New Environmental Peacebuilding Global Knowledge Platform and Community of Practice

In November 2013, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in partnership with the University of Tokyo and McGill University, launched a global knowledge platform and community of practice in the emerging field of environmental peacebuilding. Environmental peacebuilding integrates natural resource management in conflict prevention, mitigation, resolution, and recovery to build resilience in countries and communities affected by conflict.

The Environmental Peacebuilding Community of Practice provides a global forum for dialogue and collaboration where researchers, practitioners, and decision makers can share experiences and lessons from managing natural resources in conflict-affected settings, access new research on the topic, and participate in events to support the growing network of professionals active in environmental peacebuilding. Members of the community of practice receive a biweekly email newsletter which provides updates on new developments in the field including new publications, upcoming conferences, calls for papers, job opportunities, and selected international news from conflict-affected countries. To facilitate communication between members, the community of practice includes discussion forums and disseminates information via social media including LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

The environmental peacebuilding knowledge platform provides users with free access to case studies and analyses on the linkages between natural resources, conflict, and peacebuilding. The site includes books, policy briefs, and other materials were produced as part of a broad collaboration (led by ELI, UNEP, McGill, and the University of Tokyo) with 225 researchers and practitioners around the world. Six books including 150 case studies and other analyses examining experiences from 60 conflict-affected countries and territories are being released to the platform, with 76 case studies already available online.  The fourth book in the series, Water and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, was published in February. The knowledge platform also provides access to reports, toolkits, guidance, and briefs from many other sources.

The platform and community of practice are growing rapidly, as members and materials are added daily. For more information, see www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org.

Originally published by Alliance for Peacebuilding.

Photo by by André Kwant.