Peru is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Every year, in the Peruvian Amazon there are torrential rains, extreme heat, and landslides, while in the Andes extreme cold and glacial melt are increasingly common. Along the Peruvian coastline, recurrent drought and flooding have massive impacts on agricultural production.
These natural events and other environmental factors are causing the degradation of livelihoods, and in many cases the migration of the Peruvian population - some moving by choice, while others are forced to do so.
IOM is supporting the Peruvian government in the development and implementation of a national strategy to address migration due to climate change. The project’s objective is to contribute to the holistic management of climate migration in Peru and to strengthen the country’s adaptation strategies.
As part of this process, participatory workshops with Afro-Peruvian and indigenous communities, are taking place, to ensure their inputs are heard and for them to validate the initial stages of the Action Plan for Migration and Climate Change.
“Climate change primarily affects vulnerable populations. In recent years, climate change has caused a large population of the community in the rural areas to move to urban areas of the district, abandoning their farmland. In light of these challenges, local adaptation and mitigation plans should be implemented to improve the living conditions of the population.” – Roberto Jaramillo Ramos, President, Afro-Peruvian Association of Capote
“Climate change generates poverty because the floods leave us without lands and houses. When there are floods in the highlands and land is lost, people have to migrate to the coast with very little. Other people have nowhere to relocate, so they continue to live in houses next to the river where the problem is likely to recur. A dialogue and joint work between civil society and the local government is needed” – Julia Carhuayo de Lujan, President, Association of Afro-Descendents from Arequipa
“Over time, I hope that we can further build our culture of prevention and start taking climate change seriously, to avoid unnecessarily deforesting land for mining, forestry, or agriculture. Otherwise, the environmental consequences will be very severe, and possibly irreversible. This can only be achieved through appropriate planning.” – Egar Cáceres Gallegos, Director of the Office of National Defense and Civil Defense of the Regional Government of Madre de Dios
Support action that enables people living on the front lines of climate change to build a more sustainable future and make staying possible.
IOM is addressing the links between climate change and migration, working with governments and local communities to manage and prepare for climate migration.
We have projects supporting people on this front globally, from the Pacific to the Sahel and from the Andes to the Himalayan steppe.