Operational guidance and frameworks relevant to planned relocations caused by natural hazards, environmental change, and climate change

This background paper seeks to address questions related to relocation by analyzing more than 30 international and regional frameworks for their possible relevance for developing guidance on planned relocations made necessary by disasters, environmental change, and/or the effects of climate change. These frameworks relate to six interconnected themes:

• Internal and international displacement;
• Disaster and climate-induced relocation;
• Development-induced displacement and resettlement;
• Evacuations;
• Evictions; and
• Housing, land, and property rights issues.

The first part of this paper is organized in sections, each corresponding to one of the six themes. Each section starts with an introduction and a discussion of the relevance of existing frameworks in each respective area to the issue of planned relocations. Then, each section introduces the frameworks that fall within the specific theme, highlighting the relevance of each document to the development of guidance on planned relocations caused by natural hazards or environmental change including the effects of climate change. As guidance documents are often similar, the first documents in each section are discussed in detail, while discussion of subsequent documents is limited only to those provisions that present issues not covered by the preceding documents.

Finally, the synthesis chapter draws from the frameworks in all six thematic areas. The chapter identifies 25 topics that should be addressed in any guidance on planned relocations. It also outlines lessons learned, discusses possible frictions among guidance documents, and explores some of the gaps and open questions that would need to be considered when developing guidance on planned relocations in the context of natural hazards or environmental change including the effects of climate change.