Duke University Hosts Conference on Conflict and the Environment on Feb. 26

ECSP Director Geoffrey Dabelko will give the keynote address at a free one-day conference sponsored by Duke University's Nicholas School for the Environment. He will discuss "Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation: Next Steps for Scholarship and Policy." Other featured speakers include Art Blundell (United Nations), Jay Singh (USAID), and Erika Weinthal (Tel Aviv University).

Conference Poster (pdf)

9:00 - 9:30 Registration and Breakfast:
Levine Science Research Center

9:30 - 10:15 Welcome

Welcome Address: William Schlesinger, PhD, Dean, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University

Keynote address: Geoffrey Dabelko, PhD, Director, Environmental Change and Security Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: "Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation: Next Steps for Scholarship and Policy"

10:15 - 10:45 Coffee Break

10:45 - 12:30 The Role of Natural Resources in Causing Conflict:

Mary Melnyk, PhD, Senior Natural Resource Advisor, USAID, Washington, DC: "USAID's Efforts to Reduce Conflicts Over Forest Resources in Asia"

Laura Carlsen, Director, Americas Program, International Relations Center (IRC), Mexico: "Human Rights, Ecology and Economic Integration: The Peasant Ecologists of Guerrero,
Mexico"

Marcelo Fernandez Osco, PhD Candidate, Romance Studies, Duke University: "Disenfranchisement of Indigenous Peoples, the Creation of Protected Areas, and Conflict in Bolivia"

Avner Vengosh, PhD, Geologist, Ben Gurion University, Israel:
"Salinity and Natural Radioactivity in Shared Water Resources as a Potential Source for Conflicts in the Middle East"

12:30 - 1:45 Lunch

1:45 - 3:30 Environmental Management and Resource Use in Times of Conflict

Cheshewa Maunya, Program in International Development Policy Fellow, Duke University: "Managing the Environment During Conflict in Northern Uganda and Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo with the Alliance of Internally Displaced Persons"

Art Blundell, PhD, UN Panel of Experts Reviewing Liberian Forest Sector: "Conflict Timber in Liberia"

Andres Barreda, PhD, Director, Center for Social Analysis, Information and Popular Formation, Universidad Nacional
Autonoma de Mexico: "How Environmental Issues, Strategic Resources and Biodiversity Correlate with Militarization, Paramilitary Presence and Repression of Indigenous Communities in Chiapas, Mexico"

Vicenzo Lauriola, National Institute of Amazonian Research, Brazil: "Indigenous Conflict in Roraima, Northern Brazil"

3:30 - 3:45 Coffee Break

3:45 - 4:45 From Environmental Conflict to Environmental
Peacemaking

Erika Weinthal, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Department of
Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel: "Collaborative
Management of Water Resources in the Gaza Strip Between Israel and the Palestinian Authority"

Jay Singh, PhD, Conflict Specialist, Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation, USAID, Washington, DC: "Conflicts Over Land and Minerals: USAID's Toolkits For Intervention"

4:45 - 5:00 Closing Remarks: Geoffrey Dabelko

Reception immediately to follow at the International House, 2022 Campus Drive, Duke University