Foreword

The linkage between a healthy environment and peace is increasingly becoming apparent. Many of the roots of current and future conicts stem from competition for scarce natural resources. In the current crisis in the Sudan, in Darfur (only one example of many), environmental factors such as desertication have contributed to competition for arable land, which has in turn led to conicts between farmers and pastoralists. The award of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize to Wangari Maathai, who initiated a major grassroots tree-planting scheme in Kenya, and the 2006 Prize to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank for their seminal work in helping to end poverty underscore the inextricable links between environment, sustainable development, and peace and security. Protected areas are an integral element of strategies to achieving sustainable development. These areas safeguard biological and cultural diversity and help improve livelihoods of local communities; they also provide homelands for many indigenous people and bring countless benets to society in general. Protected areas now cover only a little more than 12 percent of the earths surface. It is up to nations of the world to make a major commitment to safeguard the earths biodiversity and pass it on for future generations. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has been actively involved in promoting transboundary protected areasareas that involve a degree of cooperation across one or more boundaries between (or within) countriesfor many years. These areas make sound sense from the context of biodiversity conservation, since plants and animals clearly do not recognize articial boundaries. This case was lucidly put by Dr. Z. Paulo Jordan (then South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism) in his opening address to the IUCN meeting on Parks for Peace, held in Cape Town in 1997, where he noted:

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The rivers of Southern Africa are shared by more than one country. Our mountain ranges do not end abruptly because some nineteenth-century politician drew a line on a map. The winds, the oceans, the rain, and atmospheric currents do not recognize political frontiers. The earths environment is the common property of all humanity and creation, and what takes place in one country affects not only its neighbors, but many others well beyond its borders.

The concept of transboundary protected areas, proposed by IUCN and other bodies, has taken root and is expanding rapidly. From fty-nine in 1988, there are currently more than one hundred and seventy transboundary protected areas, indicating the widespread acceptance at all levels of this concept. The increasing recognition that transboundary protected areas can also play a role in conict resolution and particularly in the period following the cessation of conicts has shown that such areasreferred to as peace parkscontribute to building bridges between nations and people. For example, the Peace Accord between Peru and Ecuador in 1998 included a peace park as a key element of the agreement between the two countries. This provided a valuable tool for assisting in the resolution of specic conicts relating to boundary demarcation and, importantly, for building more peaceful cooperation between two countries. Experience to date with peace parks has been more anecdotal, and there has been limited systematic analysis of the role peace parks can play in the peaceful resolution of conict. This publication makes an important contribution to lling this void. This book is signicant in that it looks at peace parks in an analytical and multisectoral manner. Chapters are contributed from a range of perspectives: from conservation managers, from military planners, and from experts in the elds of conict resolution. A wealth of practical examples and guidance in the development of peace parks is provided, ensuring that this publication can assist in moving beyond theory to practical implementation. The key message is the enormous potential of peace parks in conict resolution, particularly through building condence and cooperation between countries. However, much remains to be done to ensure that this potential is fully realized. A number of regions where potential peace parks could be developed, as a contributing factor for conict resolution, are also identied. Political will and commitment as well as effective governance models will, however, be essential if peace parks are to be effective tools to contribute to peace and to environmental security. Also fundamental is the need to share experience and communicate lessons in relation to peace parks. This publication plays a vitally important role in this regard. I sincerely hope that the lessons drawn will be widely

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communicated and will make an effective contribution to the acceleration of peace parks around the worldboth for better conservation and for better cooperation among peoples. I have been working on these issues all my life, and certainly in my present position as Rector of the UN-afliated University for Peace and my future position as Director General of the IUCN, I welcome this book and will do all I can to ensure that it is read and its lessons are taken to heart. Julia Marton-Lefe ` vre Rector, United Nations mandated University for Peace Director-General designate, IUCNThe World Conservation Union November 2006