Environmental Justice and Peacebuilding Practices in Ethiopia
Publisher: International Journal of Ecosystem
Author(s): Mengistu A. Dibaba
Date: 2020
Topics: Conflict Causes, Governance, Weapons, Waste, and Pollution
Countries: Ethiopia
This paper is intended to show the nexus of the issue of environmental justice and peacebuilding practices in Ethiopia. In line with this, it expounds the significance of environmental justice dimension of the peacebuilding process in the country. A better understanding of the links between environmental justice issues and human security is vital for effective conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-conflict rebuilding. Yet, in this country, significant attention was not given to this environmental dimension of the peacebuilding process. Since every single of conflicts that happen in the country is politicized, this ecological approach is often obscured. Thus, for the fact that different environmental injustices highly contribute for a range of violent conflicts in the country, it is argued that comprehensive restoration of lasting and sustainable peace is impossible without restoring environmental justice and solving environmental problems therein. In this article, by using analytic approach, the findings of the study indicate that there is a considerable prevalence of environmental injustices such as pollution, resource depletion, coercive eviction of local people from their farmland and settlement, an unfair or disproportionate share of environmental advantages and disadvantages, oppression of some group of people to dominate and exploit their resources, and forceful confiscation of one’s land and resources around the border,– which one way or another contribute a lot for violent conflicts and instability throughout the country.