Thanks to funding from the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies (NCHS), Antonio De Lauri (Research Professor, Chr. Michelsen Institute, CMI) and Anwesha Dutta (Senior Researcher, CMI) have launched a new research and policy initiative in Colombia on sustainable and inclusive resettlement in contexts of violent conflict.
As part of this initiative, they both participated at a workshop in Bogota on displacement, biodiversity conservation and conflict co-organised by Dutta together with the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute (Bogota). The interdisciplinary workshop was attended by ecologists, anthropologists, hydrologists, biologists, environmental engineers, remote sensors, geographers and legal experts. Representatives from the Colombian Ministry of Environment, UNHCR and the Norwegian Refugee Council also took part.
Dutta also gave a talk at the Leticia campus of the National University of Colombia in the Amazon, and De Lauri organised meetings with migrants’ support centres in Bogota.
This NCHS initiative, which is also linked to the Humanitarian Diplomacy and the Displacement-Environment Nexus projects at CMI, has the long-term goal of nuancing approaches and visions regarding the interrelation of conflict, displacement, and environment, thus paving the way for developing pathways to sustainable (re)settlement and adaptation.