Local Integration and Shared Resource Management in Protracted Refugee Camps: Findings from a Study in the Horn of Africa

Abstract In light of global reforms to speed up local integration in protracted refugee settings, refugees and host communities need more capacity-building support around natural-resource management and resource-sharing. This article presents the findings of research conducted in Ethiopia and Djibouti focused on refugees and environmental resource management. Using remote sensing and land cover change analyses, as well as qualitative interviewing of refugees and local host community members in two protracted refugee camps, a multidisciplinary research team assessed the environmental impact of the camps as well as the perceptions of the two groups of these impacts. The open-ended interviews also proved useful in exploring concerns about the integration of refugees more generally. The findings suggest a set of understandings among both communities about the need for more information exchange, greater education and human-capacity-building and livelihoods development. These are all objectives shared by national governments of the region and the international community as laid out in recent global policy documents and require more coordination and new funding priorities.