Security risks from climate change and environmental degradation: implications for sustainable land use transformation in the Global South
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Climate change and environmental degradation remain the most complex challenges that present and future generations of humankind face and raise several security risks that have received relatively little attention in the literature. This paper aims to review the evidence of security risks arising from these challenges in the Global South and to provide forward-looking perspectives on how to increase the resilience of affected individuals and communities. We see diverse land use strategies as a key element to drive a transformation towards greater sustainability and resilience. We propose that rural land use in the Global South should be geared towards the promotion of resource and biodiversity conservation, the development of agroforestry, tree-based farming systems, the diversification of crops, and the utilization of climate-resilient cultivars, and neglected and under-utilized plants. These actions would contribute to addressing the security risks stemming from the interconnected challenges of climate change and environmental degradation.
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The literature supports an empirical approach that measures how environmental hazards translate into governance strain across different structural contexts.
“By situating climate security within an institutional throughput framework, the literature supports an empirical approach that measures how environmental hazards translate into governance strain across different structural contexts (Nguyen et al., 2023; Tasnim, 2025; Zaheda, 2025b).”
From Climate Security, Water Governance, and Resilience How Climate-Induced Water Stress and Migration Challenge State Capacity (2026) · cites this paper as Nguyen et al., 2023
The Figure 1 discussion (p. 2) links climate-related security risks to limited institutional support, fragility, and political unrest. The “Conflicts and crimes” section (p. 4) also says disasters can temporarily reduce the state’s ability to exercise control. These passages support a connection between environmental hazards and governance strain, but the paper does not propose an empirical approach to measuring that connection across different structural contexts. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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Cardinal Masters in Public Administration, L. U. T., & Zulqarnain, F. (2026) · International Journal of Scientific Interdisciplinary Research · doi:10.63125/28gejw48 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Nguyen, T. T., Grote, U., Neubacher, F., Rahut, D. B., Do, M. H., & Paudel, G. P.
- Affiliations
- Leibniz University Hannover (DE)
- University of Cologne (DE)
- Asian Development Bank Institute (JP)
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-08
- Volume
- 63
- Pages
- 101322
- ISSN
- 1877-3435 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4383163295
- Cited by
- 431
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 138 · 2025: 180 · 2024: 95 · 2023: 18
- FWCI
- 11.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Institutional Repository of Leibniz Universität Hannover (Leibniz Universität Hannover) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Leibniz Universität Hannover (cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Climate change impacts on agriculture
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Keywords
- climate security, environmental degradation, Global South, rural land use, community resilience, biodiversity conservation, agroforestry, crop diversification, climate-resilient cultivars, resource conservation
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