EDC News

About EDC News:

EDC News is dedicated to disseminate and discuss research and case studies on environment & development challenges, covering news and reports on population dynamics, access to natural resources and livelihoods, and their impact on poverty alleviation, economic growth, and health.

Particular attention is paid to human rights and gendered aspects of these issues, and the policy challenges posed by risks of conflict and humanitarian disasters.

EDC News consists of a resource base of material continually added to on this web site; an electronic newsletter which summarizes this material six times a year; and a corresponding e-mail newsletter (free) with short prompters pointing subscribers to the lates issue of EDC News on the web.

Each item there will lead readers to full reviews of reports and cases. Whenever possible, these contain links to downloading full-text versions of the original documents or reports. In addition, both news items and reviews are linked to research issues, concepts and cases , as well as research sources on this site.

These background sections are continually added to. Each issue of the newsletter contains a note on material and resources added to the site since the last issue of EDC News.

People behind EDC News:

EDC News is commissioned by the Environmental Policy Division at Sida (the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), and edited by Leif Ohlsson, at the department of peace and development research, Göteborg University, Sweden.

From 2003 EDC News is produced in cooperation with SODECO (Social Development Consultants), Lund, Sweden, with main contributions from Mikael Hammarskjöld,Ditte Mårtensson, Bertil Egerö, and Anna Collins-Falk.

EDC News offers opportunities for volunteer work, contributing material. Contact Leif Ohlsson.

History of EDC News:

EDC News - Environment & Development Challenges has been published under its present name since the beginning of 2003.

It is a continuation of the electronic newsletters EDC News - Environment, Development & Conflict (of which it is a seamless continuation), and the printed newsletter Update on People and the Environment, both commissioned by the Environmental Policy Division at Sida, the Swedish International Development Agency.

For English readers, abstracts of the contents and links to reviews will be found in the Archive, which also contains previous issues of the present electronic version for reading on your screen, as well as the option to download them as pdf-files for printing.

(Swedish readers have the additional opportunity to download the earlier printed issues in Swedish as pdf-files from the Archive. Earlier issues of Update on People and the Environment are available from Sida.)

Features of EDC News: EDC News is consciously built up as a web in its own right, featuring several levels of deeper review and analysis and the option to check a lot of internal cross-references. Whenever in the text you find one of these little arrows, it will lead you to the next level of analysis in another document on this site, or another section of the document you are reading.

(The system is not completely coherent - in order to conform to conventions some internal links may still be underlined, e.g. in the navigational part of the sidebar to the left.)

All external links are underlined, and will open in separate windows, as does downloaded documents from this site, such as pdf-files. This is in order for you to be able to continue browsing this site while loading external sources or downloading files. Finally, couloured text is not linked; the coulouring is just used for high-lighting the content.

Six important points:

• We live at a unique historic juncture. Never have so many people been born in such a short time, as during the last decades, and all of them with perfectly legitimate demands on resources, not only for survival but also for increased welfare. At the same time, never has the depletion of vital natural resources been so rapid.

• Les normes écologiques dans le batiment sont de plus en plus importantes pour l'utilisation de l'energie et le réchauffement climatique. C'est pour cela que dans les lois liées au batiment conçue par les différents gouvernements comme la loi Pinel (https://loipinel.fr), des normes énergétiques comme les normes BBC et RT2012 sont imposée lors de la construction de logements à destination locative.

• Poor people are particularly dependent on renewable natural resources for their welfare. The fact that world poverty is not diminishing more quickly - and the very real risk that it may increase again - is intimately linked to environmental destruction and natural resource depletion.

• The challenge is thus two-faced - to successfully eradicate poverty, and to successfully reconstruct the productivity of depleted eco-systems. The two faces of the challenge furthermore are inextricably linked: In order to be sustainable, any strategy for poverty elimination needs to take account of environmental and resource issues. Conversely, well designed environmental protection measures will be of particular benefit to the poor.

• Poor people and poor countries more often find themselves forced into ways of securing livelihoods that inherently are prone to depleting the natural resource base, thus undermining long-term productivity. (Which is not to say that the poor are responsible for the most serious environmental effects.) The underlying structural problems, factors and issues must be better understood and dealt with.

• The reconstruction of depleted natural resources , and their sustainable maintainenance, may help create a framework for conflict prevention, since groups and individuals by necessity will have to work in cooperation towards a commonly accepted goal. In addition, reconstruction will create job opportunities and create sustainable livelihoods for an increased number of people. On the other hand, risks for conflicts based on diminishing natural resources and a growing number of environmental refugees must be taken very seriously.

• At this period of time great and growing scarcities of natural resources and environmental space co-exist with a great surplus asset - the productive capabilities of those still kept in involuntary poverty. Combining the imperative of poverty elimination with the imperative of sustainable use of natural resources and the environment is both possible and necessary. It requires great national and international investments of both knowledge and capital, but it will prove to be a most worthwhile investment for industrial and developing countries alike.

State of the World report: Our common future depends on China and India

The choices that China and India make in the next several years will have a huge impact on the quality of life throughout the world. Those choices will be influcenced, in turn, by what the headway leading industrialized countries will make towards sustainability. Developing countries around the world look for signals, and will be persuaded more by what industrialized countries do than what they say. This is the gist of the prestigious State of the World 2006 report from Worldwatch Institute. There is ample evidence that China and India so far are following the western model, in particular in their use of fossil fuels.

The United States, Europe, Japan, India, and China together claim 75 percent of the Earths biocapacity, effectively leaving 25 percent for the rest of the world.

Lester Brown's "Plan B": Poverty reduction and environmental reconstruction

Although it is obvious that no society can survive the decline of its environmental support systems, many people are not yet convinced of the need for economic restructuring. But this is changing now that China has eclipsed the United States in the consumption of most basic resources, notes Lester Brown in an updated version of his book "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble". Integral part of this "Plan B" are poverty eradication and environmental reconstruction. Creating an economy which will sustain economic progress requires hope and a functioning natural resource base. Both needs to be recreated and reconstructed, and they go toghether.

If we fail, says Brown, it will not be because of lack of fiscal resources. Even if the US would take on the costs alone, and deduct the whole cost from its present military budget, it would still leave enough room for military spending surpassing all NATO countires, plus Russia and China, combined.

Environmental peacemaking in practice - the Balkans

Environmental peacemaking has been proposed as a concept and a practice carrying the hope of being one of a set of "tools" for managing a diversity of conflicts, between and within countries around the world. Franziska Heidenreich has critically studied one such process of environmental peacemaking, namely the Balkans. Her story starts at the symbolic-laden Old Bridge in Mostar, linking Moslem Bosniaks and Catholic Croats.

It is a truly critical study - the hopes of bringing peace between the two communities through joint management of the transnational Neretva River waterway has so far floundered. Mostar is still very much a divided city.

The story is continued by a close examination of the peace negotiations, and a background page on the post-conflict situation in the Balkans.

Hopes for reconciliation in the still conflict-prone Balkan region today is tied mostly to the EU perspective.

Research Concepts, Issues & Cases: (See also special page "Research sources" )

• Afghanistan - IDPs created by destruction of livelihood resources; 2002 hunger report; UNEP assessment of impacts of war; Hamun Lake; Rebuilding irrigation; land disputes major source of conflict; land rights II; Clean water crucial for successful return of refugees
• Agriculture - links to conflict
• Agricultural research and poverty alleviation
• AIDS & conflict - the case of northern Nigeria; and biodiversity
• Amazonas drought; deforestation 2005 diminished; deforestation larger than thought
• Angola - land rights (also: conflict diamonds); creating jobs; peace-time land conflicts; water scarcity igniting conflict; competition for resources fuel tensions
• Aral Sea donors conference; fisheries reviving;
• Balkans - state of the environment assessment
• Biodiversity and population; in the local household & AIDS; Extinction crisis (Ehrlich et al.)
• Bolivia - water conflict created state of emergency
• Cape Verde - reconstructing environment for livelihoods
• Carbon sequestration Sahel; and US agriculture
• Cattle clashes - the case of Tanzania
• Causality - methodological problems in political-ecological systems
• Central Asia - the risk of terrorist attacks on dams; Kyrgyzstan groundwater; and deforestation; Tajikistan water scarcity; and livelihoods mitigating conflict; Kazakhstan radioactive waste; Aral Sea donors conference; clean water projects in the Ferghana Valley; solar power in Uzbekistan; Azerbaijan's New Environment Ministry; Tajikistan rural water problems; Ilegal logging in Azerbaijan; The rubbish dump of Baku; Urban water problems in Kyrgyzstan
• Chad - conflicts with Darfur refugees over environmental resources
• Challenges 2003 - Food security, HIV/AIDS, and reconstruction
• Charcoal in Somalia - and in Madagascar; as an alternative for Africa
• China - water and conflict (also: increased water prices); urban sprawl & sandstorms; Worldwatch testimony; windpower; - forces world to rethink economic model; State of the World 2006
• Cities and extremism
• Climate change and development; and conflict - German report; adaptation to; DFID report; and species extiniction; crash course on the linchpin of sustainable development; advanced course: "Toward a global energy transition"; Antarctic ice melting faster; Arctic ice cover also melting faster; Obstacles for developing countries; Mt. Kilimanjaro; Himalayan glaciers melting; tackled in Soluth Africa
• Coastal management in Tanzania; coastal areas under pressure (PRB report)
• Conservation dilemmas - Cameroon
• Corporate policy - in response to environmental security concerns
• Corruption - rent seeking in irrigated agriculture
• Cote d'Ivoire - anatomy of a humanitarian disaster in the making; militias formed by unemployed young men
• Cotton: US subsidies and African countries
• Darfur - environmental and resource aspects of an ongoing genocide; environmental impacts of IDPs and risk of new conflicts
• Deforestation and conflict; around Mt. Kenya; illegal fellings in Pakistan; illegal timber export globally; from African countries to China; Global forest cover shrinking; in Myanmar; in Malawi; 50 percent drop in Brazil 2005; not a cause of widespread flooding; Amazon deforestation twice as large as previously thought; FAO forest report 2005
• De-mining - regaining livelihood resources in Mozambique, Angola, and Eritrea
• Demographic Divide (PRB report)
• Depleted Uranium (DU) - Factbox. February 2001 update. DU in Bosnia.
• Diamonds and conflict - Angola; 2005 report Angola
• DRC & illegal resource extraction - UN panel, main report of (critique of; second UN report; cont'n of; ICG report; Oxfam report); war business; Final UN Panel report
• DRC - Coltan mining & Europe's role (also: Coltan & health)
• Drought - causes competiton for land in Kenya
• Dryland areas - Mortimer research
• East Timor - deforestation & soil erosion obstacles for development
• Ecological marginalization - the consequence of scarcity and inequality
• Environmental Marshall Plan - call for research and policy-making
• EcoEconomy Indicators; Worldwatch University resources
• Ecological footprint; Asian footprint measured
• Ecological sources of conflict - ACTS research programme on Africa; Lind & Sturman 2002 book
• Electronics waste dumping
• Environmental peacemaking (3-part article)
• Environmental refugees (Lester Brown); - UN University
• Environmental scarcity - population pressure, environmental impacts and inequality
• Environmental security - comprehensive article, focus on forests
• Environment & security - the debate. UNEP promotes concept
• Environmental terrrorism
• Ecological Poverty - by Anil Agarwal, CSE, Delhi
• Environmental consequences of war - book review
• Eritrea - water and returnees
• Ethiopia - tribal clashes over land; as a case for an Environmental Marshall Plan (many interrelated pages); population increase; New emergencies looming; "Safety Net" schemes; Population-poverty trap
• Extrative Industries Review; chronic urban poverty
• Extinction crisis (Ehrlich et al.)
• Factory farming
• Fertilizers in Africa
• Fisheries declining ("Nature" report); Shrimp trawling; Eco-Economy indicator; Aral Sea reviving;
• Flash floods - in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan
• Food - the right to; African food crisis
• Food insecurity - FAO report, Christian Aid report; environmental factors
• Food security & conflict (Iraq, Afghanistan)
• Forests - FAO report 2003; Eco-Economy Indicator; and peace; Mt Kenya; Pakistan; illegal timber export globally; from African countries to China; Wangari Mathai argues for protection; Guatemalan nable forestry in preserved areas; FAO forest report 2005
• Gendered aspects - of livelihood conflicts (also UNIFEM report; and WCRCW report); of conflict management; of drylands management; skewed male-to-femal sex ratio as a cause of conflict
• GM crops - the debate reviewed, plus the case of Mexican maize
• Grain prices and record temperatures
• Great Lakes and the role of environmental scarcities (ACTS studies)
• Groundwater resources in Africa - UNESCO survey
• HIV/AIDS and security (ISS study); and conflict in Nigeria; and labour-saving techniques (LST); and war in Iraq; destroying farming in Lesotho; impact on agriculture in Uganda; and land tenure in Kenya; scientists revising their findings on "new variant famine"
• Homer-Dixon (et al.) - research projects of the TorontoGroup. Key Findings.
• Human Rights & environment; hazardous waste as a HR issue
• Hunger & conflict
• IDPs - Internally Displaced Persons - research effort; policy effort; cases
• Indices - the use of, and the USMC "Flashpoint" project - a "Feedback" discussion
• Indonesia - Madurese (also: foreign companies & separatist conflicts)
• Ingenuity Gap
• Iran - demining
• Iraq - war as a consequence of a US policy failure to address fossil fuel dependence. Review of expert commentary (Klare). Post-war environmental situation.
• Irrigated agriculture - rent seeking
• Israel/Palestine - Environment as a target of war (see also); population issues neglected
• Kenya - drought causes competition for land
• Kenya - clashes in Tana district; and in Isiolo
• Kenya - state-sponsored deforestation; Mt. Kenya water crisis
• Lakes and rivers running dry
• Land hunger and Population
• Land rights - Angola
• Liberia - Timber exports fuelling conflict, refugee flows
• Limits to growth - 30 years after
• Links between environment, food & conflict in Africa - University of Leeds study
• Livelihood Conflicts - loss of livelihoods is a common denominator for most internal wars
• Livelihoods - fundamentals of a strategy: "Saving lives and livelihoods"
• Livelihoods - mitigating conflict in Tajikistan
• Living Planet Report 2004 (WWF)
• Madagascar - charcoal burning, loss of livelihoods & conflict
• MENA region; food security
• Mexico - conflicts over land & trees in Oaxaca; airport conflict; water conflict with US; refugees to US
• Militia Economics - there is a gendered economic logic to militias; re-recruitment in West Africa
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - five part review; IRN commentary
• Mountains - two reports; FAO 2003 report
• Mortimer research on dryland areas
• Mozambique - home of the best mine-clearers of the world
• Myanmar deforestation by the military
• Need or Greed? - renewable, or non-renewable resources as a cause of conflict
• Nigeria - resource aspects of communal clashes (Tiv-Jukun; Kaduna; fish-ponds)
• Nigeria - HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, and ethnic/religious strife in the north
• Nigeria - enviromental remediation in oil region (+ backgrounder on oil conflicts in Niger Delta); women & the oil conflict; state-sponsored violence report. Conflict in North more about land than religion. NY Times on land conflicts. Electronics waste dumping.
• Oil a source of poverty, corruption and war; and the war in Iraq; Extrative Industries Review
• Pakistan - Water scarcity (also: Population exodus); Deforestation; Quetta water crisis; Hyderabad water/health crisis; irrigation problems; the death of River Ravi; health crisis second year in row
• Pesticides - two reports
• Population, Environment and Health (PRB report); "Eco-Economy Indicators" (basic figures); environemntal implications of US population growth; - explosion in Ethiopia; Population declines stalling in some countries (PRB 2005)
• Poverty-environment nexus
• Population and land hunger; and security ("Security Demographic" report)
• Protein production - new methods
• Punjab, Pakistan - Land conflict
• Rainwater harvesting; Stockholm Water Prize to CSE, India
• Renewables - a tool for poverty alleviation; New Economic Foundation 2004 report
• Resource capture - inequality increases rapidly when scarcity sets in
• Rent seeking - general features
• Rice prices going up 2004
• Rwanda - env. scarcity & genocide (Gasana, Ohlsson, Percival & Homer-Dixon)
• Rwanda - debate on the role of livelihoods
• Sierra Leone & youth - Report: livelihoods needed for reconstruction; case study
• Social Resources and Social Resource Scarcity
• Solar power - Zambia; Uzbekistan; South Africa
• Somalia - charcoal (also: illegal waste dumping); inter-clan fighting & farm invasions; ILO "Dignity through work" programme;
• South Africa - The "Working for Water Programme"; unemployment and the environment;
• South Africa - Defusing land conflict in KwaZulu-Natal; Black people getting poorer
• Sudan - IDPs & conflict; ecological aspects of the conflict; Merowe dam
• Sumatra fires
• Sustainability - science of, and new paradigm for;
• Sri Lanka - water privatization
• Tajikistan - social water scarcity (also: livelihoods mitigating conflict)
• Tanzania - coastal management
• Tsunami - Somalia and UNEP report
• Uganda - Karamoja drought; agriculture & AIDS; Environmental Scarcity and Conflicts in the Lake Kyoga basin
• UNCCD+10 - desertification
• UNEP - governing council promotes environment & security; 2004 report on environment & conflict
• Urban environment
• Urban farming; urban poor and natural resources
• Urban slums
• Urban slums - UN-HABITAT
• Urbanization - a Pern cyberseminar (several parts); African cities (IRIN Special); UN projections way off?; special issue of EDC News on urbanization
• Uzbekistan - surviving the winter
• Vietnam - defusing a potential conflict between rice and shrimp farmers
• Wangari Maathai
• Water - UN 2003 report (UNESCO); African water case studies; African water conf.; Africa Lakes UNEP report
• Water resource management - and the risk of livelihood conflicts; "The turning of a screw"
• Water scarcity - and the "food bubble" (Lester Brown); in Africa; southern Africa
• Water scarcity as a second-order scarcity
• Water conflicts - between or within countries?
• Water conflicts - two historical databases at odds with each other?
• Water conflict - between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in India; in Angola; Kishangani dam in Kashmir
• Water Poverty Index - reflecting social adaptive capacity
• Water privatization - South Africa (and Bolivia, Sri Lanka); "Plan B" (two parts); success story in Senegal.
• Water scarcity - Pakistan; Tajikistan; Hamun lake Afghanistan/Iran; IRIN resource page on African cases Water studies IRIN 2003
• Water - The "Working for Water Programme", South Africa
• West Africa - unemployed young men an conflict
• Women in conflict (also UNIFEM report; and WCRCW report)
• World Commission on Dams (at IRN)
• Young men and war
• Zambia - solar power; lead poisoning
• Zimbabwe - politicide alert 2002; renewed 2003
• Zimbabwe - logging in the DRC

Some sources used in EDC News:

(For a list of subjects, see special page here . Sources below in alphabetical order. Full presentations follow below . The list is added to over time as sources are referred to in EDC News. Contributions and suggestions for new research sources are welcomed.) ACCORD (African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes)m ACORD (Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development) ACTS (The African Centre for Technology Studies) Adelphi Papers (IISS) Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Delhi Conflict, Development and Peace Network (CODEP) Ecological Conflicts List Environment and Conflicts Project (ENCOP) Environmental Change & Security Project (ECSP)Report (Woodrow Wilson Center) Environmental News Service (ENS) Feinstein International Famine Center (Tufts University) Forest Trees and People Programme (FTPP) Gleick, Peter Harvard "Economics and Conflict" web portal Homer-Dixon, Thomas Human Rights Watch (HRW) ID21 Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) International Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) Ohlsson, Leif Oxfam (policy papers) Pacific Institute for studies in development, environment, and security PRIO (International Peace Research Institute Oslo) Toronto group (Homer-Dixon) Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database Tufts University - Feinstein International Famine Center
UNEP - United Nations Environmental Programme UNWire Vietnam Environmental Conference Wolf, Aaron T.
Woodrow Wilson Center - Environmental Change & Security Project (ECSP) Report World Bank research on "The Economics of Civil War, Crime, and Violence" "World's Water" (at the Pacific Institute)

• ACCORD (South Africa)
• African Journal of Conflict Resolution
• Conflict Trends ACCORD (South Africa) The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) was established in 1992 as an Educational Trust and associated with South Africa’s five historically black universities: Western Cape, Fort Hare, Transkei, The North and Durban-Westville. The primary objective was to provide a mechanism to deal with conflict arising out of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democratic governance. Publishes the (print & online) magazine Conflict Trends, the African Journal of Conflict Resolution, plus a series of Occasional Papers.

Issues reviewed on this site include Gendered aspects of conflict management, and Women in Conflict.

• ACORD (UK) ACORD (UK) ACORD is an international non-governmental organisation carrying out long-term community-based and gender-sensitive programmes in remote and conflict-affected parts of Africa [not to be mixed up with the South-African ACCORD above].

• ACTS - entry page

• Ecological Sources of African Conflicts - project

• ACTS papers

• Background paper for the project (pdf, 100 p.)

• Experiences from Eastern Africa - paper (pdf, 20 p.) The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) is an international inter-governmental policy research and training organization located in Nairobi, Kenya. The Centre's activities focus on the implementation of Agenda 21 and related conventions on biological diversity, climate change and desertification. ACTS has research programmes on Ecological Sources of African Conflicts, Biotechnology Policy, Water Resources Management, Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs), and on Lake Victoria.

Reviewed on this site: Ecological Sources of African Conflicts.

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Delhi The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Delhi, India, is a prime source for information on environmental effects on the subcontinent, as well as the global NGO environmental movement. Founded by Anil Agarwal (who often writes opinion pieces in the fortnightly electronic newsletter "What's new at CSE", subscriptions free), the centre has in many cases taken a lead in global environmental discussions. A particular strong feature is their focus on ecological poverty; caused by loss of livelihoodsas a result of environmental scarcities.

CODEP

• About CODEP
• The CODEP Newsletter
• Subscribe Conflict, Development and Peace Network (CODEP) CODEP, the Conflict, Development and Peace network, was founded in the UK in 1993, as a multi-disciplinary forum for academics, organisations and practitioners involved in exploring the causes of conflict and its impact on people’s lives. It was believed that sharing ideas about policy and practice would help members challenge thinking on international responses to conflict and contribute to the development of good practice.

The organization publishes a most useful newsletter. To subscribe on the email version, write to Kathleen Armstrong at kathleena@codep.org.uk.

ACTS

• Ecological Conflicts List - subscription & information The Ecological Conflicts List (from ACTS) The Ecological Conflicts List is just what the name says - an email forum for "robust and provacative debate and exchange of information and ideas related to the ecological or environmental sources of conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa." It is moderated by Jeremy Lind (CGIAR) on behalf of the ACTS(African Centre for Technology Studies, Nairobi).

The future of the "Ecological Conflicts" list is under review, but it still continues, and has provided a continuous flow of news clippings and reports much in line with EDC News, but at a sometimes daily rate. Information and subscription here.

• ENCOP
• Occasional papers
• Final report Environment and Conflicts Project (ENCOP): The Environment and Conflicts Project (ENCOP) was run during the 1990s in cooperation between the Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), and the Swiss Peace Foundation, Berne.

The project is no longer active, but it produced a large number of useful occasional papers, and a final report in two volumes.
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• Woodrow Wilson Institute Environmental Change & Security Project (ECSP)
• The ECSP Report Environmental Change & Security Project (ECSP) Report: The Environmental Change and Security Project (ECSP) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC started in 1994. The Project has served as an information clearinghouse on the views, activities and policy initiatives falling under the rubric of "environment, population and security".

Of particular value to an international audience is the yearly publication of the Environmental Change and Security Project Report, for downloading in pdf format. (Note: Use the link provided here, and not the one provided on the ECSP site, which unfortunately is not updated.)

The article on Agriculture and Conflict by de Soysa & Gleditsh (reviewed in EDC News 2001-01) is contained in a section of Report No 5, which can be downloaded here (pdf-file).
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• ENS/Lycos Environmental News Service (ENS): The Environmental News Service is an independent service (email notifications plus web-site) featuring a broad range of news stories on environmental issues. It is offered in the Lycos network.
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Feinstein International Famine Center (Tufts University) The Feinstein International Famine Center at Tufts University, Boston, was established in 1996 to improve emergency, relief and refugee efforts in times of famine, war and complex emergencies. The Center works primarily in Africa to prevent and mitigate famine, resolve local conflicts and develop emergency responses that contribute to durable survival strategies for people coping with crisis. Directed by Sue Lautze, the Livelihoods Initiative focuses on microeconomics, considering the ways in which people survive in crisis situations over time. (On this site: Fundamentals of a Livelihoods Strategy.)

• Network
• Newsletter
• Publications
• Special cases
• Other FTPP sites (Referred to in EDC News 2001-01 )

Forests, Trees and People Programme: Forests, Trees and People Programme (FTPP) is a centre for networking activities which are jointly run by SLU Kontakt at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the Community Forestry Unit (CFU) based at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Italy, and regional programme facilitators in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin and North America.

The network is designed to share information about improving community forestry activities and about initiatives of interest to its members. Inquiries may be directed to the FTP regional center or network focal point nearest you. For more information, contact:

FTPP Network SLU Kontakt Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) Box 7034, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden Tel. +46-18-672001, Fax: +46-18-671980 FTPP.Network@kontakt.slu.se m

• Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR)
• Conflict Prevention Initiative (CPI)
• "Economics and Conflict" portal Harvard "Economics and Conflict" web portal Harvard University announces a new "Economics and Conflict" web portal, aiming to encourage dialogue between policy-makers, civil society, corporations, journalists, academics, and international corporations working in conflict zones.

The portal has been developed by the Conflict Prevention Initiative (CPI) at the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR).

• EPS: Environment, Population, andSecurity
• Environmental Scarcities, State Capacity, and Civil Violence
• Web publications
• Database Homer-Dixon, Thomas (Research websites of two major projects): The research projects headed by Thomas Homer-Dixon (Peace & Conflict Studies Program at the University of Toronto) belongs to the most well-run and productive in the field of environment & conflict studies. They have resulted in a number of reports and books by Homer-Dixon and his co-workers. The entire volume of research material is made available to others via an on-line database.

The two main projects were: The Project on Environment, Population, andSecurity, and The Project on Environmental Scarcities, State Capacity, and Civil Violence. The two websites can be reached from each other, as well as the database and publications on the web.

Full reviews (on this site) of projects, main articles & case studies: The research projects of the Toronto group (main page).m

• HRW
• Publications
• "Leave None to Tell the Story" Human Rights Watch (HRW) Human Rights Watch (HRW). One of the most active and well-renowned Human Rights organizations. Produces a steady stream of reports of great value on conflicts and human rights abuses. Many of these provide valuable and vital back-ground information also for specialized studies on links between environment, development & conflict. An example is the standard work on Genocide in Rwanda, "Leave None to Tell the Story" by Alison Des Forges .
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ID21 ID21 - A development research reporting service featuring "a selection of the latest and best UK-based development research". Free email newsletter, "ID21 News", announcing additions to the site. Reports always summarized with sources of original research and contact addresses to authors.

Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) A superb source for day-to-day news and updates on events relevant to humanitarian efforts, development, conflict, livelihoods and environment in Africa and Central Asia. Website, with the option to subscribe (free) to a selection of email newsletters (daily or weekly) on Central & Eastern Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, and Central Asia.

IRIN is run by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which also maintains the even more comprehensive service Reliefweb.

• IISS
• Adelphi Papers - more than 300 publications (summaries & ordering information available).

(Referred to in EDC News 1999-01 )

International Institute for Strategic Studies (Adelphi Papers): The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), founded in 1958, is an independent centre for research, information and debate on the problems of conflict. Its work is grounded in an appreciation of the various political, economic and social problems that can lead to instability as well as factors that can lead to international cooperation.

The IISS publishes the authoritative annual The Military Balance, an inventory of the world’s armed forces; Strategic Survey, an annual retrospective view of the year’s political and military trends; the Adelphi Paper monograph series, in-depth analyses of general strategic issues and regional security; a quarterly journal, Survival, a leading international journal of strategic issues; and Strategic Comments, containing short briefings on breaking strategic issues, which is also syndicated in the international press.
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• PRIO
• Publications
• Research

International Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) The International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) was founded in 1959 as one of the first centres of peace research in the world. PRIO is Norway's only peace research centre.

Publications include the two prestigious journals Security Dialogue and Journal of Peace Research. A recent book is Environmental Conflict by Paul F. Diehl and Nils Petter Gleditsh (order from Amazon.UK here). Annual reports 1998& 1999 available i pdf-format. A full-text version of Dan Smith & Willy Østreng (eds): Research on Environment, Poverty and Conflict is provided at the website.

Research programmes include "Agriculture & Conflict" and "Environmental Change, Good Governance, Development and Human Security (GECHS)". m

• Leif Ohlsson "Environment, Scacity, and Conflict" (main book)

Ohlsson, Leif (Personal research website, Göteborg University): Personal research website (at the dept. of Peace and Development Research, Göteborg University) of the editor of this site & newsletter. Most published articles available on-line (summaries & pdf-files of manuscript versions). The book Environment, Scarcity, and Conflict - a study of Malthusian concerns is available in full-text version (summaries + pdf-files of separate chapters).
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• Oxfam UK

• Oxfam Policy Papers Oxfam (Relief agency, with a special section of well-researched policy papers): This well-known humanitarian relief agency also has a section of well-researched policy papers (for an example on this site, see the Oxfam report on resource extraction in the DRC.)

• "The World's Water" Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security Water matters at the Pacific Institute are headed by renowned water expert Peter Gleick (email), editor of "The World's Water - The Biennal Report on Freshwater Resources", who also maintains a subsidiary "World's Water" site, with one of the best water-link pages on the web.

At that site, the Pacific Institute has announced the posting of an on-line chronology of water-related conflicts from 1500 AD to the present. Initially developed for the biennial water report, updated information on the subject is now made regularly available. The chronology may be studied online, or downloaded as a pdf-file.

• Publications by Aaron T. Wolf et al, available at:
• The Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database The Transboundary Freshwater DisputeDatabase at Oregon State University, maintained by Aaron T. Wolf and coworkers, is the prime source for empirical evidence for the argument that so called water wars between countries are highly unlikely. That does not mean that water scarcity and water issues will not lead to conflicts, only that these conflicts are much more likely to erupt within countries, often caused by losses of livelihoods as a result of water scarcity. (See a similar argument on this site .)

UNEP - United Nations Environmental Programme UNEP, the UN Environmental Programme, maintains a number of web-sites, one in Geneva (mainly for international environmental negotiations documents), and one in Nairobi (main site). The main UNEP outreach site is "UNEP.Net". A specialized sub-site is the UNEP Balkans Unit, specialising in environmental assessments of conflict in the Balkans (including depleted uranium, DU). m

Current issue
of UN Wire UN Wire UN Wire is an independent reporting service focusing on activities of UN organizations, human rights, environmental and other non-governmental organizations. In addition, it covers major newspapers (not only industrialized western countries). A very good source, with the option to subscribe to daily email headlines.

Produced by the National Journal Group, Washington, and sponsored by the United Nations Foundation (Ted Turner). Not to be mixed up with the official UN information service, UN Wire is nevertheless often more accessible and covers a wider area of subjects.

World Bank:

• “The Economics of Civil War, Crime and Violence.” World Bank research on "The Economics of Civil War, Crime and Violence" The World Bank has initiated an ambitous research programme and a special website on “The Economics of Civil War, Crime and Violence.” The programme is directed by Paul Collier, Ibrahim Elbadawi, and Norman Loayza. Prominently among the work published on the website figure articles by Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler on the themes of "Economic Causes of Civil War", "Greed and Grievance", and "Civil War in Africa". The project offers an electronic newsletter, and the website will be continually updated.