Environmental Peacebuilding - DOCUMENTO DE TRABAJO 2-2021 Tobias Ide - Instituto CAPAZ
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DOCUMENTO DE TRABAJO
2-2021
Environmental
Peacebuilding
Tobias IdeAuthor/researcher Tobias Ide Lecturer in Politics and Policy at Murdoch University in Perth. He holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Hamburg (2015) and an advanced PhD in Political Science from the Braunschweig University of Technology (2019). His research studies the intersections of environmental politics with peace, conflict and security. Recently, he has published in outlets like Nature Climate Change, Journal of Peace Research, World Development and Global Environmental Change. tobias.ide@unimelb.edu.au This research is sponsored by the German-Colombian Peace Institute - CAPAZ and the Colombia Connect project, with fundings from the German Ministry for Higher Education and Research (BMBF) through the call “CONNECT Education-Research-Innovation”. Design and layout Leonardo Fernández Images https://www.pxfuel.com Bogotá, Colombia, March 2021 ISSN: 2711-0354 Abstract: Environmental peacebuilding includes a broad range of practices and approaches connecting environmental management and environmental cooperation to conflict prevention and resolution, as well as to more positive forms of peace. Research on environmental peacebuilding provides an important corrective to the conflict focus of most environmental security research. Further, it aims to generate knowledge on how to increase both peace and sustainability at the same time. This working paper provides an overview of the burgeoning literature on environmental peacebuilding. To do so, it distinguishes between four dimensions of peace (absence of violent conflict, symbolic rapprochement, substantial integration, and capabilities) and four pathways of environmental peacebuilding (avoiding conflicts related to natural resources, building understanding and trust, increasing interdependence, and establishing institutions). After providing a brief synthesis of environmental security debates and introducing the conceptual framework, the working paper surveys existing empirical research on environmental peacebuilding along the four dimensions of peace introduced before. It finds substantive evidence that cooperative environmental management can contribute to all dimensions of peace except for substantial integration. However, such an effect is dependent on scope conditions like local ownership and the absence of recent violence, and there are abundant examples where environmental peacebuilding had no or even adverse impacts on peace and sustainability. Future research needs to specify the pathways connecting environmental management to peace, broaden the geographical scope of the research field, and take gender considerations more seriously.
Content Introduction p.5 The Genesis of Environment, Peace and Conflict Research p.7 Linking the Environment to Peace p.10 What Do We Know About Environmental Peacebuilding? p.13 Peace as the absence of violent conflict p.14 Peace as symbolic rapprochement p.15 Peace as substantial integration p.16 Peace as capabilities p.16 Cooperative environmental management, but no peace? p.17 The negative effects of environmental peacebuilding p.18 Conclusion p.20 References p.23
1 Introduction
A
ttention to the security implications of This working paper deals with the latter line of
environmental change and environmen- argumentation. It aims to survey the literature on the
tal governance has grown during the multiple linkages between environmental change,
last two decades. On one end of the environmental politics, cooperation, and peace. This
spectrum are concerns about resource scarcity, work is summarised under the term environmental
disasters and climate change increasing violent peacebuilding here. “Environmental peacebuilding
conflict risks, as voiced by German Foreign Minister comprises the multiple approaches and pathways
Heiko Maas during a 2019 debate in the UN Security by which the management of environmental is-
Council: “As Lake Chad shrinks, the livelihoods of sues are integrated in and can support conflict
entire population groups are disappearing – the prevention, mitigation, resolution and recovery”
perfect breeding ground for extremism and ter- (Ide et al. 2021a: 2). By doing so, environmental
rorism” (Auswärtiges Amt 2019). In line with this, peacebuilding provides a nuanced and constructive
a recent expert assessment finds “that climate has counter-pole to unidirectional narratives about
affected organized armed conflict within countries” environment-conflict links (Verhoeven 2014). How-
(Mach et al. 2019: 193). ever, it also includes a critical perspective on the
On the other end of the spectrum, an al- environment, power and inequality growing from
ternative view has emerged that highlights the an engagement with political ecology approaches
opportunities which cooperation in the face of (Le Billon and Duffy 2018).
environmental stress provides for conflict resolution This working paper proceeds in six steps.
and peacebuilding. Acting Resident Representative After this introduction, it briefly engages with the
for the United Nations Development Programme history of environmental security research in order
(UNDP) in Colombia, Arnaud Peral, for example, to contextualise the field of environmental peace-
emphasises that “the environment is essential for building and its development (Section 2). Following
achieving post-conflict reconciliation and stabili- this, section 3 discusses key theoretical claims and
zation” (UNDP 2016). Likewise, a summary of the debates of environmental peacebuilding, before
recent literature on natural resource management section 4 provides an overview about the state of
concludes that such “initiatives show consistent research. Finally, the working paper sums up key
indirect and direct linkages to all dimensions of insights and gaps to be addressed by further re-
peace” (Johnson et al. 2020: 1). search on environmental peacebuilding (section 5).
6 Environmental Peacebuilding2 The Genesis of Environment, Peace and Conflict Research
W
hile individual scholars discussed and neoliberal globalisation) shape resource scar-
interlinkages between environmental city in the first place (Peluso and Watts 2001).
and security issues earlier (Sprout During the early 2000s, several researchers
and Sprout 1957; Westing 1976), the started to challenge the literature’s predominant
topic gained prominence with a general growth of focus on conflict, resonating with earlier claims
attention to non-traditional security issues after the about the predominance of water cooperation
end of the Cold War. Echoing then Egypt Foreign (Wolf et al. 2003) and about the existence of a
Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s statement that sampling bias (Gleditsch 1998). Pathbreaking in
“the next war in the Middle East will be fought over this regard was an edited volume on Environmen-
water, not politics”, several scholars discussed the tal Peacemaking by Ken Conca and Geoffrey D.
likelihood of water wars in the early 1990s (Bencala Dabelko (2002). They argued that cooperation
and Dabelko 2008). However, in a comprehensive on shared environmental problems can facilitate
assessment of international water conflict and coop- trust building and transnational linkages between
eration, Aaron Wolf et al. (2003) showed that the last states, hence supporting peacemaking processes.
water war took place 4,500 years ago, and that for These findings were further confirmed by Alexander
the period 1948-2000, cooperation events (1,228) Carius’ (2006) analyses of international environ-
outnumber even mild water conflicts (507) by far. mental cooperation, Saleem Ali’s (2007) volume
Throughout the 1990s, the Toronto Group on transboundary peace parks, and Ilan Kelman’s
led by Thomas Homer-Dixon (1999) and the Zurich (2012) work on disaster diplomacy.
Group led by Günther Bächler (1998) studied en- However, by the early 2000s, the emerging
vironment-conflict links within states. They found approach of environmental peacemaking was
that natural resource exploitation (Bächler) and somewhat sidelined along with debates about
renewable resource scarcity (Homer-Dixon) can renewable resource scarcity and conflict. Rather,
contribute to low-intensity violent conflict, but the focus of mainstream environmental security
only under specific circumstances. While this early research shifted to conflict resources, that is, renew-
research laid the foundation for many of the subse- able resources (e.g., timber, coca) and especially
quent debates (Scartozzi 2020), it was also subject non-renewable resources (e.g., oil, diamonds,
to heavy criticism. Nils Petter Gleditsch (1998), for tantalum) used by rebel groups to finance civil wars
instance, identified several methodical weaknesses (Le Billon 2013; Ross 2004). Particularly prominent
in the works of Bächler and Homer-Dixon, including in this context was the greed vs. grievance debate,
over-complex (and hence untestable) causal mod- during which Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler (2004)
els and sampling on the dependent variable (as argued that primary commodity exports signifi-
only conflict cases were studied). Political ecology cantly increase civil war risks. This is the case, they
approaches argued that the environmental conflict argued, because revenues from such commodities
literature of the time was overly deterministic, provide incentives for greedy rebels to capture state
while failing to account for how power and wealth power (for a critical discussion of this approach,
inequalities (including those linked to colonialism see Ballentine and Sherman 2003).
8 Environmental PeacebuildingFrom 2007 onwards, interest in the impact over, or financed by, these valuable commodities.
of climate change on conflict rose to prominence. At the same time, this work also linked to insights
Scholars – but also various NGOs and decision mak- from climate-conflict debates (Barnett and Adger
ers – voiced concerns that a changing climate would 2007) by identifying improved natural resource
lead to resource scarcity, disasters, economic turbu- management as a foundation for better livelihoods
lences and migration, which in turn facilitate fragility and, in turn, political stability (Bruch et al. 2016;
and violence (Scheffran et al. 2012). Following in the Conca and Wallace 2009).
footsteps of earlier work on environmental conflicts, The second stream connects to early envi-
the debate became at times heated. More sceptical ronmental peacemaking research by studying how
scholars criticised proponents of a climate-conflict joint environment problems provide incentives
link for determinist assumptions, flawed methods, for environmental cooperation, which can then
and a lack of attention to broader structures of catalyse interdependence and trust-building be-
inequality and power (Raleigh et al. 2014; Selby tween parties in conflict. Inspiring for many scholars
et al. 2017). Recent research provides support for in this context has been the pioneering work of
a small and conditional, yet significant impact of the NGO EcoPeace in using transboundary water
climate change on intrastate armed conflict risks resources to establish good relations between
(Ide et al. 2020; von Uexkull et al. 2020). Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian communities
In the late 2000s, interest in the nexus between (Djernaes et al. 2015; Ide and Tubi 2020). So far,
environment and peace gained renewed traction. this work has mostly focused on the international
The two broad streams of research emerged, which level and relations between states (Ide 2019), but
have been connected by their focus on peaceful there is growing attention to peacebuilding within
outcomes and their strong links to earlier work states as well (Johnson et al. 2020). This research
on environmental peacemaking (Krampe 2017). stream explicitly challenges the one-sided focus of
One research stream studied the role of climate-conflict (and earlier environment-conflict)
natural resource management in the context of work on violent conflict as the independent variable
peacebuilding processes in post-conflict (usually (Barnett 2019).
post-civil war) settings. This body of research was In the next two sections, this working paper
promoted by the United Nations Environment portrays the evolving literature on environmental
Programme (UNEP) and established the label en- peacebuilding in greater detail. To do so, it first
vironmental peacebuilding for the broad research outlines theoretical considerations around environ-
field (Matthew et al. 2009). It drew heavily on in- mental peacebuilding and pathways connecting
sights from earlier work on conflict resources but the environment to peace, before assessing the
studied how such resources could be managed in findings of empirical research.
an inclusive and transparent way to avoid conflict
The Genesis of Environment, Peace and Conflict Research 93 Linking the Environment to Peace
E
nvironmental cooperation has been linked River shows, symbolic rapprochement might well
to various forms of peace. In their classical precede the absence of violent conflict (Abukhater
work on the topic, Conca and Dabelko 2013; Ide and Tubi 2020). Furthermore, Johnson et
(2002: 220) understand peace as a “con- al. add a fourth dimension of peace: Capabilities
tinuum ranging from the absence of violent con- refer to individual freedoms and opportunities
flict to the unimaginability of violent conflict”. This for people to sustain livelihoods, exercise social
definition refers to more or less robust variations of and political rights, and adapt to environmental
a negative peace, that is, the absence of physical changes. This dimension is closely connected
violence. Other scholars, by contrast, conceive to positive peace, but capabilities also mitigate
environmental cooperation as a potential facilitator physical violence by reducing grievances and
of positive peace, which includes the absence of providing fewer opportunities for violent conflict.
structural violence (Galtung 1969) and broad forms People with secure livelihoods and the capability
of justice and sustainability (Kyrou 2007). to adapt to environmental stress, for instance, face
In a recent review of the literature, Tobias higher opportunity costs for joining armed groups
Ide (2019) draws on these insights to order three (Barnett and Adger 2007).
(partially overlapping) forms of peace along a There are four mechanisms through which
continuum. The first form of peace is the absence the management of environmental issues can con-
of violent conflict, defined as at least one social tribute to (various dimensions of) peace (Dresse
group using physical violence in an organised et al. 2019; Ide 2019; Johnson et al. 2020; Lejano
way against another social group. Symbolic rap- 2006): avoiding conflicts related to natural resourc-
prochement, by contrast, refers to processes of es, building understanding and trust, increasing
building trust, forging positive narratives about interdependence, and establishing institutions.
other groups, and constructing a shared identity. Avoiding conflicts related to natural resources:
This form is closest to Conca and Dabelko’s un- Even though claims about environmental conflicts
imaginability of violent conflict. The third form of are sometimes exaggerated (Selby and Hoffmann
peace, substantial integration, goes even further 2014), disputes around resources are widespread at
as it requires the establishment of joint institutions both the local and the international level. Examples
or trans-societal linkages. These, in turn, make not include tensions about land grabbing in Colom-
only physical violence inconceivable, but they also bia (Feola et al. 2019), scarce pastures in Kenya
set the foundation for addressing broader forms (Schilling et al. 2012), water in the Euphrates-Tigris
of injustices (i.e., structural violence). River Basin (Kibaroglu and Sayan 2021), and re-
McKenzie Johnson et al. (2020) expand this cently, offshore gas in the eastern Mediterranean
typology in two important ways. They argue that the (Wintour 2020). If these resources are managed
different forms of peace should not be conceived in a cooperative, inclusive and sustainable way,
as a continuum, but rather as different dimensions tensions over them are eased, hence diminishing
(or aspects) of peace because they not necessarily the prospects of further conflict.
build upon each other or occur in a fixed order. As Well-managed land, water and forest re-
the example of water cooperation along the Jordan sources also strengthen local livelihoods, hence
Linking the Environment to Peace 11addressing grievances and raising opportunity cooperation, particularly when taking place be-
costs for armed conflicts (Taher et al. 2012; Zawahri tween parties in conflict, can demonstrate to wider
2011). In a related manner, income from oil, gas audiences that cooperation is possible and, due
and various metals could be used to finance social to its positive effects, desirable. Civil society net-
spending, education, and environmental clean ups, works might also evolve around environmental
rather than armed groups or corrupt patronage cooperation and deepen societal links. Ultimate-
systems (Poteete 2009). Ecotourism could have ly, environmental cooperation might even affect
similar effects by generating revenues for local wider perceptions of the respective other and the
communities and governments (Maekawa et al. associated norms of adequate behaviour (Conca
2013) and Dabelko 2002; Finnemore 1996).
Building understanding and trust: This mech Establishing institutions: Finally, states or
anism draws on early observations by Conca (2001) groups often establish joint institutions to deal
that environmental issues have considerable po- with environmental issues. These institutions can
tential to stimulate cooperation between parties be informal, such as community meetings or ritu-
in conflict. They cross national borders, can be al, or formal, such as river basin organisations or
framed as shared threats, allow for positive-sum conservation agencies. Once established, such
interactions, attract support by international actors institutions can serve as channels of communica-
and civil society groups, and are less contentious tion and conflict resolution between the involved
than economic or military issues (see also Ali 2011). actors. They also frequently promote technical
The resulting environmental cooperation can, in cooperation and knowledge exchange, hence
turn, facilitate trust building between the persons addressing the environmental problems underlying
involved, demonstrate the benefits of cooperation certain conflicts (Dresse et al. 2019). In addition,
across group or state boundaries to a wider audi- such institutions – if adequately designed – facilitate
ence, and increase solidarity among conflict parties. the other three mechanisms behind environmental
This is well in line with disaster sociology, which peacebuilding: They regulate transparent and
argues that the joint suffering caused by disasters inclusive resource governance, provide forums
leads communities to temporarily abandon existing for trust building, and deepen interdependence
cleavages and cooperate in the face of shared between the respective groups or states (Bogale
threats (Quarantelli and Dynes 1976). and Korf 2007; Bruch et al. 2016).
Increasing interdependence: This mechanism This discussion already indicates that the four
also takes cooperation in the face of shared environ- mechanisms often interact or overlap in practice.
mental challenges as a starting point. Drawing from Distinguishing them is still important for researchers
liberal and functionalist approaches in International to disentangle the causal mechanisms behind en-
Relations (Oneal and Russett 1999; Tranholm-Mik- vironmental peacebuilding and to provide tailored
kelsen 1991), it argues that once environmental advice to decision makers.
cooperation and independence are established
between communities or states, they are less likely
to wage destructive conflict on each other. This is
the case because such conflicts would hurt both
sides. Furthermore, once initiated, environmen-
tal cooperation might spill over via the networks
established or due to economic incentives. As
Claudia W. Sadoff and David W. Grey (2002: 393)
put it: “International rivers can be catalytic agents,
as cooperation that yields benefits from the river
and reduces costs because of the river can pave
the way to much greater cooperation”, for instance
in the domains of fisheries, energy generation and
transport.
Such an increase in interdependence can also
take place in the realm of symbolic politics, hence
linking this mechanism to the (second) mechanism
of building cooperation and trust. Environmental
12 Environmental Peacebuilding4 What Do We Know About Environmental Peacebuilding?
S
ummarising empirical research on environ- record of low-level environmental cooperation.
mental peacebuilding is not easy for several According to Sara McLaughlin Mitchell and Neda
reasons. The field is rather young, with the A. Zawahri (2015), well-designed river treaties lead
majority of studies having been published to a statistically significant decline of militarised
in the last ten years and important knowledge disputes over these rivers.
gaps remaining (see section 5). Several insights Turning from the international to the domestic
from neighbouring fields – such as environmental level, Eric Keels and T. David Mason (2019) report
conflict or resource governance research – provide statistically significant evidence that the inclusion
important insights for environmental peacebuilding of land reform provisions into peace agreements
debates, but are often not explicitly connected to reduces the likelihood of civil war recurrence. The
them. And the results of single case studies – cur- acceptance of more transparent and equal resource
rently the dominant method in the field – are not governance by the government, they argue, “rein-
always easily comparable, especially if they con- forces rebels’ perception of the credibility of the
sider several dimensions of peace simultaneously government’s commitment to the peace process”
and do not specify the relevant mechanisms. There (Keels and Mason 2019: 46). Based on extensive
is, however, considerable evidence that the man- data collection in Liberia, Christopher Blattman
agement of environmental issues can contribute to and Jeannie Annan (2016) find robust evidence
peace, even though it is rarely the most important that the provision of agricultural training and inputs
factor in peacebuilding processes. improved the livelihoods of former combatants.
Therefore, these men were less likely to be recruited
again by armed groups. Finally, according to Rune
Peace as the absence of violent conflict Slettebak (2012), countries recently affected by
climate-related disasters have a reduced risk of
While still the minority in the field, several quantita- armed conflict onset. The author hypothesises that a
tive analyses link environmental cooperation to the short-term increase in solidarity in the post-disaster
absence of violence. Karina Barquet et al. (2014), period can explain this effect.
for instance, study 328 country-dyads between Case study evidence on a link between en-
1949 and 2001 and find that dyads which share vironmental management and the absence of
a transboundary conservation area are less likely violence is also available, although mostly limited
to engage in militarised interstate disputes. This to the avoidance of violent conflict over resources.
effect is relatively weak, however, and confined Hermant R. Ohja et al. (2018), for instance, show
to Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Likewise, Ide how sustained dialogue and the establishment
(2018) uses quantitative data to show that while of (informal) institutions in Nepal prevent the es-
cooperative environmental agreements between calation of local disputes over water and forest
states in intense conflicts are rare, they can catalyse resources. In Yemen, an arid and agriculturally
existing peacemaking processes (but not stimulate dependent country, violent water disputes be-
new ones). Such a link is dependent, however, on came increasingly common in recent decades
high levels of environmental attention and a track due to sinking groundwater tables and higher
14 Environmental Peacebuildingdemand for water in commercial agriculture. In cooperation around the lake, including the creation
this context, many local communities formed ini- of a formal institution (the Binational Autonomous
tiatives to manage water in a sustainable and equal Authority of Lago de Titicaca). Similar forms of
manner (Lichtenthaler 2014; Taher et al. 2012). building trust and deepening cooperation could
However, the massive infrastructure destruction also be observed in the Euphrates-Tigris Basin in
and internal migration during the current civil war the 1990s and 2000s (prior to the Syrian civil war),
will complicate such efforts in the future (Sowers which Syria and Turkey even agreeing to build a
and Weinthal 2021). Friendship Dam (Kibaroglu and Sayan 2021).
While much research on climate change Symbolic rapprochement even occurs in
and conflict use pastoralist conflicts in East Afri- contexts characterised by intense hostilities.
ca as a case in point, there is no deterministic or Mirza Sadaqat Huda (2021) analyses cross-bor-
one-sided impact of environmental stress in this der education and youth engagement activities
context. In Kenya, for example, traditional local between India and Pakistan as well as between
institutions like elders’ meeting frequently initiate India and Bangladesh. He finds that shared en-
temporary patterns of cooperation in the form of vironmental concerns and the resulting activities
resource sharing to cope with droughts (Adano are well-suited to challenge ethnonationalism
et al. 2012). Further, Zawahri (2011) argues that and promote mutual understanding among the
coordination and negotiation in the Permanent participants. An assessment of three environmental
Indus Commission helped India and Pakistan to education initiatives designed to promote sustain-
address water-related tensions, even when the ability and peace between Israelis and Palestinians
countries were at war with each other. also finds that participants show more cooperative
In sum, research finds that environmental and peaceful attitudes towards the respective
management has a proper tracker record of facil- other. While such initiatives face considerable
itating peace as the absence of violence. Avoiding challenges due to the tense political situation and
conflicts related to natural resources and establish- intra-societal resistance, they contribute to rap-
ing institutions are the causal mechanisms most prochement through strengthening livelihoods,
often highlighted by the literature for international building trust, and cultivating independence (Ide
as well as for domestic and local settings. Most suc- and Tubi 2020). According to Adrian Martin et al.
cessful examples concern the avoidance of violent (2011), cooperation around the biodiversity-rich
conflicts specifically related to natural resources. Virunga region since the 1990s helped to build
Only a minority of authors claim that environmental trust and to establish institutions (like the Greater
management can also reduce the risk of violence Virunga Transboundary Collaboration Secretari-
unrelated to environmental issues, and if so, this at) between the Democratic Republic of Congo,
is usually a by-product of achieving other forms of Rwanda and Uganda.
peace like symbolic rapprochement (Ide 2018) or While most research on symbolic rapproche-
improved capabilities (Blattman and Annan 2016). ment followed the environmental peacemaking
line of research and studied international contexts,
similar findings exist for the intrastate level as well.
Peace as symbolic rapprochement The initiatives to avoid water conflict in Yemen
discussed above, for example, also often involve
There is an abundance of studies demonstrating cooperation between members of local communi-
that environmental management contributes to ties with hostile relations, and hence support trust
improved relations and symbolic rapprochement building in a conflict-prone landscape (Taher et al.
between states or social groups beyond just pre- 2012). In post-conflict Timor-Leste, the tara bandu
venting violent conflict. A recent statistical analysis ritual to manage land and forests also serves to
indicates that a track record of water cooperation re-establish mutual understanding in communities
in the past ten years increases the likelihood of recently characterised by violence (Ide et al. 2021b).
two non-rival states to improve their relations (Ide In the Colombian city of Bogota, communities were
and Detges 2018). According to J. Todd Walters able to improve the urban environment, expand
(2012), scientific and academic cooperation on their social networks, and bring “together people
Lake Titicaca helped to build trust between Bo- who used to be in opposite camps” during the civil
livia and Peru. This cooperation also paved the war by launching an urban agriculture program
way for further political, military and community (Nail 2018: 53).
What Do We Know About Environmental Peacebuilding? 15Not surprisingly, building trust and under- Peace as capabilities
standing during environmental cooperation ac-
tivities is the main mechanism related to peace as Transparent, sustainable and cooperative environ-
symbolic rapprochement. This finding goes beyond mental management can strengthen the capabili-
the traditional contact hypothesis, which posits ties dimension of peace. Strong evidence for this
that personal contact between members from claim comes from Colombia in the period after
groups in conflict will reduce stereotypes, preju- the 2016 peace agreement. P. Zúñiga-Upegui et
dices, and the readiness to use violence (Pettigrew al. (2019) use scenario predictions to illustrate how
et al. 2011). In the environmental peacebuilding well-designed land management could reduce
cases discussed here, individuals, groups and socio-economic inequalities and prevent ecosystem
states actively cooperate with each other based destruction in the biodiversity-rich department of
on perceptions of shared environmental threats. Tolima. The resulting strengthening of sustainable
The establishment of institutions facilitates the livelihoods is particularly important in the context
resulting rapprochement, as does the widening of Colombia’s Land Restitution Programme that
or deepening of cooperation in the face of (a per- manages the return of displaced people to their
ceived) stronger interdependence. lands, where they need both an income and ecosys-
tem services that sustain the agricultural economy.
Other studies also address the issue of settling
Peace as substantial integration people displaced by the armed conflict (3.6 million
between 1980 and 2010 alone) in post-conflict
There are a few studies showing that cooperative Colombia. Andres Suarez et al. (2018) argue that
management of environmental issues leads to conservation agriculture preserving both ecosys-
more substantial forms of integration, usually on tems and livelihoods are a suitable and sustainable
a local level. During the 1957-1963 drought in strategy in this context. They find that 83% of the
southern Israel, several areas saw cooperation be- surveyed conflict victims are willing to participate in
tween Israeli farmers and Bedouin nomads, such as such conservation agriculture schemes if financial
grazing cattle on harvested fields, which provided incentives are provided, with another 11% looking
fodder for the nomads’ cattle and fertilisation for for non-monetary incentives. Others suggest that a
the farmers’ fields. In rare cases (usually involving combination of land tenure formalisation, strength-
very left Israeli communities), such environmental ening local institutions, and carbon payments to
cooperation grew into more substantive collabora- leave carbon-rich forests untouched are suitable
tion, for instance when Israelis supported Bedouins strategies to generate capabilities and environ-
in claiming their rights vis-à-vis the state (Tubi and mental benefits (Castro-Nunez et al. 2017). Based
Feitelson 2016). Similar reciprocal arrangements on a multi-stakeholder assessment for the Caquetá
between farmers and herders during droughts region, Hector Morales et al. (2021: 22) argue that
are discussed by Ayalneh Bogale and Benedikt environmental management can facilitate peace
Korf (2007) in the context of Ethiopia. Based on best if it promotes socio-economic inclusion. This
interest-based, short-term cooperation, the respec- “is related to producing positive changes in the
tive groups deepened their ties with each other, incomes of vulnerable populations and creating a
including living together for longer periods of time sustainable environment, thus reducing the com-
and forging formal arrangements. munity’s risk from illegal economies”.
Overall, however, environmental management Evidence from other world regions are
only rarely facilitates substantial integration, and broadly in line with these findings (Burt and Keiru
if so, it is only a minor contributing factor (Swain 2011). According to Blattman and Annan (2016),
2016). There are also no documented cases of en- ex-combatants in Liberia show great interest in
vironmental peacebuilding supporting integration participating in agricultural training and support
beyond the local level, that is, between civil war programmes. Participants gained economically
parties or states. Substantial integration is hence the from these programmes and were less likely to
peace dimension least impacted by environmental join armed groups again. Cultivating the acacia
peacebuilding (Johnson et al. 2020). gum tree in the western Sahel region provides
opportunities for local communities to reverse
environmental degradation and strengthen their
livelihoods, hence avoiding maladaptation like
16 Environmental Peacebuildinginvoluntary migration and resource conflicts (Ka- environmentalist groups, with little prospect for
lilou 2021). And in Guatemala, the Buena Milpa spill-over (Akçalı and Antonsich 2009; Reynolds
project implemented by the International Maize 2017). According to Bram Büscher and Michael
and Wheat Improvement Center worked with local Schoon (2009), disputes about revenue sharing,
institutions to facilitate community-based resource conservation standards, and boarder security issues
management, enhance climate change adaptation, undermined cooperation around peace parks in
develop micro-credit schemes, establish a natural southern Africa (such as the Great Limpopo Trans-
reserve, and build a micro seed bank. By doing so, frontier Park between South Africa, Mozambique
the project strengthened food security, community and Zimbabwe).
cohesion, and resilience to environmental shocks Sceptical voices have emerged regarding
such as droughts (Hellin et al. 2018). environmental peacebuilding within states (and
Improving local livelihoods and economies as especially after civil wars) as well. In Sierra Leone,
well as reducing vulnerabilities to environmental for example, efforts to improve the governance of
stress are the main pathways connecting environ- local conflict resources have led to a formalisation
mental management to improved capabilities. For that benefited large and international business
the sake of this report, these pathways are catego- actors, but did not improve the livelihoods of many
rised as part of the “avoiding conflicts related to locals. The latter lacked the resources to benefit
natural resources” mechanism. Overall, empirical from or to participate in such formalisation schemes
support for an impact of environmental peace- (Ankenbrand et al. 2021; Johnson 2019). There are
building practices is strongest for the capabilities also criticisms of efforts to link water infrastructure
dimension. While most evidence for this is derived reconstruction and peacebuilding in Timor-Leste,
from post-civil war settings, examples related to which suffered from a lack of donor coordination,
international environmental cooperation exist as a lack of engagement with local community struc-
well. The Trifinio plan to conserve the ecosystems tures, the short time horizons of many projects, and
and watersheds in the border region between El a bias towards urban areas (Krampe and Gignoux
Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, for instance, 2018). Further, in an analysis of post-conflict Kosovo,
enabled local communities to benefit from con- Florian Krampe (2016) found that integrated water
servation schemes and cross-border integration management contributed little to peacebuilding.
(López 2004). Reasons for this include a focus on technical issues
rather than conflict resolution, the maintenance of
separated water management structures (rather
Cooperative environmental than integrated management to the benefit of
management, but no peace? the broader local community), and strong external
ownership.
Despite the positive effect of environmental man- In the case of Colombia, the decades-long
agement and cooperation on various dimensions of civil war between the Revolutionary Armed Forces
peace that many studies find, environmental peace- of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC) on one side
building is no universal success. Ladislav Cabada and the government and right-wing militias on
and Sarka Waisova (2018) study environmental the other was heavily financed by illicit crops like
cooperation between China and Taiwan, the two coca (Angrist and Kugler 2008). Consequentially,
Koreas, and Cambodia and Thailand. They find that the National Programme for the Substitution of
collaboration on environmental issues occurred as Illicit Crops (PNIS) was conceived as an important
a side-effect of a general improvement of mutual cornerstone of the peacebuilding process after
relations, but has no discernible effect on the wider the signature of the peace agreement in late 2016.
interactions between the states. Likewise, Annie The idea behind PNIS was that peasants would
Young Song and Justin V. Hastings (2020) argue voluntarily give up the cultivation of illicit crops
that environmental cooperation survived a rise in and in exchange receive foods assistance, technical
tensions between North Korea and South Korea, support, and financial help by the government.
but yielded no significant peace gains. Studies This, in turn, would not only undermine the coca
on cross-boundary water cooperation between economy, but also enable farmers to build more
Israelis and Palestinians and on the divided island sustainable livelihoods, hence addressing the
of Cyprus claim that symbolic rapprochement is grievances and recruitment opportunities related
confined to a small group of already pro-peace, to rural poverty that were one of the drivers of the
What Do We Know About Environmental Peacebuilding? 17civil war. According to Irene Vélez-Torres and Diego unequal and conflict-prone status quo (Aggestam
Lugo-Vivas (2021), however, the achievements and Sundell 2016).
of PNIS on the ground are limited. Few peasants Second, environmental peacebuilding might
participate in the plan, and those who do receive lead to involuntary displacement and the associ-
very limited assistance. Large structural issues of ated side effects (such as community distortion
Colombia’s agricultural economy, including the and poverty). The cooperative establishment of
dominance of large landholders and continuous transboundary conservation areas, such as the
incentives to cultivate coca, remain unaddressed. Limpopo peace park in South Africa, has in the past
Two recent reviews of the broad literature frequently resulted in forced resettlement of local
on environmental peacebuilding identify factors communities (van Amerom and Büscher 2005).
distinguishing cases of successful environmen- Such measures are often deeply rooted in Western
tal peacebuilding from those where cooperative assumptions of locals as drivers of environmental
environmental management yielded little or no degradation (Marijnen et al. 2020).
peace dividend. According to Ide (2019), external The third negative impact of environmental
(financial) support and the absence of strong recent peacebuilding – discrimination – can be illustrated
tensions increase the prospects of environmental by a similar example. As part of the 1998 peace
peacebuilding in general. For the international agreement between Ecuador and Peru, a peace
level, he adds a tradition of environmental coop- park was created in the contested Cordillera del
eration and consensus about the scope and nature Cóndor region. The subsequently established
of environmental problems, while the involve- conservation regime discriminated against the local
ment of relevant decision makers and high levels indigenous population by restricting their access
of environmental stress facilitate environmental to the park. This ocurred despite a long history
peacebuilding within states. Focussing on intrastate of indigenous communities collecting food and
environmental peacebuilding, Johnson et al. (2020) medical plants in the forested area, and against
highlight the importance of bottom-up approaches, the background of an increasing incursion of com-
compatibility of projects with local realities, and mercial miners (Ali 2019).
the generation of concrete benefits as important In the worst case, unequal and discriminatory
determinants of environmental peacebuilding. impacts of environmental peacebuilding cause an
Negative effects on peace as substantial integration, upsurge in conflicts (the fourth potential negative
by contrast, prevent success regarding any other impact). John-Andrew McNeish (2017), for instance,
dimension of peace as well. claims that mineral, oil and gas extraction can pave
a way for livelihood generation and peacebuild-
ing in Colombia under critical scrutiny. Instead,
The negative effects of such (legal) extraction often violates human rights
environmental peacebuilding and degrades ecosystems in the surrounding ar-
eas. Usually peaceful resistance is then crushed
Since the emergence of the research field in the through violence against environmental defenders
early 2000s, critical scholars have expressed con- by armed or criminal groups, on which many state
cerns that environmental peacebuilding might have authorities turn a blind eye.
negative effects, or even serve as a smokescreen If state agencies are (perceived to be) com-
for other interests (Duffy 2002). One can distin- plicit in environmental peacebuilding projects with
guish between six potential adverse impacts of adverse impact, a fifth negative effect may arise, that
environmental peacebuilding practices (Ide 2020): is, a loss of trust in and legitimacy of the state. But
First, a focus on environmental issues can even successful NGO environmental management
cause a marginalisation of the political problems and livelihood strengthening projects can facilitate
underlying (armed) conflicts. Israeli-Palestinian an “outwards redistribution of state functions”
water cooperation, for example, has been criti- (Jones et al. 2014: 79) as state institutions lose
cised for focussing on unpolitical, technical issues funding and legitimacy vis-à-vis civil society actors.
like knowledge exchange and joint monitoring. Sixth, and lastly “environmental […] coopera-
The structural inequalities underlying the conflict, tion might constitute simply more efficient resource
such as unfair water distribution and the Israeli plunder” (Conca and Beevers 2018: 55). Barquet
occupation of the West Bank, by contrast, remain (2015), for example, argues that the Si-A-Paz (“Yes to
unaddressed. This “invisibility” perpetuates the Peace”) transboundary conservation area between
18 Environmental PeacebuildingCosta Rica and Nicaragua yielded very few actual environmental management and cooperation can
peace effects, but paved the way for oil exploitation have substantial peacebuilding effects in terms of
in border areas through increased state control and preventing violence, building trust, and strength-
the exclusion local communities. Deforestation in ening capabilities. Rather, this section cautions
Colombia also increased in formerly FARC-controlled scholars and decision makers to monitor environ-
areas after the peace process started, illustrating mental peacebuilding practices for exclusions,
that the latter provided opportunities for resource inequalities and vested interests. Disentangling
exploitation rather than for sustainable ecosystem which design factors and contexts make the oc-
management (Prem et al. 2020). currence of such a “dark side” of environmental
This is not to say that environmental peace- peacebuilding more or less likely is a major task
building always or mostly has such negative effects. for future research (Ide 2020).
The evidence provided above demonstrates that
What Do We Know About Environmental Peacebuilding? 195 Conclusion
T
he growing environmental peacebuilding that cooperative environmental management is
field of research serves various important contributing to peace, both between and within
functions. It provides a corrective to the states. Results are most robust for the capabilities
predominant focus of environmental and dimension, but there is evidence for peace as
climate security research on conflict outcomes the absence of violent conflict and as symbolic
(Swain and Öjendal 2018). It evaluates possibilities rapprochement as well. As of yet, contributions
to address two major challenges of our time – of cooperative environmental management to
global environmental change and armed conflict peace as substantial integration were rare and
– simultaneously (Ali 2007). It puts attempts to limited to the local level. Furthermore, the suc-
label resource exploitation or the persistence of cess of environmental peacebuilding is strongly
(structural) violence as environmental protection dependent on a number of design and context
or peacebuilding under critical scrutiny (Johnson factors, such as local ownership and the absence
2019; Marijnen et al. 2020). Finally, by focussing of recent conflict escalation. There are numerous
on peaceful adaptation to environmental stress, it cases where environmental peacebuilding practices
provides knowledge relevant to a broad range of had no impact or negative effect on peace, the
practitioners in the fields of peacebuilding, conser- environment, and development.
vation, development, climate change adaptation, Future research on environmental peace-
and disaster risk reduction (Abrahams 2020). building will close existing knowledge gaps. While
While it is too early to draw definitive con- recent reviews of the literature provide a broad
clusions, a growing number of studies suggest range of suggestions for further work (Dresse et
Figure 1. Overview of the conceptual framework used in this working paper
Mechanisms Outcomes
Peace as...
Avoiding conflicts related … absence of violent conflict
to natural resources
… symbolic rapprochement
Environmental Building understanding
management and trust … substantial integration
and cooperation
Increasing interdependence … capabilities
Establishing institutions
No impact or negative
effect on peace
Conclusion 21al. 2019; Ide 2019; Ide et al. 2021a; Johnson et al. environmental vulnerabilities, conflict histories,
2020), I will focus on three knowledge gaps here. and socioeconomic problems.
First, a further specification of the pathways Finally, gender is a crucial, yet hardly in-
connecting environmental cooperation or man- vestigated issue in the context of environmental
agement to peace is required, and we need em- peacebuilding. Women often play important roles
pirical evidence showing in which contexts these in mediating conflicts and managing natural re-
pathways are most (or least) likely to work. This is sources, yet at the same time, they can also be
challenging as the pathways laid out here (as well highly vulnerable because their livelihoods are
as possible alternative sets of pathways) can be strongly tied to ecosystem services, they have no
strongly intertwined in some cases. Many existing formal land rights, and they are subject to sexual
case studies also only provide limited informa- violence (UNEP et al. 2020). Specifying the role
tion about specific environmental peacebuilding these capabilities and vulnerabilities play, and
pathways. Knowledge about the underlying causal finding ways to utilise or address them, would
chains is crucial to refine theory, increase trust in further strengthen the empirical foundations and
existing empirical evidence, and design adequate practical relevance of environmental peacebuilding
policy responses. (Yoshida and Céspedes-Báez 2021). This is also true
Second, the geographical scope of environ- for the role of sexual minorities and gender roles
mental peacebuilding research should be broad- (such as those related to violent masculinities) at
ened. So far, Colombia, southern and western the intersection of resource management, adapta-
Africa and the Middle East have received the most tion to environmental change, and peacebuilding
attention. Several studies also exist for Central, (Fröhlich and Gioli 2015; Gaillard et al. 2017).
South and Southeast Asia as well as East and Addressing these research gaps and pro-
North Africa, but comprehensive knowledge on ducing further comprehensive knowledge on
environmental peacebuilding in these regions is environmental peacebuilding is no easy task. But
still lacking. Latin America (except for Colombia) if the resulting insights support the creation of a
and the Pacific (except for Timor-Leste) are still more peaceful and sustainable future, these efforts
under-researched despite the presence of various will certainly pay off.
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