can be brought to bear on the subject, one environmental and the other political. To achieve environmental security for our globe requires a number of steps. Crucial amongst them is the protection of biodiversity, one obligate component of which, in turn, is the setting aside for nature of some 10 to 12 per cent of the global biosphere, more or less proportionately distributed amongst each of the world's biomes (biogeographical provinces) and countries (the countries, to do their share as contributing members to the community of nations). Even on paper (i.e. de jure), we are, on a worldwide basis, now only at about the halfway mark towards this goal (currently with 6 per cent of the global land formally protected). Moreover, our worldwide acquisition rate has been slowing down since about 1970, and many of our individual biomes throughout the world remain most inadequately covered (IUCN 1994, pp. 245-57). More specifically relevant here, many of the areas worthy of environmental protection happen to straddle the 220 000 km of land boundaries that separate the 190 or so sovereign states into which we have divided ourselves. Indeed, such boundaries are often considered to be remote, and the lands surrounding them are thus likely to be less developed than those lands near centres of modern human habitation and industry. It appears that approximately one-third of all terrestrial high-biodiversity sites straddle national borders: BirdLife International (Cambridge, UK) recently identified 221 high-priority natural habitats involving 127 sovereign states (Bibby et al. 1992). Of these 221 sites, I was then able to determine that 77, that is to say fully 35 per cent, straddled national borders (Westing 1993a). To achieve political security for our globe also requires a number of steps. Crucial amongst these is the peaceful settlement of disputes between sovereign states, such interstate disputes often specifically involving border region...
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