Sustaining Natural Resources and Environmental Integrity During Response to Crisis and Conflict: Nov. 12, 2008

Please join the Environmental Change and Security Program for a discussion of

Sustaining Natural Resources and Environmental Integrity During Response to Crisis and Conflict

featuring

Anita Van Breda, Director, Humanitarian Partnerships, World Wildlife Fund

Charles Kelly, Affiliate, Benfield Hazard Research Centre, University College
London

Marion Pratt, Social Science Advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.
5th Floor Conference Room
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Webcast live at www.wilsoncenter.org.

Please RSVP to ecsp@wilsoncenter.org with your name and affiliation.

Post-conflict and post-disaster response programs are often designed and implemented quickly, with the highest priority given to basic health services; water and sanitation; and infrastructure. Environmental issues typically receive much less systematic attention, and crisis-response programs can sometimes cause additional environmental degradation. This session will examine strategies to mitigate the negative social and environmental impacts of responding to conflict and crisis. Presenters will discuss how long-term considerations such as natural resource management (NRM) can best be integrated into crisis response, and will also highlight areas in need of future attention, innovation, and investment.

Anita Van Breda, director of humanitarian partnerships at the World Wildlife Fund, will provide an overview of pre-response planning and incorporating NRM into post-conflict response. Marion Pratt, a social science advisor in USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, and Charles Kelly, an affiliate of University College London’s Benfield Hazard Research Centre, will present case studies, discussing best practices for integrating long-term environmental concerns into post-conflict work.

This is the sixth and final event in ECSP’s “New Horizons at the Nexus of Conflict, Natural Resources, and Health” series, which examines new thinking and research at the intersection of these areas. This series is funded jointly by USAID’s Office of Natural Resources Management, its Office of Population and Reproductive Health, and its Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation, with technical support from USAID’s Asia, Middle East, and Africa bureaus. For more information on this series, please visit www.wilsoncenter.org/newhorizons.

If you are interested, but unable to attend the event, please tune into the live or archived webcast at www.wilsoncenter.org. The webcast will begin approximately 10 minutes after the posted meeting time. You will need Windows Media Player to watch the webcast. To download the free player, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download.

Location: Woodrow Wilson Center at the Ronald Reagan Building: 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW ("Federal Triangle" stop on Blue/Orange Line), 5th Floor Conference Room. A map to the Center is available at www.wilsoncenter.org/directions. Note: Due to heightened security, entrance to the building will be restricted and photo identification is required. Please allow additional time to pass through security.