INTRODUCTION
This is a story of climate change, displacement and informality in the Andean region.

The interconnected pressures of climate change, inequality and rapid urbanisation are putting pressure on existing living situations and systems around the world, particularly in South America. Changing climates and environmental exploitation make life in rural areas increasingly challenging. Ultimately, triggering displacement from rural parts of South America to cities. This process of rapid urbanisation brings its own challenges, from resources and infrastructure in already busy cities to cultural integration. Addressing these issues requires systemic and localised change.

Interested in understanding these connected issues and their possible solutions, Seb and EJ travelled through the continent, from Colombia's sunny Caribbean coast through megacities like Lima and arid deserts, to Chile's southern wilderness. Along the way, we met with community leaders, indigenous people, academics and designers to discuss climate change, resource extraction, over-urbanisation and some of the local solutions to these issues, which are becoming increasingly prevalent on a global scale.

The Andes are the world's longest mountain range, spreading from the southern tip of Argentina/Chile to the northern coast of Colombia. They are essential to the Andean region's climate, separating East from West, with the arid regions of Southern Peru, Bolivia, and Northern Chile from the sodden Amazonian rainforest, as well as separating the Patagonian desert in Patagonian Argentina from the temperate rainforests of Southern Chile.

The Andean region, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina have decades of experience dealing with issues increasingly impacting the world. This incredibly varied region has seen massive urban growth earlier than in many other countries, significant political upheaval, and a history of resource extraction from the 1400s to the present day.

While climate change, displacement and overurbanisation may appear as disparate forces, they are interconnected, with changes in one directly and indirectly impacting the others. For instance, climate change-induced water scarcity directly impacts crop yields and soil fertility. Excessive strain on crops reduces the viability of sustaining rural life as a farmer, which in turn increases the likelihood of forced or economic displacement - whether from an extreme shock or a gradual decline in crop productivity. Most displaced people come from rural areas toward cities, contributing to urbanisation and, in some cases, over-urbanisation.

Through this video-research piece, we look to dissect and communicate the connected complexity of this story by breaking it into three chapters. Firstly, we present the story of how changing climates trigger displacement and migration in the continent. Chapter two, The Urban Refuge, explores rapid urbanisation, in part as a result of the changing climates. Finally, in Creating Change, we explore solutions, theoretical, educational and practical to some of the structural issues approached in this research.

PART.01
Changing Climates

Changing Climates begins with interviews from climate scientists based in Santiago, Chile, before introducing Karen Luza, an indigenous activist in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The section introduces the concept of climate migration and how this is not always the immediate displacement from a specific event, but can be a slow process. For example, consistently low rainfall can push farmers to ever-decreasing yields, displacing them from their land. The section also discusses the effects of resource extraction and how this can trigger climate migration. Whether it is gold mining polluting rivers in the Amazon or lithium extraction reducing water levels in the desert, extraction can often exacerbate climate change and force displacement. We end the section by clarifying that the majority of climate migration is internal and rural-to-urban, two key factors to understand this crisis.

The Atacama desert, the driest in the world, is rich in Lithium, unfortunately, the process of Lithium extraction uses immense amounts of water, this industrial use of groundwater is pushing the pre-incan irrigation systems that the people of the Atacama rely on to the brink.

PART.02
THE URBAN REFUGE

The reasons displaced people turn to cities are many. Cities are where people have contacts, see opportunity and jobs, and they are naturally a place to seek hope. Some of this is warranted, but urban realities are not always what they promise. Many people moving to cities, especially when displaced (for any reason), end up in informal settlements. This section looks at informality, informal urban growth and both the challenges and opportunities in these places.

By 2050, the UN estimates that over 3 billion people could be living informally. Informal settlements are hard to define but are often found in the most hazard-prone areas of the city and are usually communities constructed from scratch, many of which have been around for decades. Sometimes these more established settlements benefit from regular power and public transport. Still, many living in informal areas are unable to access essential services such as waste management, public transport, clean water, and reliable electricity. Air pollution can also be a critical issue when living in dusty regions surrounded by motorways, as Karina Pacaya Cruz, community leader of a previously Amazonian tribe, now residing in an informal area of Lima, Peru, describes. Life in informal settlements is incredibly difficult and, by necessity, requires community resilience and innovation.

PART.03
CREATING CHANGE

Part three of our research piece highlights some potential solutions to the interconnected issues presented in parts one and two. Interviewing designers, academics, and community leaders from the Andean region shows how integral systems approaches are to solving complex problems. A common thread throughout our interviews was education and the importance of approaching complex issues with an interdisciplinary lens rather than through siloed disciplines.

Water and vegetation in Medellín, Colombia

Karina Pacaya-Cruz in Lima, Peru

Another recurring theme is localised change; driving systems change requires flexibility, adaptability and resilience. It is incredibly difficult to enforce top-down systems change; however, through participatory approaches and localised action, we can improve the situation for millions or billions of people. Part three ends with a discussion of alternatives to ‘development’ that rely not on one-size-fits-all approaches but instead reintegrate nature and indigenous knowledge, and address our consumption and waste in creative ways.

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References

Cover page | UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs | UN projects world population to peak within this century | https://www.un.org/en/UN-projects-world-population-to-peak-within-this-century
Cover page | Bloomberg UK | The Steep Curve to Peak Urban | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-16/the-world-is-urbanizing-faster-than-we-are-building
Cover page | World Economic Forum | More Than 3 Billion People Could Be Living in Slums by 2050 | https://www.weforum.org/videos/more-than-3-billion-people-could-be-living-in-slums-by-2050-says-the-un/