ABSTRACT
Natural resources and other environmental components are often important, if not central, to peace and conflict dynamics. One of the greatest threats to durable peace in the 21st century is conflict over natural resources such as minerals, oil and gas, land, and water. These disputes can, and often do, escalate to violence. Natural resources from diamonds and minerals to bananas and cacao are used to help finance armed conflict, and the environment is too often a casualty of war. The environment can also be a cause for peace. Increasingly, peace agreements have incorporated a range of environmental considerations and dynamics, and post-conflict recovery relies on natural resources for reintegrating ex-combatants, rebuilding livelihoods and the economy, providing basic services, and fostering cooperation and reconciliation.
Environmental peacebuilding provides an overarching framework for understanding the diverse roles and dynamics linking environment, conflict, and peace across the conflict life cycle. This chapter defines environmental peacebuilding and provides a framework for contextualizing and linking the approaches for understanding and managing the environmental dimensions of conflict and peace.
