Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster - GFDRR

grinding poverty and weak governance—especially at
the local government level—to deepen vulnerability that
is stressed even further by the effects of climate change.
Thus, the use of risk management tools should be intensified
and risk reduction criteria made an integral part
of land use planning and development policies. However,
regardless of whether corrective or prospective
risk management measures are implemented, reducing
the underlying factors will continue to pose enormous
challenges.
In certain scenarios, when nothing else can mitigate
the risk, the most viable option for reducing the risk
to which some communities are exposed is resettlement.
Although resettlement is a complex affair, there
are examples of successful preventive resettlements that
have not only eliminated the risk of disaster but also
improved the standard of living and safety of the population
involved and reclaimed the areas at-risk areas to
their original use.
Under current conditions, in which risk scenarios may
worsen for millions of people due to development models
and land tenure patterns, an awareness of preventive
resettlement outcomes may help improve this practice
as a risk reduction measure.
16
Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster: Experiences from Latin America