What is Environmental Conflict?

Author(s): Stephan Libiszewski
Editor(s): Günter Bächler, Kurt R. Spillmann
Series: CSS Environment and Conflicts Project
Publisher(s): ENCOP is an international project on violence and conflicts caused by environmental degradation. © 1992 Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich
Publication Year: 1992

This paper introduces the concept of environmental conflict as understood by the ENCOP project. It seeks to classify theoretically what an environmental conflict is and is not, and how the causal link between physical processes in nature and the rise in violent conflicts within or between societies should be seen. The author seeks to close this theoretical gap by outlining an analytical framework for comparative case studies on the topic. The paper concludes with the definition of environmental conflict given by ENCOP.(This article is the revised version of a paper presented a the first coordination meeting of the Environment and Conflict Project (ENCOP) in Berne/Zurich, 30 April - 1 May, 1992)

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