Conflicts over natural resources and the environment are among the greatest challenges in 21st-century geopolitics. These conflicts present serious threats to human security at both the national and local levels. Natural resources and the environment can nonetheless serve as a vehicle for peace if managed in a sustainable and equitable manner.

Environmental peacebuilding has emerged as a new frontier in interdisciplinary studies. It offers a conceptual and operational framework to understand the positive peacebuilding potential of natural resources across the conflict lifecycle while mitigating potential risks.

This course is for:

• Peace and security specialists that want to understand more about natural resources.
• Natural resource experts that want to design more conflict-sensitive programs.
• Sustainable development practitioners - as well as private-sector actors - who need to understand how natural resources can be developed in fragile contexts with weak governance.
• Advanced undergraduates and graduate students interested in the key concepts and practices of this growing field.

In this course, you will learn:

• How natural resources and the environment impact conflict
• How conflict harms natural resources and the environment
• How natural resources and the environment support peacebuilding
• How you can assess and address the relationship between natural resources and conflict

More information is available at: Environmental Security and Sustaining Peace | edX
If you have any questions, please contact association@environmentalpeacebuilding.org.

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This description was excerpted from environmentalpeacebuilding.org