Lemon Tree Trust works with urban agriculture and greening innovation in the context of forced displacement.

Urban Agriculture – is the cultivation, processing and distribution of food in an urban context, such as an intentional or accidental city. It includes animal husbandry, aquaculture, forestry, beekeeping and horticulture. It is likely to include small livestock rearing, growing vegetables, planting trees and field crops and using greenhouses or polytunnels. Essential components are seed, soil, space and water.

Greening Innovation – is a holistic approach to disaster risk, land and watershed management, linking relief, recovery and development through the planting of trees and gardens and the support of small agro-businesses. It involves work on integrated watershed management (IWM) linking relief, recovery and development (LRRD), disaster risk reduction (DRR), resource recovery and reuse (RRR) and sustainable livelihoods. See our publications for processes and practices in greening innovation.

We use the term forced displacement to refer to the situations of people who leave or flee their homes due to conflict, violence, persecution, natural, environmental or human induced developments or disasters, famine or human rights violations. It includes those who are forced to leave their countries (forced migration) and those who are forced to move to other parts of the same country (internally displaced persons, or IDPs).

While forced displacement is often seen as a temporary state, some camps have been in existence for periods of 40 or 50 years and seen generations of children grow up within them. Others have evolved into ‘accidental cities’ and become a permanent part of the landscape. Others provide temporary homes to different inhabitants at different times as crises are resolved in one place only to reoccur in another. Investment in improving land and planting trees is rarely wasted, and can be planned to make a long term contribution to the landscape even when whole communities are eventually relocated.