Environmental Peacebuilding: 2023 in Review

Jan 9, 2024 | Environmental Peacebuilding Association

2023 was an interesting year for environmental peacebuilding. 

Developments highlighted the importance of environmental peacebuilding. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has showcased the environmental impacts of conflict, as well as environmental challenges in rebuilding.  New conflicts in Sudan and Gaza-Israel, as well as ongoing conflicts in Yemen, Myanmar, and the Central African Republic, highlight the fact that although the specifics may vary that war has devastating impacts on the water, air, land, and other resources upon which people and biodiversity depend.

In this context, 2023 has seen some innovations in how we approach the environmental consequences of war. First, there is growing attention to the environmental impacts at the outset, with real-time monitoring of the impacts.  This has entailed a combination of remote sensing, artificial intelligence (AI), and groundtruthing. Second, with the Register of Damages for Ukraine advancing, there is a new mechanism to support accountability efforts.

For me, perhaps the most striking development in 2023 was the sense that environmental peacebuilding has gained critical momentum.  When we started the Environmental Peacebuilding Update ten years ago, almost no one was using the term.  Researchers and practitioners were working at the intersection of environment, conflict, and peace, but there was no dedicated space for them.  Fast forward ten years (including five years of activities of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association), and there is a robust and growing peer-reviewed and gray literature on environmental peacebuilding.  In October, the Association celebrated the first issue of Environment and Security – the only peer-reviewed journal in the field.

It is exciting to observe the growing number of organizations institutionalizing environmental peacebuilding.  Other professional associations – including the Alliance for Peacebuilding, the International Water Resources Association, and International Association for Impact Association – have established interest groups, held webinars and other events, and produced publications related to environmental peacebuilding. A growing number of foundations and bilateral funders are supporting environmental peacebuilding programming.  As a result, consulting firms have been building up their environmental peacebuilding practices.

After years of working to raise awareness regarding the promise and importance of environmental peacebuilding, it is thrilling to see the uptake!

2024 promises to be a big year.  We will convene the Third International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding with the Grotius Center for International Legal Studies at Leiden University, in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 19-21, 2023.  There will be a full day of pre-conference events on June 18, and we are adding a virtual day on June 12 to expand and diversify the people who are able to engage in the conference. The journal Environment and Security will publish four issues this year, including its first special issue in March. There are a number of exciting initiatives that the Board is developing (more news in due course).  And the Board and Secretariat continue to evolve their functions to improve the delivery of EnPAx programs.

The Gaza-Israel conflict has generated a lively discussion within the Board (and more broadly) regarding how the Association engages with specific conflicts, how we can support our members on the ground, and what is our particular value added.  We are consulting with members in the region to identify specific ways that EnPAx can support them and their work.  While this is an ongoing discussion, there are a few things that are worth emphasizing.  Fundamentally, the Association strives to provide a safe space for all to come together to share, learn, and collaborate on issues at the intersection of environment, conflict, and peace.  We are a diverse Association with a wide range of members representing different institutions, geographies, and beliefs. We value that diversity. We also share a deeply held belief in the inextricable linkages between the environment and peace. And a commitment to one another. These are our values. This is what makes the Association special. 

Thank you, all, for your support, engagement, and commitment.  I look forward to another amazing year working with you.  And I hope to see you in The Hague!

Carl Bruch

President, Environmental Peacebuilding Association

Here are a few milestones from 2023:

  • In 2023, the Environmental Peacebuilding Association (EnPAx) continued to mature. Launched in 2018, by the end of 2023 the Association includes about 400 individual members from 70 countries on 6 continents, and 27 institutional members. The membership composition is 87% professional and 13% student. By the end of 2023, the Association had established twelve Interest Groups (on Africa; Data and Technologies; Climate Change, Disasters, and Resilience; Education; Forests; Gender; Law; Middle East and North Africa (MENA); Monitoring & Evaluation; Transitional Justice; Water; and Young Professionals), and they were undertaking a wide range of activities.
  • The Environmental Peacebuilding Knowledge Platform (www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/), the leading global platform on issues related to natural resources, conflict, and peacebuilding, continues to grow. This year, we added 607 Library items, 45 Announcements, 160 Events, 313 Jobs, 515 International News articles, and 191 Blogs & Opinion pieces. At the end of 2023, we have 6,200 Library items and more than 8,300 International News articles. In 2023, the Association launched a dedicated microsite on Palestine and Israel, even as we continued to maintain and expand other subsites, including on monitoring and evaluation, gender, and data and technologies, among others.
  • The Environmental Peacebuilding Community of Practice added 181 members this year. The Community is now over 4,300 people strong, with members from more than 150 countries.
  • This year we celebrated ten years of publishing the Environmental Peacebuilding Update, our biweekly e-newsletter highlighting recent developments relating to natural resources, conflict, and peace, with links to new publications, international news, upcoming conferences and events, and job openings. Today marks the publication of the 261st issue. When we consult members of the Environmental Peacebuilding Community of Practice and of EnPAx, they consistently highlight the value of the Update and the website.  We are deeply indebted to our editor, Joel Young, and the large team of volunteers who collect, code, and post materials, and then create the Update every two weeks. Under the leadership of Julie Yoon, with guidance from Silja Halle and Marisa Ensor, we have also continued our monthly Newsletter on Gender, Natural Resources, Climate, and Peace.
  • The Association held many virtual webinars, consultations, and skills-building events. By the end of the year, EnPAx had held 36 events. In the process, the Association adopted a number of measures to facilitate dialogue and networking.
  • In September 2023, EnPAx and SAGE Publishing launched the journal Environment and Security. Environment and Security is the leading global outlet for peer-reviewed research and debates on issues at the intersection of environmental and security. Environment and Security is a quarterly journal that seeks to publish innovative research on the intersections between environmental and security issues, and to inspire debates by decision makers and practitioners. All research published in the journal will engage with and advance existing academic debates on the topic, either through presenting novel empirical findings, through theoretical elaboration, or through insights from practitioners. 

Editor’s Note

As 2023 comes to a close, we hope you have enjoyed all of the selections offered through our Knowledge Platform. I have had the pleasure of serving as Editor of the Environmental Peacebuilding Update since 2015 and as Executive Coordinator of EnPAx since its incorporation in 2018. EnPAx is a small, volunteer-run, global organization with a dedicated team of contributors bringing to you the latest environmental peacebuilding initiatives, publications, news, job opportunities, events, and opinions from the field. Each of the pieces we publish to our website are carefully compiled, curated, and coded to ensure that the most relevant, interesting, and noteworthy developments in environmental peacebuilding are accessible to our community. We are grateful to receive submissions to the Knowledge Platform from both EnPAx Members and members of the Environmental Peacebuilding Community of Practice and are delighted to meet and discover emerging voices for environmental peacebuilding.

Favorites of 2023: Editor’s Picks

2023 was a busy year for environmental peacebuilding which means there was a lot to read! 607 publications, videos, and other items were added to the online Library.  Here are some of our favorites from the year:

Of the 706 news and opinion articles posted on the Knowledge Platform in 2023, here is a selection of some of our favorite stories:

The war in Ukraine continued to be a top story of 2023 for environmental peacebuilding. As such, a selection of the top publications, news, and opinion pieces regarding the environmental dimensions of the war in Ukraine is warranted. Whether for you to re-visit or catch-up on the developments of 2023, here is our selection of thoughts, research, and reporting from the field on the Ukraine war. More items are available at https://www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/featured/ukraine/:

Toward the end of 2023, the attack by Hamas and the subsequent Israeli campaign in Gaza generated another high-profile conflict with environmental dimensions. [There were, of course, other ongoing conflicts in Sudan, Yemen, Central African Republic, and Myanmar – among others – with important environmental dimensions.]  The Knowledge Platform created a new featured subsite on the environmental dimensions of the Palestine-Israel conflict (https://www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/featured/palestine-israel/). Here is a sampling of some of the top publications, news, and opinion pieces regarding the environmental dimensions of the Palestine-Israel war:

We at EnPAx sincerely thank all our Members, volunteers, contributors, and supporters for helping us have another positive and productive year of building the Association and Community of Practice. As Editor of the Update, I humbly thank all our dedicated readers for tuning in to this newsletter every other week. I hope that you have as much enjoyment from reading the Environmental Peacebuilding Update as we do from publishing it.

Ahead to 2024!

Joel Young

Editor, Environmental Peacebuilding Update