Conflict-Sensitive Conservation: Lessons from the Global Environment Facility

This book provides an empirically formulated foundation for conflict-sensitive conservation, a field in which the existing literature relies primarily on anecdotal evidence.

Seeking to better understand the impact of conflict on the implementation and outcomes of environmental projects, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Independent Evaluation Office and the Environmental Law Institute undertook an evaluation of GEF support to fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Following a qualitative and quantitative analysis of documents from more than 4,000 projects, the research team discovered a statistically significant negative correlation between a country’s Fragile States Index score and the implementation quality of environmental projects in that country. In this book, the evaluation and research team explain these groundbreaking findings in detail, highlighting seven key case studies: Afghanistan, Albertine Rift, Balkans, Cambodia, Colombia, Lebanon, and Mali. Drawing upon additional research and interviews with GEF project implementation staff, the volume illustrates the pathways through which conflict and fragility frequently impact environmental projects. It also examines how practitioners and sponsoring institutions can plan and implement their projects to avoid or mitigate these issues and find opportunities to promote peacebuilding through their environmental interventions.

Examining data from 164 countries and territories, this innovative book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental management, conservation, international development, and the fast-growing field of environmental peacebuilding. It will also be a great resource for practitioners working in these important fields.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Carl Bruch is Director of International Programs at the Environmental Law Institute and Founding President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. His work focuses on environmental peacebuilding (especially after conflict), environmental governance, adaptation, and environmental emergencies. He has helped dozens of countries―including many conflict-affected countries―around the world strengthen their environmental laws, institutions, and practices.

Geeta Batra is an evaluation and development professional with a passion for promoting environmental sustainability and accountability and learning with an open mind. She has 28 years of experience in international development across the World Bank Group, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the private sector. She has effectively managed global evaluation teams for 18 years to deliver more than 150 high-quality thematic evaluations, covering public and private sector investments and advisory work, with success in influencing organizational strategies and change. Geeta is currently Chief Evaluation Officer and Deputy Director with the Independent Evaluation Office of the GEF and leads the overall evaluation program covering thematic evaluations on climate change and other environmental areas, as well as institutional themes, such as governance, country strategies, private sector engagement, safeguard policies, gender, and inclusion. Prior to joining the GEF, she managed the program of country and corporate evaluations at the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank. Geeta established the results measurement practice and network at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), setting up the systems for self-evaluation and conducting impact and real-time evaluations, which influenced IFC strategies and programs. She has broad subject matter expertise in development and applied economics and evaluation approaches applicable to public and private sector interventions. She has published several books and articles, built capacity through training, and presented at a number of conferences and forums.

Anupam Anand is Senior Evaluation Officer at the Independent Evaluation Office of the GEF (GEF-IEO). He has over 15 years of experience in evaluation, international development, academic research, and teaching. At the GEF-IEO, he has led evaluations on biodiversity, SFM and REDD+, land degradation, fragility and conflict, and illegal wildlife trade. Anupam holds a Ph.D. in applied remote sensing from the University of Maryland.

Shehla Chowdhury worked for two years as a research associate at the Environmental Law Institute. There, she researched topics including monitoring and evaluation practices for environmental peacebuilding, legal frameworks for mitigating the “green resource curse” in Africa, and local government environmental compliance in the U.S. Shehla is now a J.D. candidate at Yale Law School, studying the intersection of international, environmental, and human rights law.

Sierra Killian is a former research associate at the Environmental Law Institute. While at ELI, she coordinated the environmental peacebuilding program, researched small-scale fisheries management and marine protected area policies, and helped to build the organization’s climate resilience work. She holds a B.S. in Earth systems from Stanford University and is pursuing her J.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.