LocationsHow biodiversity conservation strengthens climate resilience, supports livelihoods and brings communities together
Protecting nature, sustaining peace
October 15, 2026
The Sembremos Confianza initiative brings environmental restoration and rural livelihoods together as part of efforts to build peace.
Photo: UNDP Colombia
People’s ability to build secure lives is closely tied to the natural world around them. Forests, rivers, wetlands and ocean sustain food supplies, provide livelihoods and help communities withstand climate pressures. The diversity of life within these ecosystems keeps them functioning.
Yet these foundations are becoming less secure.
More than half of humanity lives in areas hardest hit by deteriorating biodiversity, water and food security, alongside growing health risks and climate impacts. At the same time, over US$50 trillion of annual economic activity around the world is moderately to highly dependent on nature.
As biodiversity declines, the consequences reach into homes and communities, affecting how people earn a living, share resources and prepare for impacts of climate change.
Where conflict and inequality already limit people’s choices, these pressures can deepen insecurity. Losing a forest or a reliable water source can mean losing an income, travelling further to meet daily needs, or facing growing tensions over access to resources. Conflict, in turn, can weaken the institutions and cooperation needed to protect those resources.
Protecting biodiversity can help communities address these challenges together. Restoring ecosystems helps secure livelihoods, while decisions about how shared resources are used create opportunities for dialogue. When people can resolve grievances and share fairly in the benefits of conservation, protecting nature can also help rebuild the relationships on which peace depends.
Protecting forests in northwestern Colombia helps safeguard wildlife habitats and the water on which nearby communities depend.
Photo: UNDP Colombia
Finding common ground
In parts of northwestern Colombia affected by armed conflict, deforestation and illegal economies, protecting the jaguar’s habitat is becoming part of efforts to build peace. The forests that shelter jaguars also protect community water sources, giving residents and public institutions a reason to work together.
Through the Sembremos Confianza initiative, supported by UNDP and partners, communities have established a 112-hectare area combining restoration and forest protection. Support for beekeeping, cacao production and other local businesses is expanding livelihood opportunities in places where illegal economies have long been entrenched.
Community representatives and institutions commit to protecting forests, water sources and jaguar habitat through the Sembremos Confianza initiative in Colombia.
Photo: UNDP Colombia
Community agreements commit residents and institutions to sustain the work. These shared responsibilities, backed by practical support for livelihoods, offer a way to strengthen cooperation while also building trust and confidence in public institutions.
In Timor-Leste, cooperation draws on customary rules governing relationships between people and nature. Known as Tara Bandu, these community agreements help protect natural resources and curb illegal harvesting.
A programme supported by the Green Climate Fund and UNDP is incorporating Tara Bandu and other traditional negotiation ceremonies into planning for infrastructure resilient to floods, droughts and landslides. Drawing on these practices gives communities a familiar way to negotiate shared responsibilities as they adapt to changing conditions.
Customary practices such as Tara Bandu in Timor-Leste help communities agree on how natural resources are used and protected.
Photo: UNDP Timor-Leste
Women leading restoration and rebuilding trust
For Tenneh Massalay, a beekeeper in Liberia, protecting the forest also means having a say in its future. As treasurer of her community’s forest management body, she helps oversee forest revenues and encourages other women to participate in decisions.
“For the first time, women’s voices are being heard. We’re helping decide how our forest is managed,” she says.
Across Liberia, women are building businesses that support their families while keeping forests standing.
Photo: UNDP Liberia
Tenneh Massalay tends a forest hive in Liberia, where honey production as a livelihood offers an alternative to logging and charcoal burning.
Photo: UNDP Liberia
The Leh Go Green initiative, supported by the European Union and UNDP, connects forest restoration with livelihoods such as beekeeping and sustainable harvesting. Training is helping community members challenge the restrictive social norms and unequal access to decisions that limit women’s participation.
These efforts are accompanied by new guidance on negotiating conservation agreements. Previously, the absence of a common framework left communities facing uneven negotiations and made commitments difficult to monitor. Developed with Liberia’s Forestry Development Authority, the guidance aims to clarify responsibilities, ensure fair benefits and reduce disputes.
The Leh Go Green training programme helps strengthen women’s participation and leadership in decisions about community forests.
Photo: UNDP Liberia
Giving people greater influence over these agreements can help address grievances around resource use, making cooperation an integral part of protecting forests.
Conservation amid crisis
Ukraine’s work to protect biodiversity is continuing amid the ongoing war, which has damaged over 30 percent of the country’s protected areas spanning forests, wetlands, steppes and coastal habitats.
Conservation work continues despite these conditions. At Nobelskyi National Nature Park, drones are being used to monitor wildlife. Across northern Ukraine, teams have surveyed seven degraded peatland sites to prepare for restoring their water levels, laying the groundwork to recover habitats that retain water and reduce fire risks.
Drones provided by UNDP help monitor wildlife in Ukraine’s Nobelskyi National Nature Park as conservation work continues amid the ongoing war.
Photo: UNDP Ukraine
Restoring water levels in Ukraine’s peatlands can help recover wildlife habitats and reduce vulnerability to drought and wildfire.
Photo: UNDP Ukraine
These efforts accompany a longer-term commitment: in June 2026, even as conflict continues, Ukraine adopted its biodiversity conservation strategy through 2035, developed with support from the Global Environment Facility and UNDP. It places ecosystem protection and restoration within the country’s broader plans for recovery, recognizing nature’s role in sustaining livelihoods and resilience.
Wetlands in Ukraine’s Chornobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve provide wildlife habitat and help regulate water flows, supporting resilience against a changing climate.
Photo: Denys Vyshnevskyi
Conservation built on cooperation
Protecting biodiversity can help communities withstand climate pressures, sustain livelihoods and find common ground over shared resources. Realizing that potential requires attention to the people who depend on nature: their rights, their knowledge and their ability to influence decisions.
When conservation offers tangible benefits and space to resolve grievances, it can strengthen the cooperation on which peace depends. Even amid war and insecurity, protecting ecosystems helps preserve the resources and relationships communities will need to shape their future together.
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