Over the past one hundred years in particular, there has been a steady process by which natural resources (such as ground-water, forests, fishing grounds and grazing land) have been increasingly managed by centralised institutions. Governments and other national agencies have argued that this promotes efficiency, equity, and other wide national goals. Recently this orthodoxy has been challenged by rising numbers of experiments that show how centralised management tends to fail. Global, national and local goals are more likely to be met, at lower cost and with other benefits (such as promoting better democratic institutions) by involving local populations in collaborative management agreements. This volume, based on detailed case studies from around the world, subjects some of these experiments to critical study, and suggests limits to the participative approach as well as ways it can be improved and made suitable for new contexts.

Today’s changing security landscape requires a radical shift in the way the international community engages in conflict management. This report by the United nations Environment Programme aims to review the latest knowledge and field experience on the linkages between environment, conflict and peacebuilding, and to discuss the ways in which these issues can be addressed and integrated in a more coherent and systematic way by the UN, Member States and other stakeholders involved in peacebuilding interventions and conflict prevention.

A step-by-step guide connecting theory to practice Environmental Conflict Management introduces students to the research and practice of environmental conflict and provides a step-by-step process for engaging stakeholders and other interested parties in the management of environmental disputes. In each chapter, authors Dr. Tracylee Clarke and Dr. Tarla Rai Peterson first introduce a specific concept or process step and then provide exercises, worksheets, role-plays, and brief case studies so students can directly apply what they are learning. The appendix includes six additional extended case studies for further analysis. In addition to providing practical steps for understanding and managing conflict, the text identifies the most relevant laws and policies to help students make more informed decisions. Students will develop techniques for public involvement and community outreach, strategies for effective meeting management, approaches to negotiating options and methodologies for communicating concerns and working through differences, and outlines for implementing and evaluating strategies for sustaining positive community relations.

This guide collects and summarizes good practices on the successful mediation of resource conflicts. It draws on the field experiences of mediators and mediation experts, specifically those with natural resource expertise. It also features lessons learned from UNEP's work on environmental diplomacy in different conflict-affected countries, with a particular focus on how to use impartial technical knowledge to equalize stakeholder information in a mediation process.

Cultivating Peace: Conflict and collaboration in natural resource management

Research carried out by the World Bank on the root causes of conflict and civil war finds that a developing country's economic dependence on natural resources or other primary commodities is strongly associated with the risk level for violent conflict. This book brings together a collection of reports and case studies that explore what the international community in particular can do to reduce this risk.; The text explains the links between natural resources and conflict and examines the impact of resource dependence on economic performance, governance, secessionist movements and revel financing. It then explores avenues for international action - from financial and resource reporting procedures and policy recommendations to commodity tracking systems and enforcement instruments, including sanctions, certification requirements, aid conditionality, legislative and judicial instruments.

It's often claimed that future wars will be fought over water. But while international water conflict is rare, it's common between subnational jurisdictions like states and provinces. Drawing on cases in the United States, China, India, and France, this book explains why these subnational water conflicts occur - and how they can be prevented.

This handbook was written for staff working in protected areas around the world (including parks, wilderness areas, research areas, and other types of protected landscapes) who encounter conflicts of all kinds. The Handbook can also be a resource for other interested parties who want to play a constructive role in protected area conflicts. A simple framework is offered and some strategies for responding to different types of conflicts in protected areas are explored. Case studies, which are the heart of the Handbook, describe a variety of both short and long term approaches for dealing with conflict.

ÿNatural resource management is closely linked to conflict management, prevention and resolution. Managing natural resources involves reconciling diverging interests that often lead to conflict, which can undermine management institutions and lead to exploitation, environmental destruction and deteriorating livelihoods. If conflicts turn violent, they can rip apart the entire fabric of society. Thus, managing conflicts in a peaceful manner is decisive not only for successful and sustainable resource management but for societal stability in general. Despite this connection, the knowledge and experience gained in the fields of conflict transformation and peacebuilding in the last decades are often not used by natural resource managers. One reason is that this knowledge has not been translated into user-friendly resources that can be easily understood by practitioners without prior experience in these fields. This handbook and toolkit helps fill this gap, providing an orientation to the issues and a suite of practical exercises and tools to support participatory processes.

Provides a pan-African synthesis of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), drawing on multiple authors and a wide range of documented experiences from Southern, Eastern, Western and Central Africa. This title discusses the degree to which CBNRM has met poverty alleviation, economic development and nature conservation objectives.