The Rohingya refugee crisis is not only a human tragedy. It could also have an irreversible footprint on the ecology and biodiversity in the Cox's Bazar area in Bangladesh. There is a large scale loss of forest cover, a dramatic impact on human-animal dynamics (since this is an elephant corridor), and the risk of floods and landslides as the hills are stripped of vegetation.

The ecological effects of humanitarian crises have been largely overlooked so far, although they have profound long-term impacts. The Rohingya community have their own traditional ecological knowledge systems and so does the host community in and around the camps.

On September 11, we are organizing a one day workshop on the intersection between Humanitarianism and Biodiversity Crisis: the Case of Rohingya in Bangladesh. In this workshop we wish to explore the idea of how one could take advantage of the Rohingyas' and the host community's knowledge and how one could facilitate exchange between the two groups.

We aim at developing a research agenda to undertake a study not just in the camps but beyond to understand these human-ecological processes and work towards a more sustainable intervention of making the long term ecological effects of humanitarian crisis more sustainable.

This is a closed workshop but if you are interested in participating either for the day or parts of it please do let us know by getting in touch with Antonio De Lauri (antonio.delauri@cmi.no), Anwesha Dutta (anwesha.dutta@cmi.no) or Arne Wiig (arne.wiig@cmi.no). 

Programme: 

Welcome Coffee/Tea
09.45

Session 1: General Introduction
Framework, Objectives and Key Issues of the Workshop
Anwesha Dutta
10:00-10:15

CMI and Norwegian Research in Bangladesh and recent projects
Arne Wiig
10:15-10:30

Humanitarianism Research, NORGLOBAL and possible funding avenues
Antonio De Lauri
10:30-10:45

Formal Introductions
Brief 2-3 minutes introduction by each participant
10:45-11:15

Session 2: Setting the Agenda
Research on Rohingya and Bangladesh
Joe Devine (via Skype/zoom)
11:15-11:30

Discussions
11:30-11:45

Lunch