“Traditionally, natural resources have been thought of as a source of conflict…but what we’ve been trying to do is look at the other side of the story, which is that natural resources, in terms of their quality, can create that impulse for conservation and cooperation,” said Saleem Ali, professor of environmental studies and director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security at the University of Vermont, while speaking at the Wilson Center.
This narrative around peace parks or transboundary conservation areas that are used for peacebuilding is a relatively recent field of research, said Ali. “It’s one thing to have a protected area on a border and have cooperation between friendly parties – like the U.S. and Canada,” he said, “and it’s a totally different thing to explore this in areas where there’s a history of protracted violent conflict.”
Yet, Ali said, we have “a good institutional framework for understanding what kind of parks could potentially be developed.” Cooperation between Ecuador and Peru in the Cordillera del Condor protected area, for example, is an incidence where transboundary conservation was actually written into the peace process between two warring states. Recent tragedies on the Siachen glaciers highlight another case where calls have been made to use peace parks as a way to demilitarize a contentious border over which India and Pakistan have long argued.
Questions remain though about the capacity of conservation processes to sustain peace, and “whether micro-conflicts that might arise through any conservation being practiced can be managed effectively.” Peace parks established in South Africa after apartheid, for example, produced “micro-conflicts between the haves and the have-nots – the classic conflict between conservation as an exclusionary arena versus a more inclusionary vision.”
Transboundary peace parks are an amazing concept. I have
always marveled at the ability of national parks and protected areas to draw a
crowd of people just wishing to enjoy nature and bask in its natural wonder. As
an avid supporter of international peace, the desire to take a common interest
such as conservation and turn it into a mechanism for international cooperation
just makes sense – What better way to unite two nations than over a common cause
such as environmental protection that will affect them all? In my opinion, the
idea of transboundary peace parks is genius, and I can’t wait to see the
progress of these parks’ implementation.
Saleem Ali makes a great point that will stick with me –
instead of thinking of natural resources as the source of conflict, which can
be seen throughout many nations in this day and age, why can’t natural
resources be the source of peace? This reverse, outside-the-box thinking is the
kind of school of thought that is necessary to solve current conflicts. Within
this article, I liked how Ali made the distinction between areas that share a
border and are cooperating vs. utilizing natural areas in places of violent
conflict – as it is these areas which will benefit the most from a
transboundary peace park and the cooperation that is necessary in order to
achieve this common goal. It will be interesting to see the development of
these parks as time goes on and how well they actually work in the goal to
achieve both peace and conservation.
“Traditionally, natural resources have been thought of as a source of conflict…but what we’ve been trying to do is look at the other side of the story, which is that natural resources, in terms of their quality, can create that impulse for conservation and cooperation,” said Saleem Ali, professor of environmental studies and director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security at the University of Vermont, while speaking at the Wilson Center.
