ID: 1545
Presenting Author: Emdad Haque
Session: 629 - Post-Resettlement Realities: Trust, Housing, and Livelihoods Reconsidered
Status: pending
This study examined changes in land cover and increasing social unrest conditioned by civil conflict in Myanmar and the sudden influx of more than a million displaced Rohingyas into Bangladesh.
This study examined changes in land cover and increasing social unrest conditioned by civil conflict in Myanmar and the sudden influx of more than a million displaced Rohingya people into the Cox’s Bazar District of Bangladesh. The study utilized remotely sensed data to conduct a land cover change analysis of the camp settlement area over the years (1989-2023), aiming to understand the spatiotemporal changes in land cover in the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Peninsula of Bangladesh. The land cover change analysis is supported by qualitative data regarding sociopolitical and ecological impacts, collected through key informant interviews, focused group discussions, oral history, and field observations. The results reveal that compared to the previous years’ vegetation loss (31.2 sq. km in 26 years), the vegetation cover of the area has declined at a much more rapid rate (61 sq. km in 8 years) due to resettlement of the Rohingyas and associated destruction of the forest cover after the population influx. The qualitative data have depicted the nature of conflicts in relation to scarce resources, livelihood competition, and relative deprivation of the local people. These tensions and potential conflicts highlight the lack of unity among stakeholders. Overall, the civil conflict-induced forced uprooting of the ethnic Muslim Rohingya population in the Rakhain Province of Myanmar, which has caused approximately a million people to migrate involuntarily to Bangladesh, is now generating further tensions and conflict. International peace-building efforts can only address the root causes.
Dr. Emdad Haque is a Professor at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Canada. Dr. Haque served as Director of the Natural Resources Institute in Canada from 2001 to 2011.
Coauthor 1: Rehnuma Mahjabin