ESSC, with project partners Ateneo de Davao University and the Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP), will hold a conference on internal migration and displacement from 20 to 22 May 2012 at the Waterfront Insular Davao Hotel in Davao City.

The conference will focus on four themes:

The output of the conference is also projected to serve as a solid basis for effective action through economic development and spatial planning, infrastructure and service provision, and overall sustainability of the environment.

Rathana Peou Van Den Heuvel, PhD, deputy director of the Center for Sustainable Development of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, is the conference's keynote speaker.

Other speakers include who will be sharing their work include:

• Sabine Henry, PhD and François Mialhe, PhD (FUNDP-Belgium) for livelihood-related internal migration
• Leah Vidal, PhD (Ateneo de Davao University), Will Smith (University of Queensland), and Socorro Gultiano, PhD (University of San Carlos-Cebu City) for resource tenure-based migration and displacement
• Wendy Clavano, PhD (ESSC), Engineer Dexter Lo (Xavier University), and Glenn Depra (Ateneo de Davao University) for displacements induced by vulnerability to environmental risks
• Alber Husin (Ateneo de Zamboanga University), Louie Bacomo (Jesuit Refugee Services Asia-Pacific), and Greg Hontiveros (Butuan City Heritage Society) for conflict-driven displacement.

The conference will pay special attention to environment-driven movements, highlighted recently by the relocation of people affected by recent devastating floods, such as Typhoon Washi in Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City, and monsoon rains in Davao City. The disasters underscored the need to address mounting environmental challenges as resource and ecosystem degradation, waste generation and disposal, air pollution, and various health concerns.

Rising sea level is a growing issue for Mindanao's highly populated coastal communities that are among the most vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather. Many of these communities are home to informal settlers living in makeshift shelters along easements of rivers and possessing the least material resources to cope with environmental calamities. One of the conference outputs is a set policy proposals dealing with the mitigation of casualties and damage to property.

This conference activity is part of ESSC's project Establishing strategic partnerships in research to strengthen local governance in land and water management for greater human security in Mindanao(EPaM), a four-year research project that runs from June 2010 to July 2014. The EPaM project is undertaken with support from the Commission Universitaire pour le Developpement and is intended to build research capacity among partner and academic research institutes to respond to the needs of local governments in the management of their land and water resources.