by Ro Maung Shwe
Cox’s Bazar | December 2025
In the overcrowded refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, where clean air, safe drainage, and green spaces have become rare luxuries, a group of Rohingya youth has taken a step that quietly challenges despair. They have formed the Rohingya Environmental Protection Network, a community based initiative aimed at protecting and restoring an environment pushed to the brink after years of displacement.
For more than eight years, Rohingya families have lived in fragile shelters surrounded by polluted canals, unmanaged waste, and shrinking forest cover. Daily life is shaped by smoke, stagnant water, flooding, and the constant threat of disease. These conditions are not accidental. They are the outcome of prolonged displacement, severe overcrowding, and limited access to environmental services.
It was this reality that pushed young Rohingya volunteers to act. With support from community members, they established the Rohingya Environmental Protection Network, known as REPN, to address environmental degradation inside and around the camps and to promote practical, community led solutions.
REPN is driven by the belief that environmental protection is not separate from survival. For displaced communities, it is a matter of health, safety, and dignity. The group works to raise awareness about climate risks, encourage eco friendly practices, and involve vulnerable communities directly in environmental action. At the center of its work is youth leadership, built on the idea that Rohingya young people are not only victims of environmental collapse but also agents of change.
The network’s long term goal is to build a healthier and more resilient environment for displaced communities. REPN aims to protect remaining natural ecosystems, promote environmental education, and ensure that future generations grow up in cleaner and safer surroundings, even under conditions of displacement.
Members of the organization say environmental responsibility cannot be isolated to refugees alone. They see it as a shared human duty, one that requires collective action across communities and institutions. For REPN, sustainability begins with awareness but must lead to action.
Since its formation, REPN’s volunteer team has already carried out four major environmental hazard removal campaigns. Volunteers have cleared blocked drainage systems filled with waste, removed garbage from polluted areas, and cleaned narrow camp streets and public spaces where waste had accumulated for months. These efforts, though small in scale, have reduced health risks and restored a sense of collective ownership over shared spaces.
Alongside physical cleanup work, REPN has been holding regular focus group discussions with volunteers and community leaders. These discussions focus on tree planting, camp greening initiatives, waste reduction, and climate change awareness. The goal is not only to act but to build shared understanding and long term commitment within the community.
The network has also invested in internal capacity building. In collaboration with the United Council of Rohang, REPN organized a training session on organizational behavior and management, attended by all its members. Organizers say strengthening leadership and coordination skills is essential if youth led initiatives are to survive beyond short term enthusiasm.
REPN operates through a structured leadership and advisory system, led by Rohingya youth and supported by community advisors. The leadership team oversees advocacy, coordination, finance, counseling, and media work, reflecting an effort to build an accountable and sustainable organization rather than an informal volunteer group.
Community members involved in REPN say the initiative offers something rare in the camps: a sense of agency. Environmental problems remain overwhelming, but the act of organizing, cleaning, planting, and learning has given many young people a renewed sense of purpose.
For REPN, these early activities are only the beginning. Members say Rohingya youth are ready to protect their environment and improve their community. What they need now is space, recognition, and support to continue.
In a place where displacement has stripped people of land, rights, and certainty, the effort to protect the environment has become a way to reclaim responsibility and hope. Through REPN, Rohingya youth are asserting a simple truth: even in exile, they can still care for the world around them and shape a more livable future.
