New Paper on Resource Conflict Prevention References Community Protocols

A new paper by the Quaker United Nations Office entitled "Building peace around water, land and food: Policy and practice for preventing conflict" highlights the fundamental importance of securing natural resources on which our survival and well-being depend in the face of climate change and increasing conflict and competition over resources. It also focuses on the need to strengthen peace-building skills among actors at all levels (including effective communication and engagement with decision-making processes and constructive dispute prevention and resolution) and cites relevant international instruments that can help prevent conflict through inclusive natural resource governance and management.

One of the case studies explored the development and use of a biocultural community protocol to negotiate community resource rights in the Potato Park in Peru. The paper also references Natural Justice's Biocultural Community Protocols: A toolkit for community facilitators and the 2012 special edition of the Participatory Learning and Action Journal on community protocols, rights and consent, which was co-edited by Natural Justice, among others (also available in Spanish). Please download and share this new paper here.

Document Reveals Gas Company Plans for Manú National Park

Via guardian.co.uk

A new document reveals Pluspetrol interests in the gas reserves of Manú National Park in the Peruvian Amazon. Unesco considers the  park's biodiversity to exceed that of any other place on Earth. The national park is also home to Indigenous peoples with no regular contact with outsiders. The document is entitled “Research Plan for Geological Exploration and Surface Geochemistry in the Manú National Park and its Buffer Zone” and was produced by the consultancy Quartz Services on request by Pluspetrol. 

The document acknowledges that Peruvian law prohibits extractive operations in national parks. However, the document suggests that Quartz could “contribute not only to the continuation of activities in Lot 88 (a gas concession already existent), but also to the development of the Manú National Park protected area.”

Read more about the document in The Guardian here.