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Emerging Environment and Security Issues

IISD does work in a number of emerging areas that, by themselves, do not constitute programs of research. That work is grouped together and highlighted here in the hope that it will be of value to those researching issues of environment and security.

• Growing Unrest: The links between farmed and fished resources and the risk of conflict
  (PDF - 531 kb)
  This paper examines the links between the risk of conflict and the production and trade of agricultural and marine commodities. It does so using a series of case studies: cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire, bananas and subsequently fisheries in Somalia, and cotton in Central Asia. Much like the traditional conflict resources (oil, diamonds, timber, minerals, etc.), there is strong evidence that fished and farmed commodities can also be (mis)used in such a way that their production and trade contribute to the onset or continuation of violent conflict.

• Environmental Change and the New Security Agenda: Implications for Canada's security and environment (PDF - 688 kb)
  This paper investigates how environmental change and Canadian security are interlinked. First, it attempts to chart the ways in which global environmental change (such as climate change and environmental mismanagement) affect Canada's domestic security and the welfare of Canadian interests overseas. Second, the paper analyzes the links between environment and security from the opposite direction: we assess the environmental implications of what we call 'the new security agenda', Canada's current national security focus on the prevention of terrorism.

• Zoonotic diseases and human security (PDF - 197 kb)
  The recent outbreaks of SARS and avian influenza in the Asia-Pacific have pushed zoonotic or animal-borne diseases to the top of public health agendas. Globalization, urbanization and population expansion have undermined environmental sustainability and animal health, creating conditions that leave the health of wildlife, people and domestic animals inextricably linked. This paper examines the socio-economic impacts of zoonotic diseases and argues that greater cooperation between public health professionals, ecologists and veterinary health specialists is needed to address this growing threat to human security. In an effort to promote this integrated, collaborative agenda, IISD was involved in a one-day workshop during the World Conservation Congress in Bangkok called, "Beyond Zoonoses: One World – One Health, The Threat of Emerging Diseases to Human Security and Conservation, and the Implications for Public Policy"

• Growing into risk? Emerging environment and security issues in China (PDF 258 kb)»  Alec Crawford, Oli Brown, Van Yang, 2006 Serious environmental degradation in China is harming public health, increasing migration and triggering social unrest. In addition, the country's need to secure the supply of those resources which underpin its growth will increase international competition for them while potentially undermining the security of some of the politically fragile, resource-rich nations with which China trades. This paper discusses the security implications of China's growing environmental problems.

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