Assessing and Restoring Natural Resources in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding

Publisher: Routledge

Author(s): David Jensen, Steve Lonergan

Date: 2012

When a country emerges from violent conflict, the management of the environment and natural resources has important implications for short-term peacebuilding and long-term stability, particularly if natural resources were a factor in the conflict, play a major role in the national economy, or broadly support livelihoods. Only recently, however, have the assessment, harnessing, and restoration of the natural resource base become essential components of post-conflict peacebuilding.

This book, by thirty-five authors, examines the experiences of more than twenty countries and territories in assessing post-conflict environmental damage and natural resource degradation and their implications for human health, livelihoods, and security. The book also illustrates how an understanding of both the risks and opportunities associated with natural resources can help decision makers manage natural resources in ways that create jobs, sustain livelihoods, and contribute to economic recovery and reconciliation, without creating new grievances or significant environmental degradation. Finally, the book offers lessons from the remediation of environmental hot spots, restoration of damaged ecosystems, and reconstruction of the environmental services and infrastructure necessary for a sustainable peace.

Available Downloads

Foreword
(English)

Placing Environmental and Natural Resource Risks, Impacts, and Opportunities on the Post-Conflict Peacebuilding Agenda
(English)

Part 1: Evaluating the Impact of UNEP's Post-Conflict Environmental Assessments
(English)

Part 1: Environment and Peacebuilding in War-Torn Societies: Lessons from the UN Environment Programme's Experience with Post-Conflict Assessment
(English)

Part 1: Medical and Environmental Intelligence in Peace and Crisis-Management Operations
(English)

Part 1: Thinking Back-End: Improving Post-Conflict Analysis Through Consulting, Adapting to Change, and Scenario Building
(English)

Part 2: Salting the Earth: Environmental Heatlh Challenges in Post-Conflict Reconstruction
(English)

Part 2: Remediation of Polluted Sites in the Balkans, Iraq, and Sierra Leone
(English)

Part 2: The Risks of Depleted Uranium Contamination in Post-Conflict Countries: Findings and Lessons Learned from UNEP Field Assessments
(English)

Part 2: Linking Demining to Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: A Case Study of Cambodia
(English)

Part 3: Restoration of Damaged Land in Societies Recovering from Conflict: The Case of Lebanon
(English)

Part 3: Ecological Restoration and Peacebuilding: The Case of the Iraqi Marshes
(English)

Part 3: Haiti: Lessons Learned and Way Forward in Natural Resource Management Projects
(English)

Part 3: Peacebuilding and Adaptation to Climate Change
(English)

Part 4: Addressing Infrastructure Needs in Post-Conflict Reconstruction: An Introduction to Alternative Planning Approaches
(English)

Part 4: Mitigating the Environmental Impacts of Post-conflict Assistance: Assessing USAID's Approach
(English)

Part 4: Challenges and Opportunities for Mainstreaming Environmental Assessment Tools in Post-Conflict Settings
(English)

Part 4: Environmental Assessment as a Tool for Peacebuilding and Development: Initial Lessons from Capacity Building in Sierra Leone
(English)

Part 4: Natural Resources, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, and Regional Integration: Lessons from the Marshall Plan and Other Reconstruction Efforts
(English)

Part 4: Making Best Use of Domestic Energy Sources: The Priority Production System for Coal Mining and Steel Production in Post-World War II Japan
(English)

Part 4: Road Infrastructure Reconstruction as a Peacebuilding Priority in Afghanistan: Negative Implications for Land Rights
(English)

Part 4: Evaluating Post-Conflict Assistance
(English)

Part 5: Natural Resources and Post-Conflict Assessment, Remediation, Restoration, and Reconstruction: Lessons and Emerging Issues
(English)