Blogs & Opinions

Climate, Conflict, and Commodities: the Calculus of Peace on a Changing Planet

Jul 7, 2016 | Steve Zwick

Liberian environmentalist Silas Siakor knows all too well what can happen to a fragile nation when a dictator hijacks its commodity sector, as warlord Charles…

U.S. House Votes to Undermine Transparency and Conflict-Free Supply Chains in Democratic Republic of Congo

Jul 7, 2016 | Enough Project

Efforts to support peace, corporate accountability, and transparency in the Democratic Republic of Congo faced a setback today, as the House of Representatives passed an…

Whose Land is it Anyway?

Jul 7, 2016 | Caitlin Pierce

The farmers of Kyon Dayel Village were ecstatic to read in the newspaper that Ayer Shwe Wah was releasing 40,000 acres of land that the…

Military Leaders Urge South Asian Countries to Put Aside Animosities in Face of Common Climate Threat

Jul 6, 2016 | Sreya Panuganti

Despite a long history of confrontation and simmering tensions, three senior retired military leaders from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India urge the nations of South Asia…

Reviving a Jaded Peace Process: Why Natural Resources Must be a Top Priority in Efforts to End Conflict in Kachin State

Jul 6, 2016 | Mike Davis

Delivering peace in Myanmar is the top priority of the country’s first democratically elected government in over 60 years. A close analysis of the recent…

Conservation Efforts Can’t Afford to Shy Away from High-Risk Conflict Zones

Jul 5, 2016 | Edd Hammill, Ayesha Tulloch, Hugh Possingham, Kerrie Wilson, Niels Strange

Between 1950 and 2000, 80% of the world’s armed conflicts took place within biodiversity hotspots. These are places that contain unusually high concentrations of animals…

Can the Liberian Government Protect Citizen Rights in the Dark?

Jul 4, 2016 | Ali Kaba

Recently, the Liberian government arrested senior officials caught in a scandal: the Speaker of the House of Representatives Alex Tyler; Senator Varney Sherman; and a…

Lao Woman Says Shots Were Fired in Land Dispute

Jun 29, 2016 | Radio Free Asia

A Lao police officer and three men associated with country’s military, who are accused of squatting on a three-hectare parcel of land in Luang Prabang…

Vietnam’s ‘Soft Diplomacy’ in the South China Sea

Jun 29, 2016 | James Borton

China’s unilateral sovereignty claims on more than 80 percent of the international sea and massive military build-up on artificial islands over the past two years…

Illegal Trade of Wildlife Intolerable

Jun 28, 2016 | Massouda Qarizada

Most parts of Afghanistan is occupied by the Hindokush Mountains and surrounded by the foothills covered with different types of plants and bushes like pines,…

Timor-Leste: Australia Is Behaving Like China in Disputed Waters

Jun 28, 2016 | Dan De Luce

There’s a major Asian power that refuses to compromise in its far-reaching territorial claims in oil-rich waters, despite appeals from its smaller neighbor to resolve…

The EU Has Acted on Minerals that Underwrite Modern Slavery

Jun 22, 2016 | Seb Dance

After years of campaigning, the European Union has agreed an outline deal to combat the unchecked trade in natural resources, which fuels some of the…

Why the House Must Stop the Last-Second FSGG Rider on Conflict Minerals

Jun 22, 2016 | Sasha Lezhnev and Holly Dranginis

Yesterday, Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) filed an 11th hour amendment to the financial services appropriations bill to de-fund enforcement of the conflict minerals provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall…

Blog: We Need to Talk About Conflict and the Environment

Jun 22, 2016 | Doug Weir

Interest in protecting the environment from the impact and legacy of armed conflicts appears to go in roughly 20 year cycles. The two previous cycles,…

Palestine’s ‘Prayer for Rain’: How Israel Uses Water as a Weapon of War

Jun 21, 2016 | Ramzy Baroud

Entire communities in the West Bank either have no access to water or have had their water supply reduced almost by half. This alarming development…

Natural Resources Can Pay for Burma's Needs

Jun 16, 2016 | Andrew Bauer and Matthiew Salomon

This is an important year for Burma. With expectations so high, the new government is under enormous pressure to prove that it can transform the…

Why China is Arming its Fishing Fleet

Jun 16, 2016 | Evan Rees

Over the past four decades, China has gradually abandoned its self-imposed isolation in favor of deep ties with global markets. Though the approach has pushed…

Peasants Mobilized in Colombia: The Strike is Finished, the Struggle Continues

Jun 16, 2016 | Lyda Fernanda Forero and Danilo Urrea

On May 27th, the Cumbre Agraria, Campesina, Etnica y Popular called for a national Minga, a period of strikes and mobilizations across the country aiming…

Land Grabbing Harms the Public

Jun 14, 2016 | Eleven Myanmar

Myanmar is still reeling from the consequences of land grabbing issues. A total of 1,500 acres of land were seized under the Thein Sein administration…

That Chinese Frigate in the Senkakus Was a Bad Move for China

Jun 13, 2016 | Steven Stashwick

Early last Thursday morning, a Chinese Jiangkai I frigate entered waters near the disputed Japanese Senkaku islands, called the Diaoyu by China. The move sparked…

Parsing Myanmar’s First EITI Report

Jun 10, 2016 | Paul Shortell

Myanmar’s recently released first EITI report, covering the 2013-14 fiscal year, includes previously undisclosed data on resource production, revenue flows, licences and company ownership.

The information…

Global Witness Must Come Forward and Testify in Court

Jun 10, 2016 | T. Johnson

The UK-based environmental and transparency watchdog, Global Witness (GW), has caused quite a stir (commotion, uproar) in Liberia with its sweeping allegations of corruption and…

Chad: Refugees in Chad Must Adapt or Starve

Jun 9, 2016 | Mahamat Adamou

The Darfur conflict fell out of the headlines years ago, but more than 300,000 Sudanese are still living as refugees in neighbouring Chad, a country…

Fostering Sustainable, Resilient Food Security in Nigeria

Jun 8, 2016 | Nkechi Isaac

Speaking during a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) program development workshop with the theme “Fostering sustainability and resilience for food security…

Nigeria: Using Non-Violence to Achieve Clean Up of Ogoniland

Jun 8, 2016 | Cornelius Essen

The recent flag-off ceremony of cleanup of Ogoniland has reawakened the hope of the people of the community that their environment could be liveable again.…

Can Securities Regulation Stymie Conflict in Africa?

Jun 8, 2016 | Katie Cramer

The “conflict minerals provision” contained in Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act instructed the SEC to develop reporting requirements for companies producing goods…

Global Witness' Mistake on the Afghanistan Mining and Gem Trade: There's No $1 Trillion There

Jun 8, 2016 | Tim Worstall

There’s much to admire in the latest report from Global Witness into the mining of lapis lazuli and other semi-precious stones in Afghanistan. The level…

Hunger in Shangri-La: Causes and Consequences of Food Insecurity in the World’s Mountains

Jun 6, 2016 | Andrew Taber

Over the past decade, the number of undernourished people around the world has declined by around 167 million, to just under 800 million people. However,…

Authorities and Courts Complicit in Eroding Rule of Law in Kachin State

Jun 6, 2016 | Vani Sathisan and Sean Bain

Illegal large-scale land grabbing, harassment of landowners by government and business officials, and a lack of access to justice were the central complaints heard by…

Kurdistan Financial Crisis: Replacing Oil with Agriculture for Prosperity and Independence

Jun 4, 2016 | Glenn Field, Rudaw

In the midst of Iraqi Kurdistan’s economic crisis, the region is in desperate need of alternative sources for revenue other than their oil and gas…