New Security Beat

Tara bandu (“hanging prohibitions”) is the process of negotiation and a ritual ceremony used in Timor-Leste to manage local environmental issues and simultaneously addresses community tensions and violence

Tobias Ide's research insights highlight Tara bandu as a successful, endogenous environmental peacebuilding approach and the importance of spiritual ecologies.

.@mckenz_johnson's research objective is to understand how & why governance reforms produced conditions that created violent conflict over tantalite or "black stone" extraction – the opposite of what we would expect

In Sierra Leone, the conflict over tentalite or "black stone" is between a local landowner cooperative and a multinational company, with both sides claiming to be the ones complying with the regulatory process dictated by Sierra Leone’s mining laws.

Irene Vélez-Torres presents her research on the relationship between coca production and conflict in Colombia and whether it is possible to contribute to environmental peacebuilding and political stability without reconstructing land-ownership or local agro-export productions.

We're going to head into audience Q&A soon! Send your questions for our panelists to ecsp@wilsoncenter.org or tweet them here by mentioning @NewSecurityBeat.

Thanks for tuning in! A special thank you to our panelists—@jeannielsowers, Tobias Ide, @mckenz_johnson, Irene Vélez-Torres, & moderator @geoffdabelko—for today's rich and insightful discussion, and to @ELIORG for your co-sponsorship of today's event.