Conserving the Peace: Cooperative Approaches to Conservation, Livelihoods Generation and Disarmament

This report details the outcomes of a three-day workshop on 'Supporting Protected Areas in Times of Violent Conflict' held during the 5th IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, in September 2003. Co-organized by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) under a UNDP-supported initiative, the workshop focused on the bidirectional relationship between protected areas and violent conflict, identifying best practices for management during crises and the role of conservation in peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction.

• Participants established that peace is a fundamental requirement for conservation, noting that while protected areas benefit from peaceful conditions, they can also actively contribute to peace and cross-border cooperation if designed and managed with peace as an explicit goal.
• Protected areas can be negatively impacted by conflict, serving as home bases or sources of finance for insurgencies, and suffering from the destruction of resources and livelihoods caused by displaced peoples or the exploitation of resources by unscrupulous actors.
• Effective conservation during conflict requires proactive local community involvement through consent, decision-making, capacity building, and the provision of alternative livelihoods to prevent the exploitation of protected areas during crises.
• The workshop identified several critical operational needs for field staff in conflict zones, including the maintenance of a ground presence, flexible donor support, specialized training in conflict settings, and the use of codes of conduct for dealing with armed groups and corruption.
• To strengthen the enabling framework for conservation, participants recommended establishing an international crisis response team, seeking international 'neutrality' status for field staff similar to the Red Cross, and integrating conservation ethics into military and humanitarian operations.
• There is a need to adapt management tools—such as Social Impact Assessments and Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (PCIA) methodologies—to systematically monitor the impact of conflict on protected areas and vice versa.
• Post-conflict phases are identified as critical windows for both positive change and rapid environmental degradation, necessitating coordinated action to rehabilitate protected areas and ensure economic development respects conservation integrity.
• To address the root causes of conflict, conservation organizations are urged to advocate for human rights, improved governance, and poverty alleviation, while using commodity certification (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to reduce the trafficking of valuable resources used to finance conflicts.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2003). Conserving the Peace: Cooperative Approaches to Conservation, Livelihoods Generation and Disarmament. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/natres_durban_report_wpc.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Conserving the Peace: Cooperative Approaches to Conservation, Livelihoods Generation and Disarmament. 2003. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/natres_durban_report_wpc.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Conserving the Peace: Cooperative Approaches to Conservation, Livelihoods Generation and Disarmament |date=1 December 2003 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/natres_durban_report_wpc.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2003conserving, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Conserving the Peace: Cooperative Approaches to Conservation, Livelihoods Generation and Disarmament}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2003}, month = dec, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/natres_durban_report_wpc.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }