Environment and peacebuilding in war-torn societies: Lessons from the UN environment programme's experience with postconflict assessment

Global Governance

Volumn 15, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 485-504

  Conca, Ken ^a   Wallace, Jennifer ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND   (United States)

Author keywords

Conflict; Environment; Natural resources; Peacebuilding; United Nations

Indexed keywords

EID: 72449200297     PISSN: 10752846     EISSN: 19426720     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/19426720-01504008     Document Type: Article

References (95)

1. We prefer the term "war-torn societies" to the more common "postconflict societies," which suggests a neat dichotomy between war and peace that rarely exists in the wake of civil conflict. See Jeroen de Zeeuw, "Building Peace in War-torn Societies: From Concept to Strategy" (The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Conflict Research Unit, August 2001).
2. Ken Conca, "The Case for Environmental Peacemaking," in Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko, eds., Environmental Peacemaking (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), pp. 1-22.
3. On different conceptualizations of peacebuilding, see Henning Haugerudbraaten, "Peacebuilding: Six Dimensions and Two Concepts," African Security Review 7, no. 6 (1998).
4. UN General Assembly, "Progress Report on the Prevention of Armed Conflict: Report of the Secretary-General," UN Doc. A/60/891 (18 July 2006), pp. 7 and 10.
5. Remarks of Christine Pendzich, World Wildlife Fund-US, at the workshop "Building Partnerships to Reduce Forest Conflict in Asia," US Agency for International Development, Washington, DC, December 2005.
6. See Roland Paris, At War's End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 3-4.
7. See, for example, Thomas F. Homer-Dixon, "Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict: Evidence from Cases," International Security 19, no. 1 (Summer 1994): 5-40.
8. Günther Bächler and Kurt R. Spillmann, eds., Environmental Degradation as a Cause of War (Zurich: Rüegger, 1996).
9. For a range of critiques, see Marc A. Levy, "Is the Environment a Security Issue?" International Security 20, no. 2 (Fall 1995): 35-62.
10. Nils Petter Gleditsch, "Armed Conflict and the Environment," in Paul F. Diehl and Nils Petter Gleditsch, eds., Environmental Conflict (Boulder: Westview Press, 2001).
11. Nancy Lee Peluso and Michael Watts, eds., Violent Environments (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001).
12. See, for example, Wenche Hauge and Tanja Ellingsen, "Beyond Environmental Scarcity: Causal Pathways to Conflict," Journal of Peace Research 35, no. 3 (1998): 299-317 (Pubitemid 128354647)
13. For a critique of statistical analysis of environmentally induced conflict, see Shannon O'Lear, "Resource Concerns for Territorial Conflict," GeoJournal 64, no. 4 (2005): 297-306.
14. Michael Ross, "A Closer Look at Oil, Diamonds, and Civil War," Annual Review of Political Science 9 (2006): 265-300.
15. Ross, "A Closer Look," pp. 280-282.
16. Adrian Martin, "Environmental Conflict Between Refugee and Host Communities," Journal of Peace Research 42, no. 3 (2005): 330.
17. Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko, eds., Environmental Peacemaking (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), p. 10.
18. Richard Matthew, Mark Halle, and Jason Switzer, Conserving the Peace: Resources, Livelihoods and Security (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2002), p. 5.
19. See, for example, Martin, "Environmental Conflict;"
20. Darren Evans, "Using Natural Resources Management as a Peacebuilding Tool: Observations and Lessons from Central Western Mindanao," Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 1, no. 3 (2004): 140-155.
21. Juanita Sundberg, "Conservation and Democratization: Constituting Citizenship in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala," Political Geography 22, no. 7 (2003): 715-740.
22. Katrina Rogers, "Sowing the Seeds of Cooperation in Environmentally Induced Conflicts," in Mohamed Suliman, ed., Ecology, Politics and Violent Conflict (London: Zed Books, 1999), pp. 259-272.
23. See Matthew et al., Conserving the Peace.
24. See Martin Bijlsma, "Protecting the Environment," in Gerd Junne and Willemijn Verkoren, eds., Postconflict Development: Meeting New Challenges (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2005), p. 166.
25. James Shambaugh, Judy Oglethorpe, and Rebecca Ham, The Trampled Grass: Mitigating the Impacts of Armed Conflict on the Environment (Washington, DC: Biodiversity Support Program, 2001).
26. UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR Environmental Guidelines (Geneva: UNHCR, 2005), pp. 7-8.
27. UNEP, Sudan: Post-conflict Environmental Assessment (Geneva: UNEP, 2007), p. 11.
28. UNEP, Lebanon: Post-conflict Environmental Assessment (Geneva: UNEP, 2007).
29. UNEP, UNEP Final Report: The Kosovo Conflict: Consequences for the Environment & Human Settlements (Geneva: UNEP, 1999).
30. UNEP, Sudan, p. 93.
31. Report of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre of South Lebanon, April 2006, cited in UNEP, Lebanon, p. 154.
32. See Claudio Torres Nachón, "The Environmental Impacts of Landmines," in Richard Matthew, Bryan McDonald, and Kenneth R. Rutherford, eds., Landmines and Human Security: International Politics and War's Hidden Legacy (New York: SUNY Press, 2004).
33. UNEP, Lebanon, pp. 102-103.
34. Pekka Haavisto, "Conflict and the Environment: Lessons Learned," Environment House News, Issue 8 (June 2003), p. 2.
35. UNEP, Desk Study on the Environment in Liberia (Geneva: UNEP, 2004), pp. 43-51.
36. UNEP, UNEP Final Report: Strategic Environmental Policy Assessment-FYR of Macedonia (Geneva: UNEP, 2001).
37. UNEP, Sudan, p. 13.
38. UNEP, UNEP in Iraq: Post Conflict Assessment, Clean-up and Reconstruction (Nairobi: UNEP, December 2007), p. 28.
39. UNEP, Desk Study Liberia, p. 47.
40. UNEP, After the Tsunami: Rapid Environmental Assessment (Geneva: UNEP, 2005), p. 135.
41. UNEP, Desk Study in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Geneva: UNEP, 2003), p. 68.
42. Ibid., Desk Study in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 2003, p. 81.
43. UNEP, Afghanistan Post-conflict Environmental Assessment (Geneva: UNEP, 2003), pp. 56-57.
44. Ibid., Afghanistan Post-conflict Environmental Assessment, 2003, p. 95.
45. UNEP, Lebanon, p. 155.
46. UNEP, Afghanistan Post-conflict, p. 65.
47. UNEP, Desk Study Liberia, p. 53.
48. UNEP, The Kosovo Conflict, p. 35.
49. Conca, "The Case for Environmental Peacemaking," p. 11.
50. Alexander Carius, "Environmental Cooperation as an Instrument of Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding: Conditions for Success and Constraints," study commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, January 2006, p. 8.
51. UNEP, Afghanistan Post-conflict, p. 98.
52. UNEP, Lebanon, p. 39.
53. On security governance issues and peacebuilding, see Alan Bryden and Heiner Hänggi, Security Governance in Post-conflict Peacebuilding (Geneva: Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, 2007).
54. UNEP, Afghanistan Post-conflict, p. 76.
55. Ibid., Afghanistan Post-conflict, p. 9.
56. Ibid., Afghanistan Post-conflict, p. 87.
57. UNEP, Depleted Uranium in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Post-conflict Environmental Assessment (Geneva: UNEP, 2003).
58. Only ten of forty identified NGOs in Albania were deemed to be currently active. UNEP, UNEP Final Report: Post-conflict Environmental Assessment-Albania (Geneva: UNEP, 2000), p. 48.
59. UNEP, Desk Study Palestinian Territories, p. 130.
60. UNEP, Afghanistan Post-conflict, p. 103.
61. UNEP, Strategic Environmental Policy-Macedonia, p. 18.
62. UNEP, The Kosovo Conflict, p. 5.
63. PCDMB staff, interviewed by the authors, Geneva, September 19, 2007.
64. PCDMB staff interviews.
65. Ibid. PCDMB Staff Interviews.
66. Oliver Richmond, "Peace and Development: Strange Bedfellows?" International Studies Review 7, no. 3 (September 2005): 437.
67. Paris, At War's End.
68. "Sustainable development" is defined as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," in UN General Assembly, "Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development," Res. A/RES/42/187 (11 December 1987).
69. On the economics of peacebuilding, see Paris, At War's End; Shepard Forman and Stewart Patrick, Good Intentions: Pledges of Aid for Postconflict Recovery (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000).
70. UNEP, Afghanistan Post-conflict, pp. 109-110.
71. UNEP, Desk Study Liberia, p. 80.
72. UNEP, The State of the Environment in Somalia: A Desk Study (Geneva: UNEP, 2005), pp. 17-18.
73. UNEP, Afghanistan Post-conflict, p. 37.
74. Ibid., Afghanistan Post-conflict, p. 97.
75. UNEP, State of the Environment in Somalia, p. 30.
76. UNEP, Sudan, p. 16.
77. Bertine Kamphuis, "Economic Policy for Building Peace," in Gerd Junne and Willemijn Verkoren, eds., Postconflict Development: Meeting New Challenges (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2005), p. 186.
78. See Global Witness, "An Architecture of Instability: How the Critical Link Between Natural Resources and Conflict Remains Unbroken," Global Witness policy briefing, London, December 2005.
79. UNEP, Desk Study Liberia, p. 33.
80. Caspar Leighton, "Firestone in Liberia Rubber Row," BBC World News, 24 May 2006, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5013830.stm (accessed 1 October 2008).
81. UNEP, Desk Study Liberia, p. 42.
82. See Global Witness, "Deforestation Without Limits: How the Cambodian Government Failed to Tackle the Untouchables" (Global Witness, London, July 2002).
83. UNEP, UNEP in Iraq, p. 19.
84. UNEP, Desk Study Liberia, p. 84.
85. UNEP, Afghanistan Post-conflict, pp. 92-95.
86. PCDMB staff interviews.
87. UNEP, UNEP Final Report: From Conflict to Sustainable Development, Assessment and Clean-up in Serbia and Montenegro (Geneva: UNEP, 2004), p. 49; PCDMB staff interviews.
88. UNEP, Assessment of the Legal, Scientific and Institutional Frameworks for Biodiversity Protection in the Republic of Liberia (Geneva: UNEP, 2007), pp. 53-57.
89. Ibid., Assessment of the Legal, Scientific and Institutional Frameworks for Biodiversity Protection in the Republic of Liberia, 2007, pp. 29-32.
90. PCDMB staff interviews.
91. UNEP, Progress Report on the Capacity Building and Institutional Development Programme for Environmental Management in Afghanistan 2003-2005 (Geneva: UNEP, 2006).
92. Ibid, Progress Report on the Capacity Building and Institutional Development Programme for Environmental Management in Afghanistan 2003-2005, 2006, p. 19.
93. PCDMB Staff, personal communication with the authors, Geneva, October 15, 2008.
94. UNEP, Desk Study Palestinian Territories, p. 126.
95. UNEP, Desk Study Liberia, p. 350.