Forced migration, natural resource use and environmental change: The case of the Senegal River valley

This paper addresses concerns about the potential negative environmental consequences of mass population displacement, through an examination of changes in natural resource use in an area of northern Senegal affected by an influx of Mauritanian refugees in 1989. Drawing on a survey of refugee and local households, the paper examines the livelihood strategies and patterns of natural resource use of the two populations, and considers the notion that refugees are forced, through poverty or for other reasons, to use natural resources in a more destructive manner.