In the years following its inception in 1994, EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) promoted cooperative relations between Israelis, Jordanians, and Palestinians over issues pertaining to the region’s shared environmental heritage and resources. These were optimistic times of the Peace Process, when and an end to the bloody Israeli-Arab conflict seemed near.
But the turn of the Millennium saw us entering into a period of great turmoil and uncertainty. By 1998, the belief that peace in the Middle East is indeed within reach had faded in the face of the Oslo Accords’ failure to stand up to peoples’ expectations. Being a regional organization in a region where the very term Peace Process has come to mean increased violence and preservation of the status quo – was becoming harder than ever.
In order to stay relevant EcoPeace/FoEME, a top-down advocacy organization at its inception, decided to complement this classic method of work with a bottom-up approach of community led activism that emphasizes dialogue, confidence building, and cooperation activities on cross border natural resources, particularly shared waters. Despite the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2001 we managed to convince funders that cooperative relations between Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian communities were possible, and the organization’s 'Good Water Neighbors’ (GWN) project was launched early that year, initially involving 11 communities – five Palestinian, five Israeli and one Jordanian.
The project was designed to raise awareness of the shared water problems of these communities, educate youth and harness both adult residents and municipal staff to the task of changing reality on the ground. Based on identifying cross-border communities and utilizing their mutual dependence on shared water resources as a basis for developing dialogue and cooperation on sustainable water management, the project today includes 28 communities (11 Palestinian, nine Israeli and eight Jordanian), who share the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, the Mountain and Coastal Aquifers, and various cross border streams.
By addressing issues of sanitation and conservation the GWN project thus constitutes the basis for our efforts to advance the rehabilitation of these declining natural resources. Another major goal is to help these communities in developing the social and economic potential that the rehabilitation of these shared waters hold, with a strong emphasis on opportunities for tourism.
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In 2020 the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), together with adelphi and the Climate Diplomacy initiative, with support from the German Federal Foreign Office, organised two series of online workshops. The series brought together civil society experts and policymakers to discuss challenges, lessons learned, best practices and recommendations relating to how to address the linkages between climate change, conflict and peace.
In February, the UK plans to host a high-level open debate, “Addressing climate-related security risks to international peace and security through mitigation and resilience building”. The meeting is expected to consider conflict risks, peacebuilding approaches and ways to support adaptation and resilience in climate-vulnerable contexts. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to chair the meeting. Secretary-General António Guterres is an anticipated briefer.
Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are expected to become more severe under future climate conditions. This implies a concern for policymakers in national and international security.
A major challenge in the field of environmental peacebuilding is showing the impact of its initiatives. Questions emerge, such as "Which dimensions of post-conflict peacebuilding are more likely to be affected by natural resource management projects?". Although quantitative studies assess the relation between natural resource management programmes and conflict risks, there is less research on what the specific mechanisms involved in implementing projects designed for environmental peacebuilding are.