As the world marks World Refugee Day, growing attention is being drawn to millions of people displaced not only by conflict and persecution but also by the devastating effects of climate change and environmental degradation.
Across the Sahel and Northern Nigeria, prolonged drought, advancing desertification and the loss of grazing lands are forcing families, farmers and herders to leave their homes in search of food, water and survival. These climate-driven pressures are creating a humanitarian challenge that is increasingly reshaping communities and livelihoods.
Dr. Abiola Bashorun, Coordinator of the Nigeria Climate-Smart Agronomy Programme (NC-SAP), said the programme remains committed to addressing the root causes of climate-induced displacement through climate-resilient agriculture, restoration of degraded lands, cultivation of Rhodes Grass and other climate-smart pasture systems, irrigation development and livestock value-chain industrialisation.
According to her, transforming vulnerable and degraded landscapes into productive ecosystems can help reduce forced migration, strengthen food security, create green jobs and build a sustainable Brown-to-Green Cattle Economy that benefits both host communities and climate-displaced populations.
On this World Refugee Day, NC-SAP renewed its call for greater commitment to dignity, resilience and sustainable solutions that leave no one behind.
Climate Refugees: An Emerging Humanitarian Reality
When drought dries up rivers, desertification destroys grazing lands and families are forced to abandon ancestral homes in search of survival, the human cost of climate change becomes impossible to ignore.
Across the Sahel and other climate-vulnerable regions, millions of people are being displaced by environmental degradation, changing weather patterns and extreme climate events. While many may not fall within traditional legal definitions of refugees, their suffering is real, their displacement is involuntary and their need for protection is urgent.
Dr. Bashorun noted that a family fleeing armed conflict and a family fleeing starvation are both escaping threats to life and livelihood. As climate change intensifies, the international community faces a growing responsibility to recognise climate-induced displacement as one of the defining humanitarian challenges of the 21st century.
Climate refugees are more than statistics. They are farmers who have lost their harvests, herders whose grazing lands have disappeared, and mothers, fathers and children searching for safety, opportunity and the basic right to live with dignity.
As the world commemorates World Refugee Day 2026, stakeholders are calling for policies and interventions that acknowledge this reality and ensure that those displaced by climate and environmental crises are not forgotten.
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