Narjes Zivdar and Maryam Bidmeshgipour
Afghan populations have been facing the most prolonged displacement crises over the past four decades resulted in a set of complex interconnected challenges, including a web of (im)mobility, socio-political instability, economic challenges, environmental vulnerability, and identity erosion. Historically skilled in farming, irrigation, and natural resource management, the majority of Afghan refugees are involved in low-paid informal occupations, e.g. agricultural labor, sanitation works and construction activities, mostly serving environmentally vulnerable sectors in the host countries. With pre-existing vulnerabilities, and lack of access to proper education or vocational trainings, Afghan women are among the worst impacted. While there is growing awareness of the intersection between mobility and climate change, international development sector still focus on addressing refugees’ and immigrants’ basic needs and delivering emergency services such as NFI, WASH, shelter. Their failure to take the broader environmental and socio-cultural dimensions into account undermines their agency and adaptation. They consistently overlook the necessity of providing durable solutions and sustainable livelihoods that are firmly rooted in refugees’ cultural identity, values, and social capital with due consideration to climate risks.
In a time that modality and long term impact of humanitarian response and international development are being criticized more than ever and given the funding limitations, a reform is definitely needed. It is argued that, revisiting the relationship between transnational communities and their place and environment in the host societies (human-nature interactions i.e. landscapes) is needed to inform sustainability of the interventions and long term benefits for both the relocated and host communities.
This research investigates the intersection of displacement, climate (in)justices and the transformation/conservation of cultural and agricultural landscapes linked to sustainable livelihoods, with a particular focus on displaced Afghan women. By examining traditional landscape conservation techniques, this research project seeks to understand how the revitalization of such cultural landscapes can mitigate migration challenges and climate risks, foster reconciliation, and improve the lives and livelihoods of displaced populations but also the host communities, particularly women.
The research aims to highlight the global importance of preserving Agri-cultural landscapes, and their role in supporting sustainable farming and agriculture-dependent livelihoods in the face of climate change. The outcomes of this research will provide transferable insights for regions worldwide grappling with mobility injustice, mobile landscapes, climate-induced relocations, displacement, and the prevention of cultural and agricultural heritage within the Anthropocene.