Armed Actors and Environmental Peacebuilding
Publisher: US Institute of Peace
Author(s): Judith Verweijen, Peer Schouten, and Fergus O’Leary Simpson
Date: 2022
Topics: Conflict Prevention, Governance, Peace and Security Operations
Countries: Congo (DRC)
The eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been the site of decades of conflict between the Congolese army and nonstate armed groups. The region’s conflict dynamics are profoundly affected by the combatants’ exploitation of and illegal trade in natural resources. Drawing lessons from eastern DRC, this report argues that the environmental peacebuilding field needs to do more to understand how armed actors shape resource governance and resource-related conflict, which in turn can lead to better-designed peacebuilding programs and interventions.