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

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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."

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.