Blogs & Opinions

Palestine’s ‘Prayer for Rain’: How Israel Uses Water as a Weapon of War

Jun 21, 2016 | Ramzy Baroud

Entire communities in the West Bank either have no access to water or have had their water supply reduced almost by half. This alarming development…

Natural Resources Can Pay for Burma's Needs

Jun 16, 2016 | Andrew Bauer and Matthiew Salomon

This is an important year for Burma. With expectations so high, the new government is under enormous pressure to prove that it can transform the…

Why China is Arming its Fishing Fleet

Jun 16, 2016 | Evan Rees

Over the past four decades, China has gradually abandoned its self-imposed isolation in favor of deep ties with global markets. Though the approach has pushed…

Peasants Mobilized in Colombia: The Strike is Finished, the Struggle Continues

Jun 16, 2016 | Lyda Fernanda Forero and Danilo Urrea

On May 27th, the Cumbre Agraria, Campesina, Etnica y Popular called for a national Minga, a period of strikes and mobilizations across the country aiming…

Land Grabbing Harms the Public

Jun 14, 2016 | Eleven Myanmar

Myanmar is still reeling from the consequences of land grabbing issues. A total of 1,500 acres of land were seized under the Thein Sein administration…

That Chinese Frigate in the Senkakus Was a Bad Move for China

Jun 13, 2016 | Steven Stashwick

Early last Thursday morning, a Chinese Jiangkai I frigate entered waters near the disputed Japanese Senkaku islands, called the Diaoyu by China. The move sparked…

Parsing Myanmar’s First EITI Report

Jun 10, 2016 | Paul Shortell

Myanmar’s recently released first EITI report, covering the 2013-14 fiscal year, includes previously undisclosed data on resource production, revenue flows, licences and company ownership.

The information…

Global Witness Must Come Forward and Testify in Court

Jun 10, 2016 | T. Johnson

The UK-based environmental and transparency watchdog, Global Witness (GW), has caused quite a stir (commotion, uproar) in Liberia with its sweeping allegations of corruption and…

Chad: Refugees in Chad Must Adapt or Starve

Jun 9, 2016 | Mahamat Adamou

The Darfur conflict fell out of the headlines years ago, but more than 300,000 Sudanese are still living as refugees in neighbouring Chad, a country…

Fostering Sustainable, Resilient Food Security in Nigeria

Jun 8, 2016 | Nkechi Isaac

Speaking during a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) program development workshop with the theme “Fostering sustainability and resilience for food security…

Nigeria: Using Non-Violence to Achieve Clean Up of Ogoniland

Jun 8, 2016 | Cornelius Essen

The recent flag-off ceremony of cleanup of Ogoniland has reawakened the hope of the people of the community that their environment could be liveable again.…

Can Securities Regulation Stymie Conflict in Africa?

Jun 8, 2016 | Katie Cramer

The “conflict minerals provision” contained in Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act instructed the SEC to develop reporting requirements for companies producing goods…

Global Witness' Mistake on the Afghanistan Mining and Gem Trade: There's No $1 Trillion There

Jun 8, 2016 | Tim Worstall

There’s much to admire in the latest report from Global Witness into the mining of lapis lazuli and other semi-precious stones in Afghanistan. The level…

Hunger in Shangri-La: Causes and Consequences of Food Insecurity in the World’s Mountains

Jun 6, 2016 | Andrew Taber

Over the past decade, the number of undernourished people around the world has declined by around 167 million, to just under 800 million people. However,…

Authorities and Courts Complicit in Eroding Rule of Law in Kachin State

Jun 6, 2016 | Vani Sathisan and Sean Bain

Illegal large-scale land grabbing, harassment of landowners by government and business officials, and a lack of access to justice were the central complaints heard by…

Kurdistan Financial Crisis: Replacing Oil with Agriculture for Prosperity and Independence

Jun 4, 2016 | Glenn Field, Rudaw

In the midst of Iraqi Kurdistan’s economic crisis, the region is in desperate need of alternative sources for revenue other than their oil and gas…

Blog: Jordan Grapples With The Environmental Consequences Of Its Refugee Crisis

Jun 4, 2016 | Doug Weir

The massive flow of refugees fleeing the violence and atrocities of the Syrian conflict is creating huge political and logistical challenges for neighbouring countries. Amidst…

The Environmental Impact of the Refugee Crisis

Jun 4, 2016 | Anna Stockmore

Media outlets have largely ignored the environmental impacts of the refugee crisis in the Middle East. However, with the current influx of 2.1 Million Syrian…

Over 1,200 Companies File Conflict Minerals Reports with the SEC

Jun 3, 2016 | Enough Team

Enough Project has been tracking the SEC conflict minerals reports since they began rolling in. Among the things they are looking at is who is…

Event Report: Addressing the Environmental Dimensions of Armed Conflict to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Jun 2, 2016 | Jessica Dorsey

During UNEA-2, the TRW Network partnered with Zoi Environment Network, The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and Norwegian People’s Aid on a ‘Green Room’ side event on…

Lee on Young and Goldman, 'Livelihoods, Natural Resources, and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding'

Jun 1, 2016 | SungYong Lee

The linkage between environment, conflict, and peacebuilding is no longer a new agenda. This topic, which was once treated as a niche area, has quickly moved into…

Kalabagh Dam: International Water Disputes (Part 2)

Jun 1, 2016 | Zafar Mahmood

What encouraged me to search for the elusive consensus on KBD Project was the research conducted by Ms. Sjomander Magnusson, Director Trans-boundary Water Management of…

Kalabagh Dam: Fact and Fiction (Part 1)

Jun 1, 2016 | Zafar Mahmood

World over water storage and irrigation projects are no strangers to controversies - but difference of opinion surrounding Kalabagh Dam (KBD) Project has some unique…

Peace After Paris: Addressing Climate, Conflict, and Development

Jun 1, 2016 | Sreya Panuganti

2015 was a historic year for international commitments to sustainable development, climate change action, and new kinds of peacebuilding. For governments and policymakers, now comes…

Can Businesses Police the Behaviour of Global Suppliers?

Jun 1, 2016 | Ken Fireman

A group of activists wanted to shine a spotlight on the opaque supply chain that provides raw materials for cellphones. What they discovered was just…

Post-Conflict in Colombia. Post-War on Drugs

May 31, 2016 | Juan Carlos Garzón-Vergara, openDemocracy

The Havana agreements offer an opportunity to put an end to the war on drugs through an approach from a territorial development perspective to what…

Kurdistan’s Independence Referendum From An Economic Point Of View

May 31, 2016 | Tara Shwan

This is not a political opinion, but an economic point of view. Some people in the Kurdistan Region oppose the proposed referendum for independence just…

The Folly of Lobbying to Carve Up Iraq

May 31, 2016 | Luay al-Khatteeb

"It was the Kurds," wrote Thomas Friedman in 2014, "who used the window of freedom we opened for them to overcome internal divisions, start to…

Global Witness Report on Liberia - Exposure of Ellen’s Corruption Legacy or Foreign Investors Predatory?

May 30, 2016 | FrontPageAfrica

Liberia, especially its densely populated and seemingly clean capital Monrovia, has been gripped with mixed reactions and political in-fights since the exposure of a corruption…

Why Do Land Grabs Happen? Because They Can

May 28, 2016 | Michael Kugelman

In January, over the objections of indigenous groups that live there, the government of Ecuador sold oil exploration rights to 500,000 acres of the Amazon to a…