Report

Conserving the Peace: Analyzing the links between conservation and conflict in the Albertine Rift

Strategy Report prepared following the Project Inception Meeting in Nairobi, 1-2 February 2006.

By Anne Hammill, Oli Brown on February 29, 2008

The Albertine Rift is host to some of Africa's richest biodiversity, as well as the site of some of its most intense social and political upheavals. Conservationists working in the region are faced with mounting socio-economic pressures that not only threaten biodiversity but make their jobs more challenging and potentially dangerous. This calls for adaptive and innovative approaches to planning, implementing and evaluating conservation interventions so that they minimize risks and address some of the root causes of threats to conservation.

This paper charts the variety of forms of conflict that conservationists in the Albertine Rift face. It then analyzes seven conflict assessment tools that conservationist might use to obtain a better, more systematic understanding of conflict in their project area, assess how their interventions could affect conflict dynamics and use this understanding to design and implement activities that will avoid or mitigate conflict.

Report details

Topic
Environment, Conflict and Peacebuilding
Project
Conflict-Sensitive Conservation
Focus area
Climate
Resources
Publisher
IISD
Copyright
IISD, 2008