Enhancing knowledge of the intersection between conservation, environmental change and armed conflict: policy lessons from eastern DRC.

While the negative effects of armed conflict on the environment and nature conservation are well documented, wehave a limited understanding of how environmental change and conservation shape armed mobilization. Armedactors often exploit natural resources in protected areas. They also capitalize on park-people conflicts andstruggles around natural resources that may enmesh with communal conflict. Environmental changes canexacerbate these conflicts and intensify armed mobilization. This creates complex feedback loops as more armedconflict can lead to further environmental degradation. This project aims to improve our understanding of therelations between conservation, armed conflict and environmental change by studying two protected areas ineastern DRC. The resulting knowledge will inform policies and programming for environmental peacebuilding(theme 1), biodiversity conservation, and natural resources governance (theme 2). The project will also provideinsights into dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion (theme 3).

Keywords:ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICT, CONSERVATION

Disciplines:Ecological anthropology

Project type:Service project