LocationsA growing momentum of change takes root
Environmental action for climate, peace and security
June 4, 2026
With climate resilient agriculture, farmers in Iraq reduce pressure on shared water resources, preventing disputes over their use.
Photo: UNDP Iraq
The global conversation around climate action is shifting as a growing momentum of change takes root. Forests are being replanted, coastlines are being reinforced and people are actively reimagining how they live alongside nature.
This wave of environmental action is achieving something equally profound beneath the surface; it is becoming a powerful pathway to peacebuilding and social cohesion.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 3.3-3.6 billion people live in contexts highly vulnerable to climate change. At the same time, over 2 billion people live in fragile and conflict-affected settings, where climate pressures can further strain livelihoods, weaken social cohesion and intensify competition over natural resources.
In recent years, the climate change discourse across several fragile, conflict-affected and climate-vulnerable regions focuses on how its impacts, such water scarcity or degraded land, intensify pressures on livelihoods and increase competition over resources, leading to or exacerbating conflicts and tensions.
Today, a new and hopeful dynamic is emerging. People are discovering that working together to manage natural resources is an effective way to recover and build trust.
When environmental action is locally led, it goes beyond protecting biodiversity and ecosystems. It creates shared economic interests. It establishes a neutral ground for dialogue to resolve historic divides. It elevates the voices of women and youth not as victims of a changing climate, but as environmental stewards and community mediators.
From protecting forests and rivers to fostering social harmony, restoring nature is proving to be a direct investment in peace and stability.
Environmental restoration is creating new pathways to strengthen social cohesion in DRC.
Photo: UNDP DRC/Aude Rossignol
Safeguarding natural resources and traditional lifestyles
Water scarcity is one of the most direct climate triggers for social friction. When rivers shrink and arable land degrades, the economic foundation of rural life weakens, heightening competition for land and water. This strain can test historical community bonds, often driving economic migration that fractures traditional ways of life and cultural heritage.
In Iraq, where traditional farming practices are deeply tied to regional identity, severe droughts have challenged the resilience of farming communities. In response, people are now turning to climate-smart agriculture to safeguard their heritage and future.
Through solar-powered and drip irrigation, combined with scientific water management, farmers are drawing less water while maintaining viable crop yields. This has reduced the strain on this vital shared resource, and removed a key underlying causes of disputes within communities.
Drip irrigation techniques help farmers cope with water scarcity in Iraq.
Photo: UNDP Iraq
Finding neutral ground for a new generation
More than 700 million young people around the world live in fragile and conflict-affected settings, many of them on the frontlines of climate change. For them, environmental action also creates spaces to share their concerns and solutions. Clean air, protected green spaces and climate resilience cut across geopolitical and social divides, giving young people new opportunities to shape the future of their communities together.
In Kosovo*, youth-led initiatives supported through the Youth 4 Inclusion, Equality and Trust programme are using environmental conservation as a tool to strengthen connections across communities, both within their country as well as neighbouring nations. Through advocacy and awareness, young people are creating opportunities for dialogue around climate and environmental issues, while healing social and political divides.
Similarly, the global Youth4Climate initiative supports youth-led organizations working on climate-responsive peacebuilding. By promoting solutions linked to shared natural resource management, social cohesion and sustainable livelihoods, it provides mentorship and financial support to youth working at the intersection of climate, peace and security.
Youth in Kosovo* are using environmental conservation as a tool to bridge socio-political divides.
Photo: UNDP Kosovo*
Building social cohesion through land restoration
Restoring nature is a way for people to reconnect with both the environment and each other. Forests, fertile land and healthy ecosystems sustain livelihoods, support food systems and provide a shared foundation for daily life. As these landscapes come under growing pressure from climate change and environmental degradation, locally led efforts are bringing people together to restore and protect them.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where growing pressures from deforestation, artisanal mining and unsustainable agriculture are threatening one of the world’s largest rainforests, participatory land-use planning is driving land restoration through reforestation and sustainable farming.
These efforts have led to 12,000 hectares of reforested land. Local development committees have brought together over 5,500 people–including women and youth–to participate in dialogue and decision-making on land access and natural resource management in areas where competing claims and displacement have fuelled tensions.
As forests recover and pressure on land begins to ease, environmental restoration creates new pathways for cooperation and social cohesion.
In DRC, women are emerging as environmental leaders and stewards within their communities.
Photo: UNDP DRC
Environmental action as a pathway to resilience and peace
Environmental action empowers people to strengthen resilience in ways that are practical and deeply connected to everyday life. From restoring forests and protecting water systems to creating greener livelihoods and shared public spaces, communities around the world are showing that protecting the environment can also help build trust, restore livelihoods and create stronger foundations for peace and stability.
Young climate innovators at the Youth4Climate flagship event in Rome.
Photo: connect4climate
*References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
