Nothing destroys livelihoods or economies like violent conflict – except environmental catastrophe. Development, peace and environment are inextricably linked.
In Baringo County, Kenya, grass is in short supply during the dry season. Pastoralist communities like the Pokot and Ilchamus depend on the same dwindling resource, made more unpredictable by climate change. Fatal conflicts are apparently resolved one year, only to re-erupt the next. As one Kenyan activist put it, ‘You can’t eat peace’. Meanwhile, landscape restoration projects are abandoned due to insecurity.
The “Land, Lives and Peace” and “Creators of Peace” programs of Initiatives of Change recognize that peacebuilding and land restoration are inextricably linked – and have responded in Kenya and elsewhere using trustbuilding tools, like the documentary film An African Answer, concurrently with sustainable land management. As Tony Rinaudo, laureate of the 2018 Right Livelihood Award for fostering ‘farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR)’ puts it, ‘Trust is critical to the success of FMNR in a community.’
The interaction between development, peace and environment plays out from grass-roots through to national, regional and international levels. In order to forge holistic solutions to these inter-connected challenges, Initiatives of Change is partnering with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) to run a Summer Academy on Land, Security and Climate Change, which will see its inauguration at GCSP and as part of the Caux Forum this year.
Interest in the Academy from around the world is strong, notably from small island nations vulnerable to climate threats and from north-east India, facing ethnic conflict amplified by climate-induced displacement.
At the heart of the approach of Initiatives of Change is that trustbuilding for enhanced collaboration is key to the future of humanity. While all the SDGs are ultimately linked, SCG 16 is a critical lens through which to look at the entire 2030 agenda. We need peace to achieve the SDGs – and if we don’t achieve them, we won’t have peace.
