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Former Wilson Center Scholar Proposes Environmental Pathways to Peace in Africa

JANUARY 2007--New Policy Briefs Address Environmental Cooperation in Great Lakes Region, Nile Basin

In a new issue brief, former OSI Africa Policy Scholar Patricia Kameri-Mbote argues that Africa's dependence on the environment does not have to be a curse. Rather, this shared dependence can facilitate dialogue and provide an opportunity for collaboration and cooperation. She argues that the Great Lakes Region-—with its war-torn history and transboundary ecosystems-—is an appropriate place for initiating a larger initiative in environmental peacebuilding. After describing the context for environmental peacemaking in the region, she lists the steps that must be taken and questions that must be answered to make this a viable path to peace.
The brief, titled "Conflict and Cooperation: Making the Case for Environmental Pathways to Peacebuilding in the Great Lakes Region," was published by the Wilson Center's Africa Program, in collaboration with the Environmental Change and Security Program.

In the newest brief in ECSP's Navigating Peace series, Water, Conflict, and Cooperation: Lessons from the Nile River Basin, Kameri-Mbote lays the historical foundation of water management in the Nile River Basin, and recommends policies for facilitating cooperation among the region's many water users.

Kameri-Mbote is a law researcher and teacher based in Nairobi, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and chair of the Department of Private Law at the University of Nairobi. She has served as acting dean in the Faculty of Law at the University of Nairobi and as director of research at the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi.

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The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) explores the connections between environmental change, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy.  Read more