Environmental peacebuilding: managing natural resource conflicts in a changing world : Swisspeace Annual Conference 2007

With the current attention given to climate change and global warming, the issue of "environmentalsecurity" is back high on the agenda of the international community. Environmental degradation isincreasingly considered as a potential cause for the (re-)emergence of violent conflicts due to shrinking natural resources such as drinkable water and land. However, research on the issue hasshown that there is very little empirical evidence of a direct causal link between environmentaldegradation and violent conflict. In order to set effective priorities for environmental peacebuilding, it is important to understand - particularly in situations of environmental stress - how naturalresource conflicts are embedded in social and political dynamics, how they are managed by localinstitutions, and how these institutional arrangements can be supported through outsideintervention. Based on a research project conducted by swisspeace within the framework of theNCCR North-South, the swisspeace annual conference 2007 explored those complex linkages andformulated entry points for improving intervention strategies by external actors.