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Conflict-sensitive Conservation

Conservation in conflict zones involves a range of challenges calling for new approaches to project implementation. Conflict situations present risks to staff, resources and biodiversity, yet volatile social and political dynamics can also mean that conservation activities have both positive and negative impacts on conflict. By understanding these impacts, conservationists can plan activities that do not exacerbate tensions, but instead promote cooperation and peacebuilding—i.e., that make their work more conflict-sensitive.

For more than a decade, IISD has worked within this broad framework to examine three related issues: (1) how natural resource management and other conservation practices can unintentionally contribute to conflict; (2) the challenges of doing conservation work in conflict settings; and (3) the potential for resource management to support conflict resolution and post-conflict recovery.

Conflict-sensitive conservation (CSC) is a simple, analytical framework and decision-making process designed to help conservation organizations better understand the conflict risks and peacebuilding opportunities associated with conserving and sustainably managing biodiversity.

For more information on conflict-sensitive conservation, please visit www.csconservation.org.

Publications

• Conflict-Sensitive Conservation: Practitioners' Manual
  » Anne Hammill, Alec Crawford, Robert Craig, Robert Malpas, Richard Matthew, IISD, 2009 This manual provides an analytical and decision-making framework to help conservationists understand and address natural resource-based conflict and to integrate this understanding into conservation programming and implementation.

• Conserving the Peace: Analyzing the links between conservation and conflict in the Albertine Rift
  » Anne Hammill, Oli Brown, IISD, 2006 This paper charts the variety of forms of conflict facing conservationists in the Albertine Rift. It then analyzes seven conflict-assessment tools that conservationists might use to obtain a better, more systematic understanding of conflict in their project areas.

• Protected Areas and the Security Community
  » Anne Hammill, International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2006 This paper draws from IISD's contribution to the World Parks Congress (September 2003, Durban), highlighting the different ways in which protected areas are linked to conflict and what this means for different members of the "security community."

Field Reports

• Conservation and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone
  » Alec Crawford, Oli Brown IISD, 2012. This paper seeks to assess the status of conservation in Sierra Leone, to outline some of the key threats to protected area management in the country while trying to understand how conservation can be done in a way that is "conflict-sensitive;":managing protected areas in a way that does not create or exacerbate tensions and conflicts, and—where possible—promotes peacebuilding.

• Conflict-Sensitive Conservation in Nyungwe National Park: Conflict analysis
  » Alec Crawford, IISD, 2012. In September 2011 the Wildlife Conservation Society and the International Institute for Sustainable Development initiated a two-year collaborative project on conflict-sensitive conservation in Nyungwe National Park, in southwest Rwanda. The collaboration focuses on building the capacity of the Rwanda Development Board and Nyungwe-area district representatives to understand, manage and resolve conflicts. The work is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

• Conflict-Sensitive Conservation in Gola Rainforest National Park: Workshop Report
  » Alec Crawford, Oli Brown, Helen Finlay, IISD, 2011. This workshop report summarizes a meeting on conflict-sensitive conservation (CSC) which was held in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on August 2, 2011. The objectives of the workshop were: a) to introduce staff and stakeholders of the Gola Forest Programme (GFP) to the CSC methodology; b) to identify existing and potential conflicts affecting the conservation of the Gola Rainforest National Park and the surrounding communities, and prioritize those conflicts which require action; c) to analyse the prioritized conflicts; and d) to identify potential solutions through which the GFP can address these conflicts. The workshop was facilitated by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Environment Programme, and was hosted by the Gola Forest Programme.

• Healing the Rift: Peacebuilding in and around protected areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Albertine Rift
  » Deo Kujirakwinja, Papy Shamavu, Anne Hammill, Alec Crawford, Arcel Bamba, Andy Plumptre, Unpublished report to USAID, 2010. This report summarizes a 27-month project that piloted a conflict-sensitive approach to conservation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo at four main sites: Virunga National Park, Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Itombwe Reserve and the Misotshi-Kabogo Massif. It built upon an 18-month project that tested the conflict-sensitive approach in Virunga Park that was also supported by the United States Agency for International Development . At each site, assessments were made of the conflicts taking place and where best the Wildlife Conservation Society could intervene to reduce the conflict or minimize its impacts on conservation of the natural resources as well as the people involved. The International Institute for Sustainable Development provided technical expertise in conflict-resolution approaches, and developed training programs a manual for conservation practitioners in conflict-sensitive approaches to conservation and created a section on its website where conservation practitioners can access tools and materials to help them.

• Conflict-Sensitive Conservation: Field report from Queen Elizabeth National Park
  » Rob Craig, IISD, 2009 This report reflects the field research conducted by IISD and the Conservation Development Centre (CDC) to address conflict situations in Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) in Uganda.

• Renforcement de la capacité de l'ICCN à la gestion et la résolution des conflits lies aux ressources naturelles dans le Parc National des Virunga
  » Deo Kujirakwinja, Joseph Matunguru, IISD, 2009 IISD and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) convened a workshop in December 2006 in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, to discuss conflict-sensitivity and resolution strategies for conservation actors working in Virunga National Park (PNVi). This workshop report details those discussions.

• Renforcement de la capacité de l'ICCN à la gestion et la résolution des conflits lies aux ressources naturelles dans le Parc National de Kahuzi-Biéga
  » Robert Kasisi, Oli Brown, IISD, 2009 IISD and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) facilitated a workshop on conflict-sensitive conservation in Kahuzi-Biéga National Park (PNKB) in order to begin thinking about how to integrate conflict-sensitivity into the general management plan of the park.

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