Key Message
Environmental degradation and the mismanagement of natural resources can fuel conflict between and within states, contribute to poverty and state failure, and leave communities more vulnerable to disasters.
At the same time, environmental issues can provide an opportunity to foster dialogue and cooperation over shared interests, reducing tensions between conflicting parties.
Environment and Security (E&S)
What's New in Environment and Security?
-
Conflict-Sensitive Conservation: Practitioners' Manual
English (PDF - 15 MB) - Français (PDF - 14 MB)
The Albertine Rift is one of the most biodiverse and ecologically unique regions of Africa. Sadly it has also been the site of some of the world's most violent conflicts in recent history. This turbulent context can pose a range of risks and opportunities to conservationists who are managing resources that can be both a seed of conflict and foundation for peace-building.
With the financial support of the MacArthur Foundation and the technical support of the Conservation Development Centre, IISD has been working with the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) International in Uganda to better understand the context in which they operate and apply a conflict lens to their work. This work led to the development of the "Conflict-Sensitive Conservation Practitioners' Manual," which provides an analytical and decision-making framework to help conservationists understand and address natural resource-based conflict, and integrate this understanding into conservation programming and implementation. In so doing, conservationists can avoid exacerbating conflict and maximize opportunities for peace-building.
IISD believes that the mismanagement of our natural resources lies at the heart of many conflicts and disaster vulnerability.
Sustainable development is impossible without security. Yet since the end of the Cold War, violent conflict has killed or displaced millions of people. Meanwhile, the frequency and toll of natural disasters is on the rise, driven in part by an unpredictable and changing global climate.
It is clear that a better understanding of the links between environmental change and human security is vital for effective peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction. Conflict-sensitive conservation could both protect biodiversity and contribute to peace-building. Better environmental management may help reduce community vulnerability to floods and droughts. IISD's work seeks to understand these links and provide practical advice on how careful management of our environment and our resources can contribute to conflict avoidance and disaster resilience.
Where to Read More
-
From Conflict to Peacebuilding: the role of natural resources and the environment (PDF - 1 mb) » Richard Matthew, Oli Brown, David Jensen, UNEP, February 2009 This major report, co-authored by IISD and UNEP, discusses the key linkages between environment, conflict and peacebuilding, and provides recommendations on how these can be addressed more effectively by the international community.
Contents
-
Climate Change and Security
Understanding how climate change could affect political and economic stability, and developing effective ways to address those problems. -
Conservation and Conflict
IISD has been working with conservation and development partners around the world in an effort to better understand the links between conservation and conflict, and to offer practical recommendations to conservationists faced with conflict. -
Disaster Resilience
IISD's work in this area focuses on the ways in which communities can become more resilient to natural hazards like earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis. -
Natural Resources, Livelihoods and Security
IISD has been examining how access to and management of natural resources affect livelihoods and how this, in turn, contributes to conflict and/or peace. -
Environment and Security Policy
IISD has been providing practical recommendations to decision-makers on how better environmental management could reduce the risk of conflict. -
Emerging Environment and Security Issues
IISD does work in a number of emerging areas that, by themselves, do not constitute programs of research. These include zoonotic diseases, climate change in Sudan and emerging environment and security issues in China.
Key Publication
From Conflict to Peacebuilding: the role of natural resources and the environment
» Richard Matthew, Oli Brown, David Jensen, UNEP, 2009This major report, co-authored by IISD and UNEP, discusses the key linkages between environment, conflict and peacebuilding, and provides recommendations on how these can be addressed more effectively by the international community. More...
Our Knowledge
» Themes
- Adaptation and Risk Reduction
- Climate Change and Energy
- Economics and SD
- Foreign Investment for SD
- Governance for Sustainable Development
- Internet and Technology
- International Trade
- Measurement and Assessment
- Natural Resources
- Networks & Partnerships
- Security
- Sustainable Markets
- Tomorrow's SD Leaders
» Initiatives
- Water Innovation Centre (WIC)
- The Sustainable Commodity Initiative (SCI)
- Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI)
