Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution (Global Environmental Accord: Strategies for Sustainability and Institutional Innovation) [Paperback]

Saleem H. Ali (Editor), Julia Marton-LaFevre (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2007 | Series: Global Environmental Accord: Strategies for Sustainability and Institutional Innovation

An analysis of the potential for environmental cooperation in multijurisdictional conservation zones to contribute to political conflict resolution; includes case studies of existing parks and proposals for new ones.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Although the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Kenyan environmentalist, few have considered whether environmental conservation can contribute to peace-building in conflict zones. Peace Parks explores this question, examining the ways in which environmental cooperation in multijurisdictional conservation areas may help resolve political and territorial conflicts. Its analyses and case studies of transboundary peace parks focus on how the sharing of physical space and management responsibilities can build and sustain peace among countries. The book examines the roles played by governments, the military, civil society, scientists, and conservationists, and their effects on both the ecological management and the potential for peace-building in these areas. Following a historical and theoretical overview that explores economic, political, and social theories that support the concept of peace parks and discussion of bioregional management for science and economic development, the book presents case studies of existing parks and proposals for future parks. After describing such real-life examples as the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor in Africa and the Emerald Triangle conservation zone in Indochina, the book looks to the future, exploring the peace-building potential of envisioned parks in security-intensive spots including the U.S.-Mexican border, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, and the Mesopotamian marshlands between Iraq and Iran. With contributors from a variety of disciplines and diverse geographic regions, Peace Parks is not only a groundbreaking book in International Relations but a valuable resource for policy makers and environmentalists.Saleem H. Ali is Associate Professor of Environmental Planning at the Rubenstein School of Natural Resources at the University of Vermont and holds adjunct faculty appointments at Brown University and the United Nations mandated University for Peace. He is the author of Mining: The Environment and Indigenous Development Conflicts.ContributorsDramé-Yayé Aissetou, Saleem H. Ali, Rolf D. Baldus, Charles Besançon, Kent Biringer, Arthur G. Blundell, Niger Diallo Daouda Boubacar, K. C. (Nanda) Cariappa, Charles Chester, Tyler Christie, Sarah Dickinson DeLeon, Bill Dolan, Rosaleen Duffy, Christina Ellis, Wayne Freimund, Stephan Fuller, Rudolf Hahn, Anne Hammill, Bruce Hayden, Ke Chung Kim, Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, Jason Lambacher, Raul Lejano, Maano Ramutsindela, Michael Schoon, Belinda Sifford, Anna Spenceley, Michelle L. Stevens, Randy Tanner, Yongyut Trisurat, Michele Zebich-Knos

"Environmental concerns and conflicts along borders are a worldwide problem creating a need for cooperation between countries. The establishment of transboundary protected areas or peace parks is one solution. This timely and important volume discusses all aspects of the connection between conservation, peace, and regional cooperation. It is a seminal source of information for anyone, individual or government, concerned with these fundamental issues." -- George B. Schaller , Wildlife Conservation Society

"I am excited to see this book on peace parks. By providing useful case studies as well as measured analytical thought, it is a milestone in the literature on this topic. It presents peace parks not necessarily as a panacea, but as an important contribution toward more sustainable conservation as well as for international relations -- while at the same time pointing out some of the potential obstacles to achieving these goals. I applaud the authors for taking on such an important and relevant topic in conservation today and look forward to seeing how action on the ground will be supported through this approach." -- Achim Steiner , United Nations Under Secretary General and Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme

About the Author

"It is a great relief to see the publication of Peace Parks. This is a full and definitive work on the subject by multiple experts. As hoped, it demonstrates a powerful instrument for achieving peace, one constructed at the intersection of science, environment, and international relations." -- Edward O. Wilson , Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (August 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262511983
• ISBN-13: 978-0262511988
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #730,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Saleem H. Ali was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, but grew up in Lahore, Pakistan until his college years. He received his Bachelors degree in Chemistry summa cum laude from Tufts University, where he was also the recipient of the Durkee Scholarship for chemical research. While enrolled at Tufts, he spent a year at the University of London and participated in a parliamentary internship at the U.K. House of Commons. After completing his undergraduate studies, he proceeded to Yale University to complete a Masters degree in environmental studies. During his time at Yale, his interests expanded into the social sciences and humanities and he completed a Masters thesis on water governance regimes in Southern Africa.

After graduating from Yale, Ali was employed at General Electric Corporation as part of its highly competitive technical leadership program for two years. The program gave him an opportunity to have rotations at GE headquarters in Fairfield Connecticut, at GE's largest silicone resin manufacturing site in Waterford, New York and at the company's leading research and development facility in Niskayuna, New York.

While he learned much from this corporate experience, Ali's primary interests remained teaching and research and he decided to continue graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his doctorate in environmental planning from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning. His doctoral research focused on environmental conflicts in the extractive industries and was supported by a Martin Sustainability Fellowship and a Voorhees Scholarship.

After a brief period of environmental consulting with the Cambridge-based firm Industrial Economics, Inc., Ali joined the faculty at the University of Vermont, where he is now Associate Professor of Environmental Planning at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. He is also on the adjunct faculty of Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies and the UN mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. Ali has received grants and project contracts from the United States Institute of Peace, The Tiffany & Company Foundation, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the United Nations Environment Program. His field experience spans six continents and teaching experience covers a broad range of courses from environmental chemistry to environmental conflict resolution.

In 2007 he was chosen by Seed magazine as one of eight "Revolutionary Minds in the World" in recognition of his work on using environmental factors as a means of conflict resolution.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars Conserving the environment makes peace, October 5, 2007

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Book Reporter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution (Global Environmental Accord: Strategies for Sustainability and Institutional Innovation) (Paperback)

Peace Parks, Conservation and Conflict Resolution, edited by Saleem H. Ali, explores what was called Environmental Peacemaking in a 2003 anthology of that name, edited by Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko.

Ali opens this collection of scholarly essays with an introduction that defines "peace parks" as environment conservation zones "that can play an instrumental role in peacemaking or sustaining amity between communities" (p. 1) especially transboundary protected areas. The World Conservation Union lists 188 transboundary protected areas around the world. The first peace park was Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, established in 1932. Rotarians on both sides of the United States-Canada border had promoted the creation of this international peace park. Since the United States and Canada have maintained friendly relations, Ali calls the establishment of this first peace park a "symbolic" gesture (p. 2). But the two nations cooperate in managing the natural and cultural resources of the international park, and Ali admits that such peace parks can "provide some insights in terms of how cooperation can be sustained between amicable neighbors through environmental conservation" (p. 11). A case study of the park, later in the book, shows a history of effective cooperation in function, like interpretation and public safety, and resiliency despite the United States increasing border security within the international park in recent years.

The case of Ecuador and Peru deserves special consideration, according to Ali, because "it was the first formal effort in which conservation groups were actively involved in international conflict resolution" (p. 9) A border dispute decades old erupted briefly in 1995 in armed conflict. Prodded by Conservation International and other conservation groups, the two countries agreed to peace, to a designated international border, and to conserve the area on both sides of the new border. Indigenous Chimu communities joined the discussions that led to adoption of a bioregional conservation plan and, in 2004, binational recognition of the Condor -Kutuku conservation corridor. Yet this is not the subject of any case study in the book.

Ali asks, is there a natural connection between ecology and peace? He answers his own question, yes. Environmental concerns can be the common grounds that give conflicting parties reason to cooperate, even if their conflict is not over environmental resources.

Peace Parks is divided into eighteen chapters, written by a total of thirty-one authors and organized into three sections. In the first section five chapters address theoretical and policy aspects of Environmental Peace-Building. Another five chapters appear in the second section on existing Transboundary Conservation in Action. The third section on proposed Peace Parks and Regional Governance Regimes has eight chapters, including Ali's conclusion. In addition to academicians, the authors include park rangers, consultants, and employees of government agencies (like the German Development Agency) and non-governmental organizations (like the World Conservation Union).

Among the case studies of existing peace parks are Selous-Siassa Wildlife Corridor and "W" International Peace Park in Africa; the Emerald Triangle conservation zone in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia; Antarctica; and Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Peace parks are proposed along the U.S.-Mexican border, in Liberia, for Korea's demilitarized corridor, in the Kashmir province, between Afghanistan and its neighbors, and even for the Mesopotamian marches in Iraq and Iran. Jason Lambacher, for example, reports on a possible Russo-Japanese peace park in the Kuril Islands, which have been the subject of conflict, albeit not armed, since the Soviet occupation of the islands at the end of World War II. Peace efforts in such cases of conflict, according to Ali, should be grounded in the "dilemma of common aversions," which "implies that harm to the environment is a mutually destructive outcome that rational actors in a conflict would wish to avoid" (p. 335).

In general, this book offers case studies, strategic guidance, practical advice, and idealism. "Since environment planning is inherently concerned with future outcomes of present decisions," says planner Ali (p. 335), "it tends to be less likely to be mired in historical grievances between communities that often tinge security discourse."

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-Opening, Comprehensive Take On Conservation as Conflict Resolution, October 20, 2007

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Alex Brant Zawadzki "Struggling writer" (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution (Global Environmental Accord: Strategies for Sustainability and Institutional Innovation) (Paperback)

This is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in saving the world and the planet at the same time. If that distinction makes no sense, read this book. Never before did I realize the degree to which environmental concerns can influence, and always have influenced, international affairs; and the degree to which the environment has suffered indirectly (or directly) due to conflict. A must-read for anyone on the progressive edge of either conflict management, conservation or environmental studies.