By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, IPCR, has identified climate change as an environmental issue that if not properly handled, could led to humanitarian emergencies; as people are forced to migrate from their natural domain in order to survive.
Further stressing that with migration, people would definitely be forced to scramble for limited resources, the Director General, DG, of IPCR, Dr. Bakut Tswah Bakut, made the remarks while speaking on ‘Climate Change Remediation, Peace Building Advocacy/Sensitization’ workshop held in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
Bakut urged the people not to engage themselves in activities that would spark off humanitarian crises in their domains, stressing that should that occur, people would be left with no choice than to migrate from their natural domain in order to survive.
He said that when the people migrate, they would be force to scramble for limited/ scarce resources with their host communities, harping on the need for people to prevent conflict.
In a paper he presented titled; “The Role of Local Mediation, in Conflict Management Skills in Promoting Community Based Climate Actions, the Head, Gender, Peace and Security at IPCR, Grace Awodu, who spoke on behalf of the DG, called for on hands to be on deck in order to overcome humanitarian crises, which according to her, impacts negatively on economy of nations.
The DG maintained, “We are trying to do sensitization on the reality of climate change on the environment, especially in border communities.
“We are also at the sensitization workshop to let residents of the state to know that they are not the only ones affected and need to recognize challenges in order to prevent conflicts.
“Like I said earlier, first law of nature is survival. If the climate is affecting the livelihood, it means people would have to do everything humanly possible to survive.
“In an attempt to survive, they would have to confront other people in order to survive.”
In her remarks, a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Resource Management/Research, University of Calabar, Prof. Elizabeth Essien, called for the mitigation of environmental induced conflicts, which tend to impact negatively on economy of the nation.
