Kees Van Der Geest
Biographic Data
| ID | 130720 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kees Van Der Geest |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kees |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Der Geest |
| SIGNATURE | VAN DER GEEST K |
| AFFILIATIONS | United Nations University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5013-1004 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 140 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Future-making beyond (im)mobility through tethered resilience
Climate-induced redistribution of people is not inevitable
Climate-induced redistribution of people is not inevitable, Boas, Ingrid, Sterly, Harald, Farbotko, Carol, Hulme, Mike, Benveniste, Hélène, Schewel, Kerilyn D, Bettini, Giovanni, Borderon, Marion, Hoffmann, Roman, van der Geest, Kees, Durand-Delacre, David, Selby, Jan, Wrathall, David J, Baldwin, Andrew, Benítez Cortés, Ailín, Bukari, Kaderi N, Bunchuay-Peth, Simon, Capisani, Simona, Codjoe, Samuel Nii Ardey, Dahm, Ruben, Dewan, Camelia, Dijstelb…
To what extent do climatic stressors drive human mobility in the world’s drylands? A systematic review of empirical evidence
Drylands cover a significant portion of the Earth’s surface and support a large share of the global population. They are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to low and highly variable precipitation, changes in precipitation patterns, drought, and desertification. Historically, human mobility has been a critical adaptive response in drylands, supporting communities to cope with climatic and environmental shocks. We use a systematic revie…
Rural out-migration and water governance
Rural out-migration is changing agrarian political economies and natural resource governance worldwide, and gender and social relations play an important mediating role. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of rural out-migration on collective action in farmer-managed irrigation systems, with a particular focus on household structure and gender relations. We employ a mixed-methods approach combining a household survey (n = 377) of t…
Navigating tensions in climate change-related planned relocation
The planned relocation of communities away from areas of climate-related risk has emerged as a critical strategy to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Empirical examples from around the world show, however, that such relocations often lead to poor outcomes for affected communities. To address this challenge, and contribute to developing guidelines for just and sustainable relocation processes, this paper calls attention to three fundamental …
A future agenda for research on climate change and human mobility
In the past 15 years, research activities focusing on the interlinkages between climate change and human mobility have intensified. At the same time, an increasing number of actors and processes have sought to address human mobility in the context of climate change from a policy perspective. Hitherto, research has been limited in terms of geographical preferences as well as conceptual and methodological focus areas. This paper argues that to addr…
Migration Theory in Climate Mobility Research
The purpose of this article is to explore how migration theory is invoked in empirical studies of climate-related migration, and to provide suggestions for engagement with theory in the emerging field of climate mobility. Theory is critical for understanding processes we observe in social-ecological systems because it points to a specific locus of attention for research, shapes research questions, guides quantitative model development, influences…
Food security among dryland pastoralists and agropastoralists
During the last decades, pastoralist, and agropastoralist populations of the world's drylands have become exceedingly vulnerable to regional and global changes. Specifically, exacerbated stressors imposed on these populations have adversely affected their food security status, causing humanitarian emergencies and catastrophes. Of these stressors, climate variability and change, land-use and management practices, and dynamics of human demography a…
Slow-onset events
Crisis-induced disruptions in place-based social-ecological research ‐ an opportunity for redirection
Place-based research faces multiple threats, including both natural and global health hazards and political conflicts, which may disrupt fieldwork. The current COVID-19 pandemic shows how these threats can drastically affect social-ecological research activities given its engagement with different local stakeholders, disciplines, and knowledge systems. The crisis reveals the need for adaptive research designs while also providing an opportunity f…
Climate change in rural Pakistan
Pakistan is home to a wide range of geographical landscapes, each of which faces different climate change impacts and challenges. This article presents findings from a National Geographic Society funded project, which employed a people-centered, narratives-based approach to study climate impacts and adaptation strategies of people in 19 rural study sites in four provinces of Pakistan ( N = 108). The study looked at six climate-related stressors—c…
Science for Loss and Damage. Findings and Propositions
The debate on “Loss and Damage” (L&D) has gained traction over the last few years. Supported by growing scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change amplifying frequency, intensity and duration of climate-related hazards as well as observed increases in climate-related impacts and risks in many regions, the “Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage” was established in 2013 and further supported through the Paris Agreement in 2015…
Climate migration myths
I will not go, I cannot go
While much work has been invested in addressing the economic and technical basis of disaster preparedness, less effort has been directed towards understanding the cultural and social obstacles to and opportunities for disaster risk reduction. This paper presents local insights from five different national settings into the cultural and social contexts of disaster preparedness. In most cases, an early warning system was in place, but it failed to …
Participatory Assessment of Development Interventions
This article presents the principles and findings of developing a new participatory assessment of development (PADev) evaluation approach that was codesigned with Dutch nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and northern and southern research institutes over a period of 4 years in the context of rural development in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Although participatory approaches in development evaluations have become widely accepted since the 1990s, the …
A people-centred perspective on climate change, environmental stress, and livelihood resilience in Bangladesh
The Ganges-Brahmaputra delta enables Bangladesh to sustain a dense population, but it also exposes people to natural hazards. This article presents findings from the Gibika project, which researches livelihood resilience in seven study sites across Bangladesh. This study aims to understand how people in the study sites build resilience against environmental stresses, such as cyclones, floods, riverbank erosion, and drought, and in what ways their…
North‐South Migration in Ghana
The purpose of this paper is to determine the importance of the environment as a driver of North‐South migration in Ghana. Almost one in every five people born in northern Ghana is living in southern Ghana. Interviews with 203 migrant farmers suggest that migration from the North to the South is, to a large extent, environmentally induced. Many Northerners decided to migrate because of poor agro‐ecological conditions at home combined with easy ac…
Migration and environment in Ghana
Migration—environment linkages are at the centre of media attention because of public concern about climate change and a perceived “flooding” of migrants from less developed countries into more affluent parts of the world. In the past few years, a substantial body of conceptual literature about environmentally induced migration has evolved, but there is still a paucity of empirical work in this area. Moreover, the environmental causes of migratio…
Ghana. Migration agricole et usages durables de la terre dans la zone de transition forêt-savane
Au Ghana, d’après des images satellites, la zone de transition entre la forêt et la savane a subi en trente ans une profonde dégradation environnementale. La forte immigration de cultivateurs du Haut Ghana occidental, accentuant une rapide croissance démographique, a accru la pression sur les ressources naturelles. Entre les populations autochtones et les migrants, le partage des terres et les méthodes agricoles demeurent en perpétuel ajustement.…
Local Perceptions Of Migration From North-West Ghana
The Upper West Region in northern Ghana is a major source area of migrants who travel to southern Ghana seasonally or for longer periods. This has important implications for the lives and livelihoods of the migrants themselves and their relatives at home. Almost invariably the impact of out-migration on sending areas has been studied using 'Western' academic parameters. Little is known about how the people hemselves value the profound changes tha…
North‐South Migration in Ghana
The purpose of this paper is to determine the importance of the environment as a driver of North‐South migration in Ghana. Almost one in every five people born in northern Ghana is living in southern Ghana. Interviews with 203 migrant farmers suggest that migration from the North to the South is, to a large extent, environmentally induced. Many Northerners decided to migrate because of poor agro‐ecological conditions at home combined with easy ac…
A people-centred perspective on climate change, environmental stress, and livelihood resilience in Bangladesh
The Ganges-Brahmaputra delta enables Bangladesh to sustain a dense population, but it also exposes people to natural hazards. This article presents findings from the Gibika project, which researches livelihood resilience in seven study sites across Bangladesh. This study aims to understand how people in the study sites build resilience against environmental stresses, such as cyclones, floods, riverbank erosion, and drought, and in what ways their…
I will not go, I cannot go
While much work has been invested in addressing the economic and technical basis of disaster preparedness, less effort has been directed towards understanding the cultural and social obstacles to and opportunities for disaster risk reduction. This paper presents local insights from five different national settings into the cultural and social contexts of disaster preparedness. In most cases, an early warning system was in place, but it failed to …
Migration and environment in Ghana
Migration—environment linkages are at the centre of media attention because of public concern about climate change and a perceived “flooding” of migrants from less developed countries into more affluent parts of the world. In the past few years, a substantial body of conceptual literature about environmentally induced migration has evolved, but there is still a paucity of empirical work in this area. Moreover, the environmental causes of migratio…
Local Perceptions Of Migration From North-West Ghana
The Upper West Region in northern Ghana is a major source area of migrants who travel to southern Ghana seasonally or for longer periods. This has important implications for the lives and livelihoods of the migrants themselves and their relatives at home. Almost invariably the impact of out-migration on sending areas has been studied using 'Western' academic parameters. Little is known about how the people hemselves value the profound changes tha…
Food security among dryland pastoralists and agropastoralists
During the last decades, pastoralist, and agropastoralist populations of the world's drylands have become exceedingly vulnerable to regional and global changes. Specifically, exacerbated stressors imposed on these populations have adversely affected their food security status, causing humanitarian emergencies and catastrophes. Of these stressors, climate variability and change, land-use and management practices, and dynamics of human demography a…
A future agenda for research on climate change and human mobility
In the past 15 years, research activities focusing on the interlinkages between climate change and human mobility have intensified. At the same time, an increasing number of actors and processes have sought to address human mobility in the context of climate change from a policy perspective. Hitherto, research has been limited in terms of geographical preferences as well as conceptual and methodological focus areas. This paper argues that to addr…
Participatory Assessment of Development Interventions
This article presents the principles and findings of developing a new participatory assessment of development (PADev) evaluation approach that was codesigned with Dutch nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and northern and southern research institutes over a period of 4 years in the context of rural development in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Although participatory approaches in development evaluations have become widely accepted since the 1990s, the …
Climate change in rural Pakistan
Pakistan is home to a wide range of geographical landscapes, each of which faces different climate change impacts and challenges. This article presents findings from a National Geographic Society funded project, which employed a people-centered, narratives-based approach to study climate impacts and adaptation strategies of people in 19 rural study sites in four provinces of Pakistan ( N = 108). The study looked at six climate-related stressors—c…
Navigating tensions in climate change-related planned relocation
The planned relocation of communities away from areas of climate-related risk has emerged as a critical strategy to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Empirical examples from around the world show, however, that such relocations often lead to poor outcomes for affected communities. To address this challenge, and contribute to developing guidelines for just and sustainable relocation processes, this paper calls attention to three fundamental …
Migration and environment in Ghana
Migration—environment linkages are at the centre of media attention because of public concern about climate change and a perceived “flooding” of migrants from less developed countries into more affluent parts of the world. In the past few years, a substantial body of conceptual literature about environmentally induced migration has evolved, but there is still a paucity of empirical work in this area. Moreover, the environmental causes of migratio…
Ghana. Migration agricole et usages durables de la terre dans la zone de transition forêt-savane
Au Ghana, d’après des images satellites, la zone de transition entre la forêt et la savane a subi en trente ans une profonde dégradation environnementale. La forte immigration de cultivateurs du Haut Ghana occidental, accentuant une rapide croissance démographique, a accru la pression sur les ressources naturelles. Entre les populations autochtones et les migrants, le partage des terres et les méthodes agricoles demeurent en perpétuel ajustement.…
Local Perceptions Of Migration From North-West Ghana
The Upper West Region in northern Ghana is a major source area of migrants who travel to southern Ghana seasonally or for longer periods. This has important implications for the lives and livelihoods of the migrants themselves and their relatives at home. Almost invariably the impact of out-migration on sending areas has been studied using 'Western' academic parameters. Little is known about how the people hemselves value the profound changes tha…
North‐South Migration in Ghana
The purpose of this paper is to determine the importance of the environment as a driver of North‐South migration in Ghana. Almost one in every five people born in northern Ghana is living in southern Ghana. Interviews with 203 migrant farmers suggest that migration from the North to the South is, to a large extent, environmentally induced. Many Northerners decided to migrate because of poor agro‐ecological conditions at home combined with easy ac…
Participatory Assessment of Development Interventions
This article presents the principles and findings of developing a new participatory assessment of development (PADev) evaluation approach that was codesigned with Dutch nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and northern and southern research institutes over a period of 4 years in the context of rural development in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Although participatory approaches in development evaluations have become widely accepted since the 1990s, the …
A people-centred perspective on climate change, environmental stress, and livelihood resilience in Bangladesh
The Ganges-Brahmaputra delta enables Bangladesh to sustain a dense population, but it also exposes people to natural hazards. This article presents findings from the Gibika project, which researches livelihood resilience in seven study sites across Bangladesh. This study aims to understand how people in the study sites build resilience against environmental stresses, such as cyclones, floods, riverbank erosion, and drought, and in what ways their…
Science for Loss and Damage. Findings and Propositions
The debate on “Loss and Damage” (L&D) has gained traction over the last few years. Supported by growing scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change amplifying frequency, intensity and duration of climate-related hazards as well as observed increases in climate-related impacts and risks in many regions, the “Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage” was established in 2013 and further supported through the Paris Agreement in 2015…
Climate migration myths
I will not go, I cannot go
While much work has been invested in addressing the economic and technical basis of disaster preparedness, less effort has been directed towards understanding the cultural and social obstacles to and opportunities for disaster risk reduction. This paper presents local insights from five different national settings into the cultural and social contexts of disaster preparedness. In most cases, an early warning system was in place, but it failed to …
Slow-onset events
Crisis-induced disruptions in place-based social-ecological research ‐ an opportunity for redirection
Place-based research faces multiple threats, including both natural and global health hazards and political conflicts, which may disrupt fieldwork. The current COVID-19 pandemic shows how these threats can drastically affect social-ecological research activities given its engagement with different local stakeholders, disciplines, and knowledge systems. The crisis reveals the need for adaptive research designs while also providing an opportunity f…
Climate change in rural Pakistan
Pakistan is home to a wide range of geographical landscapes, each of which faces different climate change impacts and challenges. This article presents findings from a National Geographic Society funded project, which employed a people-centered, narratives-based approach to study climate impacts and adaptation strategies of people in 19 rural study sites in four provinces of Pakistan ( N = 108). The study looked at six climate-related stressors—c…
Migration Theory in Climate Mobility Research
The purpose of this article is to explore how migration theory is invoked in empirical studies of climate-related migration, and to provide suggestions for engagement with theory in the emerging field of climate mobility. Theory is critical for understanding processes we observe in social-ecological systems because it points to a specific locus of attention for research, shapes research questions, guides quantitative model development, influences…
Food security among dryland pastoralists and agropastoralists
During the last decades, pastoralist, and agropastoralist populations of the world's drylands have become exceedingly vulnerable to regional and global changes. Specifically, exacerbated stressors imposed on these populations have adversely affected their food security status, causing humanitarian emergencies and catastrophes. Of these stressors, climate variability and change, land-use and management practices, and dynamics of human demography a…
A future agenda for research on climate change and human mobility
In the past 15 years, research activities focusing on the interlinkages between climate change and human mobility have intensified. At the same time, an increasing number of actors and processes have sought to address human mobility in the context of climate change from a policy perspective. Hitherto, research has been limited in terms of geographical preferences as well as conceptual and methodological focus areas. This paper argues that to addr…
Rural out-migration and water governance
Rural out-migration is changing agrarian political economies and natural resource governance worldwide, and gender and social relations play an important mediating role. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of rural out-migration on collective action in farmer-managed irrigation systems, with a particular focus on household structure and gender relations. We employ a mixed-methods approach combining a household survey (n = 377) of t…
Navigating tensions in climate change-related planned relocation
The planned relocation of communities away from areas of climate-related risk has emerged as a critical strategy to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Empirical examples from around the world show, however, that such relocations often lead to poor outcomes for affected communities. To address this challenge, and contribute to developing guidelines for just and sustainable relocation processes, this paper calls attention to three fundamental …
Future-making beyond (im)mobility through tethered resilience
Climate-induced redistribution of people is not inevitable
Climate-induced redistribution of people is not inevitable, Boas, Ingrid, Sterly, Harald, Farbotko, Carol, Hulme, Mike, Benveniste, Hélène, Schewel, Kerilyn D, Bettini, Giovanni, Borderon, Marion, Hoffmann, Roman, van der Geest, Kees, Durand-Delacre, David, Selby, Jan, Wrathall, David J, Baldwin, Andrew, Benítez Cortés, Ailín, Bukari, Kaderi N, Bunchuay-Peth, Simon, Capisani, Simona, Codjoe, Samuel Nii Ardey, Dahm, Ruben, Dewan, Camelia, Dijstelb…
To what extent do climatic stressors drive human mobility in the world’s drylands? A systematic review of empirical evidence
Drylands cover a significant portion of the Earth’s surface and support a large share of the global population. They are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to low and highly variable precipitation, changes in precipitation patterns, drought, and desertification. Historically, human mobility has been a critical adaptive response in drylands, supporting communities to cope with climatic and environmental shocks. We use a systematic revie…
Geography (14 works) · Political science (13 works) · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration (11 works) · Economics (9 works) · Climate change (8 works) · Ecology (7 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Environmental resource management (6 works) · Environmental planning (5 works)