News


Iraq: Cleaning up after ISIS: How Iraq’s New Chemicals Team Is Trying to Undo Years of Conflict Pollution

Dec 5, 2018 | UN Environment

ISIS (also known as the Islamic State or Da’esh) has more or less been defeated in Iraq, but throughout the areas it once occupied, the…


Sri Lanka: Tamil Villagers Call for End to Archaeology Land Grab in Trincomalee [Photos]

Dec 5, 2018 | Tamil Guardian

Locals in Trincomalee have written to the Divisional Secretariat of Kuchchaveli, calling for an end to an attempt by Sri Lanka’s archaeology department to seize…


DRC: DRC Classifies Cobalt, Coltan as 'Strategic' Minerals

Dec 5, 2018 | Africa News

Cobalt and coltan, used in electric vehicle and renewable energy technology have been classified as strategic minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congolese Prime…


Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone's 'Peace Diamond' Dividend Slow in Coming

Dec 5, 2018 | Agence France-Presse

They were promised a "peace diamond" dividend in the Sierra Leone village of Koryardu after the stone they handed over for auction fetched $6.5 million…


Myanmar: Jade Is Anything but Green

Dec 5, 2018 | Nick Meynen, Ecologist

Jade is the diamond of the East. A fast-growing, high-income class in China - who often cherish mystical values associated with jade - are causing a…


Peace, Not War, Responsible for Deforestation in Armed Conflict Zones

Dec 5, 2018 | University of Waterloo

Rates of deforestation in war zones increase dramatically once peace is declared, according to a study from the University of Waterloo. Forests and jungles provide…


EnPAx Icon Less Than One Month Left to Join the Environmental Peacebuilding Association as a Founding Member!

Dec 4, 2018

The Environmental Peacebuilding Association, founded in April of this year, is offering founding membership to individuals and institutions who join by December 31, 2018. With members from more…


Power Play: Can Micro-Hydropower Electrify Remote Afghanistan and Promote Peace?

Dec 4, 2018 | Elizabeth B. Hessami

After close to 40 years of armed conflict, Afghanistan may be poised to begin a period of economic recovery. Electrifying remote areas and establishing pervasive…


Pakistan: Land Grabbers, Henchmen Arrested in Islamabad after Gun Battle with Police

Dec 4, 2018 | Munawer Azeem, Dawn

The police arrested 42 people posing as the Taliban in order to grab land, after a gun battle during an operation Sunday night. Four policemen…


Colombia: El Nino May Cut Colombia's Rainfall by 80 pct in Q1 2019 - Minister

Dec 4, 2018 | Reuters

The El Nino weather phenomenon could reduce rainfall in Colombia by 80 percent in the first quarter of 2019, the country's environment minister said on…


Colombia: Colombia Tropical Forest Fires Spike after 2016 Peace Accords

Dec 4, 2018 | Rutgers University

Fires that contribute to deforestation spiked six-fold in Colombia in the year after an historic 2016 peace agreement ended decades of conflict between FARC guerrilla…


EnPAx Icon Casimiro Villadiego Olvida

Sarangani Energy Corporation
Philippines
Dec 4, 2018

Casimiro Olvida is a practitioner from the Philippines, focusing on watershed rehabilitation through public-people-private sector partnership, forest land use planning, forest governance, watershed management, and…


Refining the UN's Approach to the Water-Security Nexus

Dec 3, 2018 | Danilo Turk

Today, the world is increasingly aware of the dramatic meaning of water. Water stress and water-related disasters are among the main consequences of global warming…


DRC: Cobalt Mining Shows Clean Energy Revolution Comes at a Price

Dec 3, 2018 | Zoe Dawson, Irish Times


Iraq: Iraqi Security Prevents Protesters from Storming Oilfield

Dec 3, 2018 | Middle East Monitor

Iraqi security forces yesterday prevented dozens of demonstrators from storming the major oilfield of West Qurna 2 in the country’s southern province of Basra.


Myanmar: Chinese Company behind Controversial Copper Mine Eyes Additional 100k Acres

Dec 3, 2018 | Zarni Mann, Irrawaddy

Local concerns over the environmental impacts and potential for land confiscation in the Latpadaung copper mining area are rising again with the submission of an…


Colombia: Deforestation Is Unexpected Result of Peace in Colombia

Dec 3, 2018 | Stony Brook University

War can have devastating effects on nature, but what happens in times of peace? In a first-of-a-kind study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, scientists provide…


Russia/Ukraine: HotSpots H2O, December 3: Water Infrastructure Still a Target in Ukrainian Conflict

Dec 3, 2018 | Kayla Ritter, Circle of Blue

Attacks on civilian water infrastructure remain a strategic vulnerability in the ongoing conflict between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists. Two major water lines were…


Water Wars Won’t Be Won on a Battlefield

Dec 2, 2018 | Bill Frist

It’s an astonishing finding: “Two countries engaged in active water cooperation” will “not go to war, for any reason." According to an extensive analysis by…


Iraq: Iraq's Nineveh Province Declares State of Emergency Following Flash Flooding

Dec 2, 2018 | Mina Aldroubi, The National

Iraqi authorities on Sunday declared a state of emergency after flash flooding and torrential rainfall battered Nineveh, further exacerbating the plight of the war-torn province.…


Aaron Wolf on Transboundary Water Conflict and Cooperation [Podcast]

Nov 30, 2018 | Wilson Center

“Countries—even countries that don’t like each other much—have, and continue to have, conversations over water resources, even when they won’t about other issues,” says Aaron…


Opinion: Malnutrition In Conflict Zones is Rife- Here's How To Save Lives And Build Peace

Nov 30, 2018 | Michael Klosson

Conflict has been repeatedly cited by the United Nations as a major driver of hunger in 2018. Failure to get nutritious food to children trapped…


Sudan: Sudan’s East Darfur Embracing Shared Natural Resource Management to Curb Conflict

Nov 30, 2018 | UN Environment

As in many parts of western Sudan, Ismail and other East Darfur residents have for decades lived in a fragile environment characterized by climatic variability…


Afghanistan: Farmers Harvest More Saffron This Year

Nov 30, 2018 | Haidarshah Omid, TOLOnews

Amid arrival of saffron harvest season, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) said farmers have harvested three tons more saffron compared with the…


Colombia: Interfaith Rainforest Initiative Launched to Protect Colombian Rainforest, Indigenous Peoples

Nov 29, 2018 | Catherine Benson Wahlén, International Institute for Sustainable Development

Leaders from every major religious faith joined Afro-Colombian communities, indigenous peoples, climate scientists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to launch the Colombia ‘Interfaith Rainforest Initiative.’ Through…


Myanmar: UK Aid, WWF to Help Myanmar Develop ‘Green’ Rubber

Nov 29, 2018 | Chan Mya Htwe, Myanmar Times

The UK Department for International Development (DFID), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Dawei Golden Land Co (DGL) have made a joint investment of over…


Back to Business as Usual in Myanmar’s Jade Mines?

Nov 28, 2018 | Hanna Hindstrom

For over two decades, the world-famous jade mines in Hpakant in Kachin State have been associated with the horrors of Tatmadaw rule and civil war:…


EnPAx Icon Call for Proposals: 1st International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding

Nov 28, 2018

The Environmental Peacebuilding Association is delighted to announce the call for proposals for the 1st International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding. The conference will take place…


China/Vietnam/South China Sea: Chinese Construction on Remote Reef Rekindles Dispute with Vietnam

Nov 28, 2018 | Ralph Jennings, Voice of America

China's new construction on a remote South China Sea reef has soured its relations again with Vietnam, a claimant to the same islet, after a…


Israel/Palestine: Israel Rules in Favour of Settlers after 22-Year Legal Battle against Land Grab

Nov 28, 2018 | Middle East Monitor

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favour of settlers after a 22-year legal battle by Palestinians against efforts to annex their land in the occupied…