Pour une conservation sensible aux conflits

This practitioner's guide, published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), provides a framework for integrating conflict sensitivity into conservation activities. It aims to help NGOs and protected area managers minimize the risk of inadvertently exacerbating conflicts and maximize opportunities for peacebuilding, particularly in volatile regions where natural resource management often intersects with social and political tensions.

• Conservation activities can inadvertently fuel violent conflicts in three primary ways: by creating or exacerbating grievances among local communities, by becoming targets of violence (e.g., when compensation in cash or food makes beneficiaries targets for armed groups), or by sustaining active conflicts through biased management decisions such as staff recruitment or resource distribution.
• Armed conflicts negatively impact conservation both directly—through habitat destruction, wildlife killing, and threats to park personnel—and indirectly, by causing donors to withdraw funding in favor of immediate humanitarian needs.
• Conservation can actively contribute to peacebuilding by addressing the root causes of conflict (such as environmental degradation and resource scarcity), reducing the impacts of existing conflicts by rehabilitating resources, and creating neutral spaces for dialogue between conflicting parties based on a shared professional identity.
• Conflict-Sensitive Conservation (CSC) is defined as the programming and implementation of conservation that accounts for the causes, actors, and impacts of conflict to minimize risks and capitalize on peacebuilding opportunities.
• To make an organization conflict-sensitive, the guide recommends a three-step institutional process: determining the organization's capacity to adopt CSC (requiring leadership commitment and staff openness), allocating human resources (designating a CSC champion and a multidisciplinary team), and adopting guiding principles such as flexibility, transparency, and a priority on prevention.
• The guide proposes a practical two-step process for making specific conservation activities conflict-sensitive: first, conducting a conflict analysis (identifying, prioritizing, and analyzing conflicts), and second, designing, implementing, and monitoring CSC solutions.
• The conflict analysis phase utilizes three specific visual tools: the 'conflict tree' to map root causes and consequences, the 'conflict map' to analyze relationships and power dynamics between actors, and 'stakeholder profiles' to distinguish between the declared positions, underlying interests, and essential needs of the parties involved.
• Gender sensitivity is critical in CSC because men and women experience conservation and conflict differently; for example, while men may face physical risks during crop guarding, women may experience increased domestic violence or sexual violence in conflict zones.
• Effective CSC implementation requires adaptive management, including the use of impact matrices to monitor whether conflict intensity changes in relation to specific CSC activities, and the development of flexible exit strategies to avoid creating new tensions upon project closure.

APA

Hammill, A., Crawford, A., Craig, R., Malpas, R., & Matthew, R. (2009). Pour une conservation sensible aux conflits. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/csc_manual_fr.pdf

Chicago

Hammill, Anne, Alec Crawford, Robert Craig, Robert Malpas, and Richard Matthew. Pour une conservation sensible aux conflits. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2009. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/csc_manual_fr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hammill |first1=Anne |last2=Crawford |first2=Alec |last3=Craig |first3=Robert |last4=Malpas |first4=Robert |last5=Matthew |first5=Richard |title=Pour une conservation sensible aux conflits |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=2009 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/csc_manual_fr.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hammill2009pour, author = {Hammill, Anne and Crawford, Alec and Craig, Robert and Malpas, Robert and Matthew, Richard}, title = {{Pour une conservation sensible aux conflits}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2009}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/csc_manual_fr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }