Editing Transboundary protected area (section)

== Impacts on peace and conflict ==
Transboundary protected areas are also termed peace parks. They are supposed to facilitate cooperation and exchange between (adversary) countries, to improve livelihoods of local populations, to demonstrate the possibility of positive-sum interactions, and hence to support more peaceful international relations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution|last=Ali|first=Saleem H.|publisher=MIT Press|year=2007|isbn=9780262012355|location=Cambridge, MA}}</ref> There are several cases documented in which trans-boundary conservation contributed to conflict resolution (although it was not the main driver), such as in the [[Virunga National Park|Virunga]] region between the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DR Congo]], [[Rwanda]] and [[Uganda]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Martin|first1=Adrian|last2=Rutagarama|first2=Eugene|last3=Cascão|first3=Ana|last4=Gray|first4=Maryke|last5=Chhotray|first5=Vasudha|date=September 2011|title=Understanding the co-existence of conflict and cooperation: Transboundary ecosystem management in the Virunga Massif|journal=Journal of Peace Research|volume=48|issue=5|pages=621–635|doi=10.1177/0022343311412410|s2cid=53334931 |issn=0022-3433|url=https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/37873/1/JPR2011Virunga.pdf}}</ref> around the [[Trifinio Fraternidad Transboundary Biosphere Reserve|Trifinio]] region between [[El Salvador]] and [[Honduras]],<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Ide|first=Tobias|date=May 2018|title=Does environmental peacemaking between states work? Insights on cooperative environmental agreements and reconciliation in international rivalries|journal=Journal of Peace Research|volume=55|issue=3|pages=351–365|doi=10.1177/0022343317750216|s2cid=117600202 |issn=0022-3433|url=https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/59912/ |url-access=subscription}}</ref> and in the [[Cordillera del Cóndor]] region between [[Ecuador]] and [[Peru]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.adelphi.de/en/system/files/mediathek/bilder/us_503_-_carius_environmental_peacemaking_06-07-02.pdf|title=Environmental Peacebuilding: Environmental Cooperation as an Instrument of Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding: Conditions for Success and Constraints|last=Carius|first=Alexander|publisher=adelphi|year=2006|location=Berlin}}</ref> According to a statistical analysis published in 2014, states that share a trans-boundary protected area are slightly less likely to engage with militarized disputes with each other. But the question remains whether the TBPA is a driver or consequence on better interstate relations in these cases.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Barquet|first1=Karina|last2=Lujala|first2=Päivi|last3=Rød|first3=Jan Ketil|date=September 2014|title=Transboundary conservation and militarized interstate disputes|journal=Political Geography|volume=42|pages=1–11|doi=10.1016/j.polgeo.2014.05.003}}</ref> A more recent analysis triangulates data from various sources to show that international environmental cooperation (in the form of TBPAs and water treaties) increases the likelihood for reconciliation between states in conflict. The effect is, however, modest and contingent on a number of context factors such as high levels of environmental attention, internal political stability, a tradition of environmental cooperation and already ongoing processes of reconciliation.<ref name=":6" />

However, a number of authors criticize that peace parks have a very limited impact on formal relations between states, but can accelerate conflicts on the local level, for instance by extending (authoritarian) state control, by prioritizing business and tourism over the interests of local populations, and by excluding local people from the protected areas.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Duffy|first=Rosaleen|date=September 2001|title=Peace parks: The paradox of globalisation1|journal=Geopolitics|volume=6|issue=2|pages=1–26|doi=10.1080/14650040108407715|s2cid=144665048 |issn=1465-0045}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Büscher|first1=Bram|last2=Ramutsindela|first2=Maano|date=2015-12-24|journal=African Affairs|pages=adv058|doi=10.1093/afraf/adv058|issn=0001-9909|title=Green Violence: Rhino Poaching and the War to Save Southern Africa's Peace Parks}}</ref> TBPAs can also stimulate (low-level) international conflicts, for instance about the sharing of revenues or the presence of human populations in the parks.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=van Amerom|first1=Marloes|last2=Büscher|first2=Bram|date=2005-06-16|title=Peace parks in Southern Africa: bringers of an African Renaissance?|journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies|volume=43|issue=2|pages=159–182|doi=10.1017/S0022278X05000790|issn=0022-278X|hdl=1871/21865|url=http://repub.eur.nl/pub/21698|hdl-access=free}}</ref>