Paula Hanasz

Director
Slow Water
Australia

Sep 10, 2019

Paula Hanasz is a practitioner and policy maker, focusing on issues of environmental conflict and cooperation, particularly around water. She is a Senior Policy Officer at the Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning in Victoria, Australia, as well as a principal consultant for various environmental projects. Paula’s career has focused on the power of information and the ways that people know things, understanding that different types of knowledge and communication affects the decisions that stakeholders make. She holds a B.A. in Communications (Social Inquiry) and International Studies from the University of Technology in Sydney—a degree that brought together sociology, social research, media studies, communications, and policy development. After working with the Australian Human Rights Commission as a Public Affairs Officer, she earned an MscEcon in Intelligence Studies from Aberystwyth University in the UK. This degree built on her previous experience with communications, but with a specific focus on conflict situations. After formative experiences working for NATO in Afghanistan where she saw the impacts that the mismanagement and inequitable allocation of freshwater resources had on local conflicts and traditional water governance structures, she became interested in the relationship between natural resources, conflict, and cooperation. In 2017, she completed a Ph.D. from Australian National University in International Development and Environmental Resource Management. She was recently selected as participant for the 2020 Homeward Boundprogram, a pioneering leadership and professional development opportunity for women in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or medicine (STEMM) fields.

Paula’s research for her Ph.D. explored conflict and cooperation in the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Megna river basins. Interested in ways in which transboundary governance of contested natural resources could be the basis of cooperation rather than conflict, she examined the role of third parties and international donors in enabling positive sum outcomes in international negotiations over shared rivers. Her work culminated in a book, Transboundary Water Governance and International Actors in South Asia: The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basin (Routledge 2019), which expanded the evidence base on the effectiveness of deliberative governance in preventing water conflicts.

She has also been consulting on a project about environmental peacebuilding in the Pacific region, which examines, among other issues, the links between copper mining, violence, and ethnic tensions in Bougainville. This project highlights the relationships between natural resource extraction and distribution, and historical, political, social, and cultural tensions. Bougainville is a particularly rich case study because it is an area with years of disputed sovereignty, and has witnessed substantial exploitation of natural resources. Copper mining in Bougainville disrupted local ways of life and fueled disputes over land and resource revenues. The project provides a unique way of looking at the potential for cooperation, as well as the linkages between natural resources, existing tensions, and conflict. Paula will present her work on this topic at the Environmental Peacebuilding Conference in October 2019.

Paula’s diverse background leaves her unique poised to research and reflect on the importance of the role of communication and diplomacy in understanding environmental conflict and cooperation. She explains, “I am particularly interested in the potential for peace and cooperation around environmental factors. The violent conflicts of this century will be completely different than those of the last century. They will be fueled by competition over water and other natural  resources. They will also take place on sub-national levels that defense establishments will have to adapt to. They are conflicts that can only be addressed and prevented through diplomacy, the application of the principles of environmental justice, and collaboration on initiatives that bring about mutual gains.” Paula sees the Association as a passionate community that realizes the power of good governance, stabilization of situations, and good communication in building peace around natural resources. She further explains, “It’s exciting to be a part of a network of scholars and practitioners who are passionate about the work that they are doing. Environmental peacebuilding is the culmination of my interests in conflict, intelligence studies, communication, negotiations, governance, peace, and environmental security.”