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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category land.
  • Foresight for Action | Ecosystem Degradation, Transnational Migration, and Political Instability: Three Main Tipping Points for East Africa

    ›
    Foresight for Action  //  Guest Contributor  //  November 25, 2019  //  By Marcus King & Mckenna Coffey
    Drought in Ethiopia

    The Wilson Center is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research to develop a framework to improve predictive capabilities for security risks posed by extreme weather events. Our “Foresight for Action” series highlights research used to develop the framework.

    The Horn of Africa faces critical security and climate risks. Persistent droughts have precipitated the onset of food insecurity and waterborne disease, while heavy rain events such as Cyclone Sagar have caused widespread flooding, mudslides, and wind damage. These challenges are increasing in severity against a backdrop of changing demographic trends—including rapid population growth, increased migration, and urbanization—and power struggles both within and between countries in the region.  

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  • Mohamed’s Story: The Climate Conflict Trap in the Lake Chad Basin

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    Eye On  //  November 19, 2019  //  By Noah Gordon
    photo of comic

    Years ago, Mohamed’s family had enough to eat, despite being poor. His daughter owned a vegetable stall at a bustling market in northeastern Nigeria. The family had options: during the dry season, when Lake Chad was shallow, Mohamed could farm; and during the wet season, he could fish or graze his cattle.

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  • Lisa Palmer, Mongabay

    Precision conservation: High tech to the rescue in the Peruvian Amazon

    ›
    August 28, 2019  //  By Wilson Center Staff
    gold-mining-along-the-MDD-river_2004

    The original version of this article, by Lisa Palmer, appeared on Mongabay.

    The mother capybara and her three babies chew on grasses along the Los Amigos River as we drift near. Around a bend, white caimans fortify each sandbar, mouths open, waiting. Kingfishers plunge into the water to retrieve a morning meal, as oropendolas fly overhead. Spider monkeys and red howlers balance in the treetops of the soaring canopy 30 to 60 meters (100 to 200 feet) high that lines both riverbanks.

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  • Providing Water Security in an Uncertain World

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    Guest Contributor  //  August 20, 2019  //  By Nathanial Matthews
    Leparkeri. a Samburu warrior, stands inside a well he has dug along a dry river bed where he will water his livestock during the dry season. They sing as they lift the buckets of water from the deep wells  and each warrior's cattle knows who his owner is

    A problem is looming. Most water infrastructure isn’t designed to meet the demands of the increasingly volatile world that climate change is producing. Our modern landscape requires a reconceptualization of infrastructure’s demands and needs that often defies convention. And nowhere is a flexible and responsive approach more crucial than in water infrastructure, where we are experiencing unprecedented changes in flows and increasing pressures on consumption, according to Wellspring: Source Water Resilience and Climate Adaptation, a new report from the Global Resilience Partnership, the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation and The Nature Conservancy. The report explores some ways practitioners can take a new approach to source water protection that would enhance resilience and help sustain communities and ecosystems in a shifting climate.

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  • Lost in Translation: How Building “Strong” Institutions can Diminish Human Security in the Global South

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    Guest Contributor  //  July 29, 2019  //  By McKenzie F. Johnson
    Informal charcoal production near Yangambi, DRC.

    In the Global South, natural resource conflict has largely been considered a consequence of poor governance and weak political institutions. The international community’s solution? Build “green” governance capacity as a way to mitigate violent conflict and improve environmental outcomes. For the international development community, this has meant introducing laws, policies, and practices based on international standards of best practice, and training local regulators to adhere to those standards.

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  • When Climate Change Meets Positive Peace

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    Guest Contributor  //  July 17, 2019  //  By Marisa O. Ensor

    Climate change is being increasingly framed as a security issue—a “threat multiplier” that can amplify the risks of breakdowns in peacefulness. Yet, even extreme climate hazards do not always lead to higher levels of violence.

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  • Urban Elites’ Livestock Exacerbate Herder-Farmer Tensions in Africa’s Sudano-Sahel

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    Guest Contributor  //  June 10, 2019  //  By Matt Luizza

    Photo1_CattleHerdIn recent years, conflict between herders and farmers for access to increasingly scarce natural resources in Africa’s Sudano-Sahel has escalated. While the problems fueling these tensions are both hyper-local and transnational in nature, one important piece of the puzzle has been overlooked. The real “elephant in the room” is who owns the livestock.

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  • Water as a Tool for Resilience in Times of Crisis

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    From the Wilson Center  //  Water Security for a Resilient World  //  May 30, 2019  //  By Amanda King
    14713951618_ad4b12e620_k
    This article is part of ECSP’s Water Security for a Resilient World series, a partnership with USAID’s Sustainable Water Partnership and Winrock International to share stories about global water security.

    Water serves as a tool for resilience only when access to it is consistent and the system for making it consistent is in place, said David De Armey, Director of International Partnerships for Water for Good, an international NGO. He spoke at a recent Wilson Center event, “Water as a Tool for Resilience in Times of Crisis,” the second event in a three-part series, Water Security for a Resilient World, sponsored by the Wilson Center, Winrock International, the Sustainable Water Partnership, and USAID. Water for Good monitors 80 percent of wells across seven provinces in Central African Republic (CAR), he said. By keeping the water infrastructure working, the nonprofit creates a stable environment within an unstable country. “Thus,” he said, “we see reliability and services as a tool for resilience.”

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