Environmental Cooperation in Conflict-Prone Areas

Abstract

A decade ago there emerged the idea that environmental cooperation is
able to initiate and sustain a dialogue between the parties of a conflict and
facilitates conflict transformation and peacebuilding. This article tests three
hypotheses which stipulate conditions and effects of environmental
cooperation in conflict-prone areas. The article shows that environmental
cooperation can emerge even during a conflict, but only at a time when the
intensity of the violence is low. The emergence and development of
environmental cooperative projects also depends on the support of
external actors, and the intensity of environmental cooperations in conflict-prone areas remains weak even after many years.