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Focusing on the case of Virunga National Park (PNVi) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this paper looks at Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and the impact of ongoing conflict. It also discusses opportunities for elevating environment-conflict issues to international policy levels to help save important ecosystems in times of conflict. It is explained that for the past two decades, the park and the surrounding area in North Kivu province have experienced near-constant violent conflict. For the local population, the result has been widespread suffering: death, rape, displacement, sickness and starvation. Beyond the humanitarian crisis, conflict has threatened the species, habitats and communities that depend on PNVi for their survival. The park is in crisis: its governance system has collapsed; its boundaries are encroached upon by the surrounding local and refugee populations; its habitats are being destroyed by overfishing and charcoal production; and its animals are killed for meat and ivory. Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), designed to protect such globally-significant ecosystems, have so far been unable to address the threats to the park. Despite the proliferation of relevant environmental conventions and the DRC’s participation in them, environmental destruction continues in PNVi. UN MEAs provide opportunities for elevating environment-conflict issues to international policy levels. Although UN MEAs are not designed or expected to offer practical solutions to conservation crises on the ground, they do build capacity, improve information gathering and support underfunded budgets. Some of the UN MEAs being initiated in DRC include:
the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - field consultations indicate that the CBD is not seen as a particularly strong tool for the promotion of transboundary cooperation. But improved action on transboundary natural resource management in the region, supported by the Convention, could help park authorities on all sides of the border deal with some of the impacts of conflict on the various components of the shared ecosystem
the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species has proven to be an important catalyst for deepening transboundary cooperation among the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda. Key lessons include the importance of forging agreements at the level closest to the environment-conflict challenge in question and the need for robust cooperative mechanisms to address conservation challenges that no one range state could address alone
the Wetlands Protection Convention could provide much-needed resources for the DRC in the protection of its Ramsar sites. Ramsar could be an important catalyst for strengthening transboundary cooperation in order to mitigate the environmental impacts of conflict in the region, specifically relating to the Lake Edward ecosystem.
The paper concludes by highlighting other international and African policy instruments and forums, which are equally important alongside the MEA-specific entry points. These provide immediate opportunities for the DRC to raise environmental conflict concerns.
