Azar Edward E

Baechler Günther

Barnett Jon

Brockington Dan

Büscher Bram

DFID

Dzingirai Vupenyu

D’Huart Jean Pierre

Griffin John

Griffiths Ieuan

Hammill Anne

Hanks John

Homer-Dixon Thomas

Howard Philip

Jones Brian

Kanter Rosabeth

Kaplan Robert

Klare Michael

Lanjouw Annette

Lowi Miriam

MacDonald Graham

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Mirumachi Naho

Parsons Craig

Peluso Nancy Lee

Price Steven

Prunier Gerard

Ross Michael

Sandwith Trevor

Shambaugh James

Shine Clare

Singh Jaidev

Suliman Mohamed

Thorsell Jim

UNEP

UNESCO

van der Linde Harry

Westing Arthur H

Wilkie David

Zbicz Dorothy Calhoun

English

 This article contributes to our understanding of transboundary environmental management regimes through the application of an analytical framework that facilitates an exploration of the co-existence of conflict and cooperation. Rather than framing conflict and cooperation as mutually exclusive states at opposite ends of a spectrum, we seek to understand the ways in which cooperation can exist at the same time as conflict. We apply this framework to a study of conservation management in a transboundary area at the intersection of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. We identify two actual and one hypothetical phase of conflict–cooperation relations, in a landscape notorious for some of the worst violence of the last two decades. We map the evolution of phases of transboundary protected area management against the evolving security context, and we find that this approach has greater explanatory power than previous approaches that polarize conflict and cooperation. In particular, it helps us to understand the drivers of environmental cooperation, including the evolving characteristics of that cooperation. This new way of understanding the relationship between environmental management and security also enables us to reconsider the potential for environmental management to be instrumental in working towards interstate security objectives, for example through peace parks. We don’t find that the ‘low politics’ of environmental management should be seen as a predictable and manageable determinant of international relations. But an understanding of the coexistence of conflict and cooperation does also point to a more complex, non-linear relationship between low and high politics. </jats:p

Adrian Martin

Eugene Rutagarama

Ana Cascão

Maryke Gray

Vasudha Chhotray

Crossref

Journal of Peace Research

Understanding the co-existence of conflict and cooperation: Transboundary ecosystem management in the Virunga Massif

This article contributes to our understanding of transboundary environmental management regimes through the application of an analytical framework that facilitates an exploration of the co-existence of conflict and cooperation. Rather than framing conflict and cooperation as mutually exclusive states at opposite ends of a spectrum, we seek to understand the ways in which cooperation can exist at the same time as conflict. We apply this framework to a study of conservation management in a transboundary area at the intersection of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. We identify two actual and one hypothetical phase of conflict–cooperation relations, in a landscape notorious for some of the worst violence of the last two decades. We map the evolution of phases of transboundary protected area management against the evolving security context, and we find that this approach has greater explanatory power than previous approaches that polarize conflict and cooperation. In particular, it helps us to understand the drivers of environmental cooperation, including the evolving characteristics of that cooperation. This new way of understanding the relationship between environmental management and security also enables us to reconsider the potential for environmental management to be instrumental in working towards interstate security objectives, for example through peace parks. We don’t find that the ‘low politics’ of environmental management should be seen as a predictable and manageable determinant of international relations. But an understanding of the coexistence of conflict and cooperation does also point to a more complex, non-linear relationship between low and high politics

Understanding the co-existence of conflict and cooperation: Transboundary ecosystem management in the Virunga Massif

Abstract

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