What does the Environment Have to do with Peace?

“Sometimes we forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one in the same."

-Jacques Cousteau

"Myth: we have to save the earth. Frankly, the earth doesn't need to be saved. Nature doesn't give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained. Saving the environment is really about saving our environment -- making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so." 

-Robert M. Lilienfeld, management consultant and author (b. 1953) and William L. Rathje, archaeologist and author (b. 1945)

When I was studying social work, I never imagined that my future job would include investigating rivers. 

But it did.  And it totally makes sense.

In Sembrandopaz we accompany community processes that work towards building peace and promoting reconciliation.  As the coordinator of youth accompaniment, I got to know groups of youth from different communities who are dedicated to transforming their region and are confident that peace is possible.  One of the main focuses of these youth is protecting and taking care of their environment.

The youth have many reasons for making the environment a priority.  A few are:

• Without a safe and healthy place to live, we have the stress of sharing limited resources among larger populations.
• With the recent droughts, youth have lived the grave consequences and struggles that come with climate change and not taking care of the environment.
• If we do not actively take care of our own environment which directly affects our own well-being, how can we expect to care for others and reconcile with those who we feel are against us?

I had the opportunity to accompany youth in learning about recycling, trying to create healthier ways to get rid of garbage, teaching new sustainable farming strategies, reforesting, and learning about native plants and animals.

But our main focus was water.  

Many people will say water is life, and living through droughts has shown me that very directly (though I absolutely recognize that privileges I enjoy made even that experience much easier for me than for most).  Deciding if you should take a shower, wash you dishes, flush your toilet, or cook with your last bit of water is not a decision anyone should have to make. And forget about watering your crops or your vegetable garden.

Facing these challenges, we decided to support groups of youth to study their waterways, create plans for taking care of the nature in their communities, and even write proposals for the government to support the initiative as a substitution for military service, which would give youth an option to be trained in something besides violence as well as more opportunities once they leave service.

And that is how I ended up walking over 50 kilometers of rivers in Colombia with amazing and dedicated youth.

In the process we not only learned about the physical state of the rivers, but also learned the history and culture linked to the rivers, formed new relationships with other communities on the riverbanks, learned how to use new technologies (i.e. GPS, cameras, google maps), and everyone participated in the process from the planning and budgeting to the systematization of the data and the evaluation of the investigation.  Now the youth are in the process of creating their action plans based on what they learned (building greenhouses, reforestation plans, teaching the community about the importance of healthy garbage removal, protecting native animals, community ecotourism plans are a few examples) and writing the proposal for using the strategy as a substitution for military service.

So how is this building peace?  

• The investigation facilitated connections between communities that are located nearby, share the same water resources, but did not have relationships.  
• The youth in the investigations learned new skills in leadership, technology, planning and evaluation, and proposal writing.  
• We all have had the opportunity to directly see how our actions affect the environment (pollution of the water because of garbage, land slides because of deforestation, dry riverbeds because of sand removal, etc) which has motivated us to share the experience and look for alternatives in order to protect our natural resources and live at peace with nature.  
• Creating opportunities for youth to stay in their home communities, earn an income doing constructive work, and learn skills that promote nonviolence and community building, is a huge step towards peace.  

There are many other ways that the youth in Montes de María are building peace through taking care of nature and the environment and I am grateful for having the opportunity to learn alongside them.

Thank you Vigías Ecológicos, thank you JOPPAZ, thank you OJFP, thank you Sembrandopaz, thank you MCC, and thank you Dios.

Ánimo y pa'delante compañerxs! Sí se puede!