Ecohealth and Displacement: A Case Study of Resettlement and Return in Ethiopia

Abstract

This Major Paper is based on field research conducted in the northern highlands of Ethiopia investigating the situation of farmers returned from resettlement in southwest Ethiopia under a government program that resettled 800,000 people in the late 1970s and mid-1980s in an attempt to counter environmental threats to food security. The returnees fled ill-health and conflict with local people in resettlement areas and returned to their places of origin. The paper explores the impact of displacement on a broadly defined concept of "ecohealth" in terms of environmental change over three historical periods: pre-resettlement, resettlement, and return.