The International Journal of Environmental Issues published a Call for Papers for a Special Issue on “Environmental conflict and security revisited: Examining multilevel interactions and responses to environmental degradation”

While a plethora of investigation has explored the links between environmental/resource conflict and (in)security, many studies are based on a single level of analysis, privileging the state, the international community, municipal government, non-state actors, or others. The purpose of this call for papers is to revisit, reflect, open, and advance the debate over environmental resources and conflict and to encourage an explicitly multilevel analytic approach. Conflict is defined broadly, to not only include examples of specific human conflict over resources, but also conflicts between policy prescriptions and norms relating to environmental degradation and resource use.  Beyond conflicts between social groups over natural resources, we are interested in analyses of conflict between different levels of governance and human agency. Contributions from a wide range of disciplines are encouraged, including but not limited to history, sociology, anthropology, political science, environmental studies, development studies, geography, economics, and natural sciences.

For more information and the programme, please see http://www.inderscience.com/browse/callpaper.php?callID=293

In 2005, the Institute for Development and Peace initiated the project Human Security: Theory and Practice.  The project benefits from the members’ previous work on state failure, global governance, smart sanctions and environmental security.

Since the mid 1990s, the human security approach has been promoted by various actors, most prominently by UNDP and the Japanese and Canadian government. Though this concept is relatively well established as a political leitmotif, in the academic world the approach and especially its definition is criticized for being too ambiguous.

The INEF project perceives human security as a challenge to more traditional security concepts within the theories of international relations. The project distinguishes six dimensions of human security which have the potential to existentially threaten the individual’s physical and mental well-being. One goal of the project is to establish an easy manageable way to measure human (in)security through specific thresholds for each dimension. On a national or regional level, these will be based on aggregated data of international organisations. The second goal is to establish a tool for a rapid “bottom-up” assessment of the human security situation at the local level, which can contribute to the formulation of policy strategies. The project is conducted by Tobias Debiel, Sascha Werthes and Annabelle Houdret.

Further information: http://inef.uni-duisburg.de

Following the launch of the information portal "Civilian Crisis Prevention - Environment and Resources" (www.krium.de) one year ago, this is the first newsletter on Environ ment, Conflict, and Cooperation published jointly by Adelphi Research and Germanwatch. The partnership is intended to broaden the range of issues covered, turn the spotlight on civilian approaches to preventing and transforming environmental conflicts and integrate this issue in the activities of German and international non-governmental organizations.

The newsletter will appear every two months starting with this edition and provide information on political initiatives, new publications and events. In addition, a series of dialogues and events involving NGOs, government and business representatives on "environment and resource conflicts" and "environmental cooperation and peace building" will be organized jointly with Germanwatch over the next three years in Germany.

The German edition of this newsletter has over 600 subscribers, and this speaks volumes of the level of interest regarding these issues in the country. Germany is not alone in according priority to this issue in its development assistance. Foreign and multilateral donor institutions and implementing organizations are also increasingly focusing on how to integrate approaches for conflict management in projects and programmes on environmental cooperation. In keeping with this trend, the Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation portal and the newsletter will henceforth appear in English as well as in German (www.krium.de). Partners in the environment and development cooperation sector can access information on relevant developments in Germany and the world at www.ecc-platform.org. We plan to gradually expand the platform by adding regional portals, which will be created locally together with other partner organizations. Our objective is to strengthen networking among relevant stakeholders across the world.

We would urge you to inform your partners in other countries that the information at this portal is now also available in English. This information platform is being funded till March 2008 as part of the Federal Environmental Agency's and the Federal Environment Ministry's programme for the promotion of non-profit associations. This will facilitate the long term establishment of an international network.

We would like to thank our readers and members of the Advisory Board for their constructive suggestions which have helped us to develop this information portal over the last 12 months.

The editorial team

Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) can serve as a tool to resolve disputes over resources property rights. In many situations, unclear property rights and rights on natural resource use lead to local conflicts. In recognition of this problem, the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) promotes FLR as an innovative tool with potential for resolving disputes. FLR is an approach to managing the dynamic and complex interactions between the people, natural resources and competing land-uses that comprise a landscape. It makes use of collaborative approaches to harmonise the different land-use decisions of stakeholders with the aim of restoring ecological integrity and enhancing the development of local communities and national economies. In this, FLR might offer an added value for poverty reduction, local economic growth as well as environmental security.

The links between FLR and environmental security are quite obvious. As forest land is degraded and fragmented, the velocity and rate of site-level run-off increases, soil erosion accelerates, slope stability reduces, and water quality declines. The disasters that grab headlines are therefore not just a consequence of, for example, one particularly heavy rainfall but are symptomatic of a long-term erosion of ecological integrity. FLR can help reverse this trend by increasing not only landscape-level resilience to shocks, but also by enhancing landscape-level adaptability so that both government and local communities are in a better position to respond to such shocks. As the ITTO emphasizes in it latest newsletter, convincing policymakers of the value of FLR is important not only for the success of restoration initiatives, but also for continous support for forestry activities in general. The ITTO underlines the importance of convincing governments of the real value of forests and the need to restore degraded forest landscapes - otherwise the cut back of forest department budgets is likely to continue (DT).

For the ITTO newsletter "Tropical Forest Update", see http://www.itto.or.jp/live/PageDisplayHandler?pageId=243 

Read more about forests and the problem of illegal logging at

http://www.illegal-logging.info/ 

See also "Civil Society Mobilises against Illegal Forest Exploitation" in "The Post" (Bureau/Cameroon) as of September 29 at http://allafrica.com/stories/200509300224.html

Water experts from around the world found themselves at a crossroads at the annual World Water Week in Stockholm in August. Eight of the workshops and one high-level panel discussion focused on hard versus soft solutions for the billions of people without adequate access to water and sanitation services – or, as the conference organizers put it, “to dam or not to dam”. The majority of speakers and participants chose the road marked “large-scale infrastructure,” leaving “soft solutions” to the world’s water crises mostly unexplored. Big money for big projects was announced, the social and environmental costs associated with dam building were hardly ever mentioned. As Jamal Saghir, the World Bank’s water and energy director, put it: “If Kenya wants our money for large-scale infrastructure, no problem.”

And yes, not only Kenya wanted the World Bank’s money for dams. Ministers from several African countries made a point to say it wasn't the Bank pushing them toward expensive dams, but that they had chosen this development path of their own free will. The strategies they announced were based on big infrastructure, to divert water from one region of the country to another, or to feed regional power grids that are yet to be developed. Sunita Narain from the Centre of Science and Development in New Delhi, India, and the winner of this year's Stockholm Water Prize, promoted a soft solution to water scarcity: rain-water harvesting. But she remained an exotic outlaw, an NGO poster child: She explained how more and more houses in Indian cities collect rainwater on their rooftops and how villages in Rajastan are blooming thanks to hand-made rainwater storages. And she stressed that small-scale, decentralised solutions are much cheaper and can be scaled up as finances allow.

Interestingly enough, even the financial argument did not seem to carry much weight with the institutions present in Stockholm, such as African governments, the World Bank and the World Water Council. Soft solutions were discussed as if they were a mere add-on, something civil society should deal with. It was therefore somehow appropriate that the World Water Week featured a poster exhibition for NGOs to showcase their small-scale success stories, whereas the World Bank’s approach was discussed in the main conference hall. Before the start of the conference, the organizers claimed: “Diversity will be on display at the 2005 World Water Week in Stockholm”. New and diverse strategies to solve water-related development issues and increase poor people’s access to water and sanitation were indeed on display. Anders Berntell, representing the organizers, called for a “people-centred approach to dam building”. He called for the application of the World Commission on Dams guidelines to ensure that the interests of the poor are at the centre of water development. Yet, his calls remained unanswered by representatives from governments and the development-aid industry. They appeared more interested in looking at posters of people (Ann Kathrin Schneider, International Rivers Network).

For more information on the world water week, see http://www.worldwaterweek.org 

Further information on the International Rivers Network could be obtained at http://www.irn.org/ 

A key advantage that NGOs have over governmental agencies in crisis prevention is their proximity to local communities. It allows them to win the confidence of groups in conflict regions to whom government organisations have little access. This was one of the findings of the conference on the role of civil society in crisis prevention that took place in Berlin in mid June. The conference was organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The federal government's Action Plan for "Civilian Crisis Prevention" thus emphasises the need for enhanced cooperation between different policy sectors and stakeholders. To facilitate this process, the Action Plan now has an institutional framework, which includes an Interministerial Steering Group and an Advisory Board comprising researchers and civil society representatives.

The opportunities and limitations of such an institutional setup were one of the main themes of the conference. The conference took positive note of the fact that the Interministerial Steering Group includes ministries, such as for those for economic affairs or environment, which traditionally have not been directly involved in civilian conflict management. Their involvement considerably facilitates information dissemination and coordination; it also supports a more cohesive approach to crisis prevention. The Advisory Board provides expert inputs for the Interministerial Steering Committee and also plays an important role in ensuring multiplier effects. It was acknowledged, however, that the involvement of civil society cannot be restricted to this body alone. Decision makers must seek a much more broad-based dialogue with civil society. Apart from their proximity to local communities, civil society groups often have the added advantage that their activities are long term in nature and consequently tend to outlive governments. Leveraging this advantage in a systematic manner will continue to be critical to strengthening crisis prevention (DT).

For more information on the action plan "Civilian Crisis Prevention", see http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/en/aussenpolitik/friedenspolitik/ziv_km/aktionsplan_html 

Friedrich Ebert Foundation: http://www.fes.de/ (in German).