51风流

Teo Ballv茅 earns Fulbright for peace research in Colombia

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51风流 has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar Grant to spend the next year in Colombia researching how environmental peacebuilding can help strengthen a nation recovering from decades of conflict.

鈥淎 lot of my research has been about how armed groups fight over land and natural resources, but this project flips the script,鈥 Ballv茅 said. 鈥淚鈥檒l be looking at how grassroots environmental management might help peacebuilding efforts and offer more sustainable livelihoods for people previously involved in the conflict.鈥

Conducting the research at this time in Colombia is perfect, Ballv茅 explains, as the nation鈥檚 peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is still in its infancy.

鈥淓nvironmental peacebuilding can also address some of the more traditional challenges of post-conflict transitions, such as the reintegration of former combatants and reconciliation,鈥 Ballv茅 said. 鈥淚f you take the case of the FARC guerrillas 鈥 for the last 50 years, they鈥檝e been hiding and fighting in the jungles 鈥 they know these places better than just about anyone else. They would make great park rangers.鈥

Much of Ballv茅鈥檚 research will be ethnographic in nature, talking with local residents formerly involved in the conflict, and trying to understand the environmental and social needs of the communities impacted by the decades-long conflict.

He has identified three key 鈥渢heaters鈥 of post-conflict environmental peacebuilding: conservation livelihoods, community reconciliation, and combatant reintegration, and he plans to focus on rural areas around the coastal city of Santa Marta.

Ballv茅, who leaves for Colombia in July, expects that his work will ultimately inform a new book, and will provide additional content for his , which is jointly offered by the and .