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STP Development Sole Co., Ltd.
Villagers seated at benches during a resettlement information meeting in an open-sided hall

Resettlement and relocation: what is the difference?

Relocation is the physical move: people leave their homes and settle somewhere else. Resettlement is the whole process, covering compensation, relocation, replacement of services and livelihood restoration, until living standards are restored.

The handbook separates two kinds of impact. Physical displacement means losing shelter and having to move. Economic displacement means losing land, income or access to resources without moving. A farmer who loses fields but keeps the house is still covered, so a project can have resettlement obligations even when nobody relocates.

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If you have a question about resettlement and livelihood restoration that this page does not answer, send it to us. We will reply to you directly and add the most useful questions to this page so that others can learn from them too.

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