ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the concept of environmental pathways to peace and summarizes what the authors think they have learned from the available body of scholarship and practice. Focusing on positive opportunities for peace rather than negative threats to security might be a stronger strategic foundation to promote environmental cooperation. The chapter focuses on impacts on renewable natural resources, including agricultural land, forests, fisheries, and freshwater resources, and found greater conflict risks at the intrastate, as opposed to interstate, level. The environment has been identified as a key ingredient for building a sustainable peace in war-torn societies. The global environmental challenges are immense in the aftermath of war, as public order and security, political reconciliation, reconstruction, economic recovery, livelihoods, and humanitarian relief all command priority attention. Natural disasters, which are an extreme and abrupt form of environmental change, provide another domain for testing the conflict-prevention potential of environmental protection.
