Conflict-Sensitive Conservation

Publisher: Routledge

Author(s): Carl Bruch, Geeta Batra, Anupam Anand

Date: 2023

In recent years, rapid growth in practice and scholarship at the intersection of environment, conflict, and peace has given rise to the new field of environmental peacebuilding (Ide et al., 2021). Much of the work and research has focused on the environmental dimensions of conflict, peace, and peacebuilding. At the same time, interest has grown in the conflict, peace, and peacebuilding dimensions of environmental programming, often in the rubric of conflict-sensitive conservation (e.g., Hammill et al., 2009; Nadiruzzaman et al., 2022; Woomer, 2018).

To date, however, most of the literature on conflict-sensitive conservation has been qualitative, anecdotal, and prescriptive.

This book breaks new ground on conflict-sensitive conservation, presenting both quantitative and qualitative evidence from a recent independent evaluation of interventions1 supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in fragile and conflict-affected states (GEF Independent Evaluation Office [IEO], 2020). This evidence—gathered through the analysis of thousands of GEF-supported projects— highlights the importance for conservation organizations and funders, considering the fragile and conflict-affected context in which they often operate and the risks to project success when they ignore that context.

As a leading funder globally of environmental programming, the GEF has supported more than 4,000 projects around the world, including in many conflict-affected and fragile situations. Moreover, given the longevity of GEF programming (more than 25 years) and the quality of data around GEF programming, the GEF provides an ideal opportunity to consider the effects of conflict and fragility on conservation outcomes and evaluate approaches to conflict-sensitive conservation.