A one-day workshop to explore the ecological and social impacts of conflict in drylands.

Contemporary wars are concentrated disproportionately in dryland regions, yet little is known about their impacts and long-term socio-environmental consequences. The aim of this workshop is to explore the direct and indirect environmental impacts of conflict in dryland regions and to discuss pathways for building socio-ecological resilience to environmental degradation during- and post-conflict.

This workshop focuses on dryland regions that cover ~40% of the global land area and support ~2.5 billion people, 90% of whom live in developing countries. Dryland ecosystems are one of the harshest terrestrial biomes on the planet and are fragile and vulnerable to irreversible damage once perturbed. When these resource-limited environments are damaged by conflict, the land degradation that ensues can have significant impacts on livelihoods, social and ecological resilience and long-term peacebuilding. The workshop will explore all these themes using examples from Somalia, Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan and other places.

Invited speakers include:

Magda Nassef (United Nations Environment Programme)

Dr Lina Eklund (Lund University, Sweden)

Prof Helen Young (Tufts University)

Dr Ole Magnus Thiesen (Norwegian Univeristy of Science and Technology)

Doug Weir (Toxic Remnants of War Network)

Brendan Bromwich (King's College London)