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This brief looks at long-term migration in mountain areas and its drivers as well as its impacts on communities and wider society. It explores how climate change is contributing to increased migration in mountain areas and provides examples of climate change adaptation interventions that can help address these drivers and improve the lives of those who choose to stay. Lastly, it discusses the planned relocation of communities: when this may be needed and how this has been done to date. Our focus is on rural mountain communities in low and middle-income countries that are the most vulnerable to climate change and have the most to gain (and lose) through migration.

The key messages include:

• Rural mountain communities in developing countries are amongst the most vulnerable in the world due to their remoteness from economic centres, high incidences of food insecurity, low levels of service provision, and dependence on agriculture and natural resources, which in turn makes them-highly vulnerable to climate change.
• Seasonal and longer-term migration are long used and important livelihood diversification strategies for rural mountain communities in developing countries. Choices to migrate are typically driven by socioeconomic factors: mountain households predominantly migrate to gain additional income and access to services to improve their lives and enable them to retain assets, cope with past economic shocks, and as a risk management strategy for absorbing future economic shocks.
• Migration - whether seasonal or long-term - is not an option that is available to all. Without sufficient assets and capacities, and in the face of other factors such as marginalisation, migration can be a high-risk strategy. As a result, many of the poorest and most vulnerable households are immobile.