Call for papers: Symposium on Climate Displacement, Migration and Relocation

September 30, 2016

Photo by Tony Weyiouanna. A house in Shishmaref, a village on Alaska's northwest coast, hangs over the edge of a cliff after Typhoon Tokage in 2004. The house fell onto the beach after erosion cut under it in subsequent years.

The Symposium on Climate Displacement, Migration, and Relocation, scheduled for Dec. 13-14 in Honolulu, Hawaii, will address questions about migration and relocation for communities in the continental United States and the Pacific Islands. The symposium committee has issued a call for papers for abstracts on international and domestic law and policy and crosscutting questions. The committee welcomes work from legal scholars and practitioners from around the world. The deadline for submission is Oct. 10, 2016.

The symposium is one component of major new funding and programs announced in early September by the U.S. administration to address the critical need to build climate resilience. Symposium hosts include the White House Council on Environmental Quality, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management, the Environmental Law Program of the William S. Richardson School of Law (University of Hawaii), the Alaska and Hawaii Sea Grant College Programs and the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center.

In 2003, the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated that most of Alaska’s 200-plus Native villages were affected by flooding and erosion, and a 2009 GAO report identified 31 Alaska Native villages that face imminent threats. At least 12 threatened villages have decided to relocate. Relocation has huge legal and policy implications, such as property rights of displaced individuals and communities, how relocation affects boundaries or treaties and how it affects subsistence harvest access.

The symposium will provide a platform for stakeholders, researchers, policy experts, indigenous leaders, and local, state, and federal government officials to explore legal and policy opportunities and challenges. It will address questions about how to plan for and implement voluntary migration and community-led relocation as adaptation strategies, both domestically and in the context of the Pacific Islands.

For more information, please visit the Symposium on Climate Displacement, Migration, and Relocation web page.

ON THE WEB: Obama administration's Sept. 1 announcement of policies to promote conservation and build resilience to climate change, with a focus on Pacific Islands.