ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the landscape of environmental governance in relation to peace. It reflects on the claims made in the name of environmental governance – at different scales – in relation to actually existing processes, practices and outcomes of 'environmental governance'. The chapter examines on environmental governance in relation to water, forests and protected areas. Forests and protected areas constitute slightly different cases due to the fixed nature of their physical space, but highly dynamic nature of their ecosystems, biomass production, vulnerability to rapid degradation, and the varied interpretations of their 'value' to humans and nature itself. Global environmental governance may openly or implicitly seek to foster positive peace: a healthy natural environment is necessary for all; non-socially or -ecologically destructive production processes must be the aim of all economic activities. In order to understand the presence and absence of violent conflict across the region, despite similar environmental stressors, one would need to undertake extensive and systematic research.
