Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe is guest-edited by Sarah Koeltzow and Erica Bower, co-facilitators of the Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation (CDCR), the thematic miniseries brings together relocating community leaders, researchers, advocates and practitioners from across the CDCR to examine diverse experiences of planned relocation and identify lessons about what rights-respecting, community-led relocation looks like in practice and how national policy should enable it. The series includes articles from the Americas, Asia and Africa, featuring the experiences and insights of coalition members from relocating communities and the organisations and researchers supporting them. A final essay by the guest editors spells out what makes planned relocation unique as a form of climate mobility and how the Coalition is working to advance dignified approaches globally.
Planned relocation is the coordinated, permanent movement of entire communities from places that are, or soon will be, affected by disasters or climate impacts to new designated safer sites. Planned relocation is generally considered “a measure of last resort”, when all options to stay in place have been exhausted. Dignified means that the process is inclusive, that peoples’ rights are protected, and that communities are leading the process at all stages, including decisions about whether, when and how to move.
The Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation is a global community of practice founded in 2025 that brings together relocating community leaders, civil society advocates, researchers and members of international organisations committed to protecting the rights, autonomy and dignity of communities undergoing planned relocations after decades of exposure to sea level rise and other climate-related disasters.
CDCR works towards two goals: fostering knowledge and experience exchange across contexts, and advocating for countries to develop and implement rights-respecting policy frameworks on planned relocation that put communities at the center.