Preventive diplomacy and transformation of environmental conflicts in Latin America

At the invitation of the Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (FFLA), Alexander Carius gave the opening speech at the second regional forum for the transformation of environmental conflicts in Latin America. More than 150 experts from Latin America participated in this regional forum from the 22 and 23 November 2006, in Quito, Ecuador.

The five main questions presented and discussed included: (1) Why is the cooperation of shared natural resources appropriate for preventing violent conflicts and promoting peacebuilding? (2) Which political and social conditions make it possible for environmental cooperation to permeate into a broader social and political peace process? (3) What conditions promote or hinder this development? (4) Can the estimate effects of peace keeping and cross-border environmental cooperation be estimated? (5) Which methodological approaches are required in order to form environmental and resource protection projects that are sensitive to conflicts, especially in regards to development cooperation? On the basis of these issues and gives practical examples of lecture introduces the topic and, thus, sets the event’s framework.