Options for environmental peacemaking are at the heart of two policy briefs written by GECHS SSC member Patricia Kameri-Mbote, which are now available from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In the newest brief of the Navigating Peace series of the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP), Kameri-Mbote lays the historical foundation of water management in the Nile River Basin, and recommends policies for facilitating cooperation among the region's many water users. One of her main points is that high-level negotiations like the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) are not sufficient. Instead, civil society must be involved. Since the inhabitants of a river basin play critical roles in the success of any international agreement, she argues, interstate negotiations should also include stakeholders beyond the national governments.

In her second brief, published by the Africa Program of the Wilson Center, she broadens the focus beyond water cooperation and points out that rather than being a source of competition, Africa's dependence on natural resources can facilitate dialogue and provide a pathway to peacebuilding in the troubled Great Lakes Region. As examples the researcher refers to a cross-border biodiversity project in East Africa that offers potential for peacebuilding. To reduce biodiversity loss, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, UNEP's Global Environment Facility and national environment agencies in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania selected four biodiversity hotspots that lie on political borders. The countries' national environmental agencies, along with the East African Community (EAC) institutions based on the EAC Protocol on the Environment, are working with local communities on each side of the border to discuss forest management issues and identify inconsistencies between national policies and local cooperative norms. These interactions could yield peace dividends, as participants build relationships and identify their common environmental interests. A further example with environmental peacemaking potential could be found at the Albertine Rift, a transboundary ecosystem spanning several states in the Great Lakes Region. As a first step, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda signed a declaration establishing a shared management system consisting of joint patrols, training, animal trafficking law enforcement, and conservation efforts in October 2005.  (by Dennis Taenzler)



The policy briefs are available at

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/NavigatingPeaceIssue4.pdf

http://wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Patricia.pdf

 

Published in:ECC-Newsletter, Februar 2007