Blogs & Opinions

Gender Research in Integrated Pest Management: Unlocking Food Security

Mar 22, 2019 | Sara Hendery

Agricultural production is only one of many factors that impacts global food security. A Virginia Tech team has found that some factors, like gender, take…

The Surprising Clue to Reducing Human-Elephant Conflict: Minerals

Mar 20, 2019 | Fiona Sach

The increasing human population and global intensification of agriculture have had a major impact on the world’s natural ecosystems. This, as we’ve seen, has had…

Managing Our Resources: Women, Mining and Conflict in the Asia–Pacific

Mar 20, 2019 | Alison Davidian

The extraction and exploitation of oil and mineral deposits have become increasingly possible across Asia and the Pacific. Rapid industrialisation and technological developments have led…

Water Is a Growing Source of Global Conflict. Here's What We Need to Do

Mar 18, 2019 | Kitty Van Der Heijden

In 2017 alone, water was a major factor in conflict in at least 45 countries. Its importance as a resource means that water-related insecurity can…

Local Institutions Can Mitigate Climate-Related Conflict in the Sahel

Mar 18, 2019 | Ahmadou Aly Mbaye

Climate change acts as a conflict multiplier by amplifying existing environmental stresses, creating new ones, and thus exacerbating resource scarcities and water and food insecurity.…

Russia's Next Land Grab Won't Be in an Ex-Soviet State. It Will Be in Europe.

Mar 15, 2019 | Micheil Saakashvili

First he came for Georgia, then for Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s next target is likely to be a non-NATO nation in the EU.

UNEA-4 Adopts Language on Conflicts and Environmental Security

Mar 15, 2019 | Doug Weir

A more ambitious and outward looking UNEA could become a vital platform for conflict and the environment.

Environmental Protection in Non-International Armed Conflicts: Finding the Way Forward

Mar 15, 2019 | Jeanique Pretorius

This year, the UN’s International Law Commission may begin to address the imbalance in international legal framework intended to protect the environment in relation to…

Sustainable Land Use Systems: A Way to Help Achieve Colombia's Climate Change Mitigation and Peacebuilding Goals

Mar 12, 2019 | Maria Eliza Villarino

Colombia has set ambitious targets to mitigate climate change and achieve stability. One promising approach to help achieve those simultaneously is designing and promoting sustainable…

The Role of Climate Change in the Continuous Cycle of Resource-Based Conflict in Africa

Mar 12, 2019 | Jake Shaw

Degraded by both climate stress and conflict, the condition of the environment can be the initial and consistent trigger for conflict in an indefinite cycle…

Targeting Infrastructure Undermines Livelihoods in the West Bank

Mar 12, 2019 | Jeannie Sowers and Erika Weinthal

In many Middle Eastern wars, targeting civilian infrastructure has become all too common. As we documented in a previous article,  both state and non-state actors in…

Will UNEA-4 Miss the Opportunity to Link Conflict with Deforestation?

Mar 11, 2019 | Wim Zwijnenburg and Foeke Postma

In spite of recent resolutions on conflict and the environment, the UN Environment Assembly is failing to make obvious connections between environmental issues and their…

Protecting Women's Rights in Iraq Affects the Whole Population

Mar 10, 2019 | Nazli Tarzi

What Iraq needs is a state-driven campaign that raise awareness and legislation that protects and encourages greater participation of women in the workforce.

'Balance For Better' Does Little to Address Issues Facing Women

Mar 8, 2019 | Rosie Urbanovich

International Women’s Day had radical roots: at the turn of the 20th century, thousands of women came together to protest dismal working conditions, long hours, and…

Women Are 'on the Front Lines' of Defending Land

Mar 8, 2019 | Barbara Fraser

When gold miners operating illegally near her farm in southern Colombia fouled the stream where she watered her cows, Mary Alis Ramírez tried to have…

Why Research on Gender and Conflict Matters

Mar 8, 2019 | Robert Malley

Last October, Ethiopia appointed its first woman president, the only female leader of an African state today. In many national parliaments, from Mexico to Rwanda,…

From Resolution to Solution: UNEA's Unique Opportunity to Tackle Environmental Dimensions of Armed Conflicts

Mar 8, 2019 | Wim Zwijnenburg

When the Fourth Session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) takes place in Nairobi starting March 11, governments, international organizations, and civil society organizations will…

Defense Establishment Blasts Proposal for Trump Climate Review

Mar 8, 2019 | Marlo Lewis Jr

In a letter released earlier this week, 58 “former national security leaders” urge President Trump not to approve the formation of a panel to review…

Land Is Power: How Land Rights Can Enfranchise Liberia's Women

Mar 8, 2019 | Loretta Alethea Pope Kai

Liberia is in the throes of finalising one of Africa’s most progressive land rights laws but its potential will be thwarted if women are excluded.

Ghana's Queen Fishmongers: Balancing Gender for Sustainable Fisheries

Mar 7, 2019 | Environmental Justice Foundation Staff

When we think about fishing, we typically conjure a very distinct image: boats at sea, manned. But that is only half the story, as the…

The Transformative Potential of Women in Water Resource Management

Mar 7, 2019 | Callum Clench

Water sits at the heart of our world and is a central tenet across the breadth of all the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Access…

Governing the Ayeyarwady

Mar 6, 2019 | Joern Kristensen

The continuing conundrum over Myitsone, concern among farmers over river bank erosion in the dry zone and the delta and reports of declining riverine resources…

A History of U.S. Defense, Intelligence and Security Assessments of Climate Change

Mar 5, 2019 | Peter H. Gleick

In March 2019, the Trump Administration announced they were considering creating an ad hoc White House panel to dispute a long-series of national assessments of…

Why Do People in Resource-Rich Iraq Protest?

Mar 3, 2019 | Nazli Tarzi

There appears to be little agreement among spectators over the motives and demands driving Iraq’s protest movement, which has grown in since late 2011. What…

In Search of Environmental Security at UNEA-4

Mar 1, 2019 | Doug Weir

The UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), which aims to be the leading body for the environment in the UN system, was established in 2012 by converting…

New Study on Infrastructure Damage in Gaza and the West Bank

Mar 1, 2019 | Leonie Nimmo

The targeting of water, energy, and agricultural infrastructure has created vulnerability and undermined livelihoods in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to a study…

Disputes over Water Will Be an Increasing Source of International Tension

Feb 28, 2019 | Economist

It has become a cliché of doom-mongering: future wars will be over water. The forecast is old enough to face a sceptical backlash. Whatever happened,…

National Security and the Nexus of Climate, Conflict and Migration

Feb 25, 2019 | Amanda Rodewald

Does climate change pose a national security threat? That is the question to be addressed by a proposed Presidential Committee on Climate Security, according to…

Missing Peace: Why Transboundary Conservation Areas Are Not Resolving Conflict

Feb 19, 2019 | Elaine (Lan Yin) Hsiao

Transboundary Conservation Areas, such as Parks for Peace, have been heralded for their potential to simultaneously contribute to biodiversity conservation and peace, but evidence to this effect has…

Missing Peace: Why Transboundary Conservation Areas Are Not Resolving Conflicts

Feb 19, 2019 | Elaine (Lan Yin) Hsiao

Transboundary Conservation Areas, such as Parks for Peace, have been heralded for their potential to simultaneously contribute to biodiversity conservation and peace, but evidence to…