Our ecosystem provides us with essential services, most of which come without a price tag and hence are assumed to be “free gifts of nature” available in plenty. Much of the neoclassical thought and analysis was based on this assumption until recently. The dynamic rise in population due to rapid industrialisation and urbanization has caused the realisation that ecosystem services are also limited. Environmental degradation is a common term used to describe the loss or impairment of ecosystem services. Migration is often a consequence of environmental degradation; when ecosystem services are impaired and survival comes at stake. But is the degradation of essential ecosystem services sufficient to motivate people to relocate? Through a review of literature on migration and environmental degradation, this paper strives to answer the above question along with exploring ways how monitoring the deterioration of the environment on time can spare human inhabitants of any ecosystem the pains of migration in search of better means of survival and sustenance.
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