For the Banaban community, this question reflects a lived reality spanning generations. In the 1940s, the British colonial government mined their homeland—Banaba (Ocean Island)—for phosphate, leaving it uninhabitable. Forced to relocate, many Banabans moved to Rabi Island in Fiji, while others dispersed across the Pacific. Decades later, the Banaban Defenders are working to reconnect the diaspora, rebuilding lost genealogies and family ties fractured by displacement. For them, ancestral knowledge is essential for resilience and for ensuring that future generations do not have to migrate and fragment once again.

In Bangladesh, this question is not theoretical. Declining agricultural production due to floods, salinization, and other climate-related hazards is reducing incomes and employment. Families are pushed into debt, and many are left with no option but to migrate in search of livelihoods elsewhere. Migration here is not a choice, but an unavoidable outcome of climate-induced loss and damage of their traditional livelihoods that continues to shape lives and futures.

In Bangladesh’s coastal regions of Kutubdia and Bashkhali, climate-induced disasters have destroyed homes, land, and livelihoods, leaving families displaced and vulnerable. Many end up on embankments or roadsides without secure shelter or access to basic services like water, healthcare, or education.

The Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, located in the border of Kenya and Tanzania, is home to Indigenous pastoralist communities who have stewarded land and ecosystems for generations. Yet despite their deep knowledge and long-standing presence, these communities—particularly women, youth, and people with disabilities—continue to face exclusion from decision-making spaces that shape their futures. They are among the first to feel the impacts of climate change, but among the last to be heard in the design of solutions.

In several Alaskan villages—including Shishmaref, Kivalina, and Newtok—residents made the decision to relocate over 20 years ago due to the threats posed by coastal erosion, flooding, and permafrost thaw. Yet decades later, relocation efforts remain incomplete. Some communities are caught in limbo—partially moved, physically split between two sites, and forced to navigate life in the shadow of a relocation that has technically begun, but is far from finished. These prolonged timelines contribute to significant losses and damages: the fragmentation of social ties, chronic stress and deteriorating housing.

We are excited to share our new grant partners in East Africa focusing on addressing non-economic loss and damage!

Among the questions explored in the report is: How can displacement drive losses and damages? The experience of communities in Cogea, Fiji, helps illustrate this.

In 2017, Tropical Cyclone Yasa caused severe flooding that destroyed homes and infrastructure. Afterwards, government authorities declared the village site unsafe due to unstable ground conditions, forcing residents to abandon their land and begin a prolonged period of displacement.

We are very pleased to announce our new grants in the Bay of Bengal!