This has led to more rapid runoff and increased flash floods which exacerbate the normal annual flooding. They have been driven two notches further down the ladder to inescapable poverty. For them, investment in local disaster mitigation and preparedness is no more than a pipe dream. A more realistic expectation is that they will fell what few standing trees remain, to sell for firewood. The disaster forces people further into poverty and poverty forces the exploitation of the environment.
Governments see their development efforts literally being washed away.
This vicious cycle can be broken, but only if the governments of disaster-prone countries concede that disasters are a major determinant of development, not just unpredictable dips on the development curve. In many places, environmental destruction is a key determinant of the movement of people, whether from the destruction wrought by building new large dams or removing rain forest, or from the reduction in the carrying capacity of the land as pastureland erodes to scrub and wasteland. The challenge is to keep governments focused on the issues long enough to change economic policy When people flee and are forced to live in controlled camps, whether as international refugees or internally displaced persons, a whole series of micro-environmental issues comes into play. In Africa, the destruction of forest cover around refugee camps is a real cause for concern, as is the exploitation of habitat reserves for game. Erecting fences and keeping the refugees hemmed in, however, is no solution.