1. Presentation given Nov 25, 2012
International Peace Research Association
in the
General Conference
Ecology and Peace Commission
Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, Japan
Community-based Ecological Restoration to
Enhance Resilience and Transitions Toward Peace
Keith G. Tidball, PhD
kgtidball@cornell.edu
www.civicecology.org

2. What does this…
…have to do with this ?

3. Why do humans turn to nature, and
restoring nature, in the wake of conflict
and disaster?
Of what use might greening in human
vulnerability and security contexts be in
managing social-ecological systems for
resilience and transitions to peace?

4. HUMAN VULNERABILITY & SECURITY CONTEXTS ….
+ +
Population growth Climate Change Resource scarcity

5. What is a red zone?
“Red Zones” refer to multiple settings (spatial and temporal)
that may be characterized as intense, potentially or recently
hostile or dangerous, including those associated with terrorist
attacks and war, as well as in post-disaster situations caused by
natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes.

6. What is greening?
• “Greening” is an active and integrated approach to the
appreciation, stewardship and management of living elements of social-
ecological systems.
• Greening takes place in cities, towns, townships and informal settlements in
urban and peri-urban areas, and in the battlefields of war and of disaster.
• Greening sites vary -- from small woodlands, public and private urban parks
and gardens, urban natural areas, street tree and city square
plantings, botanical gardens and cemeteries, to watersheds, whole forests
and national or international parks.
• Greening involves active participation with nature and in human or civil
society (Tidball and Krasny 2007)—and thus can be distinguished from notions of
‘nature contact’ (Ulrich 1993) that imply spending time in or viewing nature, but
not necessarily active stewardship.

7. Some examples
Restoration of Iraq’s wetlands, supported by community-based natural resources
management among Iraq’s Marsh Arabs & partnerships with the scientific community
Replanting of the Urban Forest of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Living Memorials creation throughout
NYC, Washington D.C. , and
Shanksville, PA after 9/11
Establishment of Band-e- Amir National
Park in the midst of conflict in
Afghanistan
Conservation efforts in demilitarized
border lands in the Korean peninsula and
between Greece and Cyprus

8. Evidence of the importance of greening
scientific journal articles
scholarly books
popular press and news media
public initiatives
websites
blogs

9. Why should we do it?
• Contributes shared sense of identity / rebuilding identity post-crisis
• Leads to improved psychological, cognitive, and social health
• Fosters deeper sense of self-worth as an individual contributes to the
community’s overall well-being
• Serves as basis for framing place meaning and identity, and for
empowerment through demonstrable opportunities for community
organizing
• Restarts ecosystem services producing systems
• Because greeners often form partnerships with NGOs, government, and
universities, greening contributes additional benefits to polycentric
governance approaches

10. Systems implications
• Crises open up opportunities for renewal
• Within the context of resilience, greening
operates back and forth across boundaries of
time and spatial scale
• Red zone boundaries are fluid

11. Attention to locally derived solutions
• Assets can be identified even in dystopic
environments
• Small cases may point to larger implications

12. How does it work?
Tidball, KG. 2012. Urgent Biophilia: Human-Nature Interactions and Biological
Urgent Biophilia Attractions in Disaster Resilience. Ecology and Society, 17(2).
PD*
Tidball, KG & RC Stedman. Positive Dependency and Virtuous Cycles: From
Restorative Topophilia Resource Dependence to Resilience in Urban Social-Ecological Systems.
Ecological Economics. Doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.10.004
Memorialization Tidball, KG, ME Krasny, E Svendsen, L Campbell, & K Helphand. 2010.
Stewardship, Learning, and Memory in Disaster Resilience. “Resilience in
Mechanism Social-Ecological Systems: the Role of Learning and Education,” Special Issue
of Environmental Education Research, 16(5): 341-357.
Tidball, KG (Accepted; expected 2013). Trees and Rebirth: Social-Ecological
Social-Ecological Symbols, Rituals and Resilience in Post-Katrina New Orleans. In: Tidball and
Krasny, Eds., Greening in the Red Zone: Disaster, Resilience, and Community
Symbols and Rituals Greening. Springer publishing.
*Positive Dependency complex

13. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
FINDING 1 -- There appears to be a
“greening in the red zone process or cycle”
that contains fundamental key sequential
components, but that likely is nuanced on
a case-by-case basis reflecting
landscape, disturbance intensity, and other
factors.

14. 1, Individuals gravitate toward available green assets
2. Use available green assets 3. Clusters form-
for therapeutic benefits- different paths/pace
communities of practice
4. Restore and create new green assets
5. Larger greening movement
emerges
7. New sites recruit new
individuals; expand cycle
6. Greening activities
Social-ecological system
recover & restore sense of
recovery & resilience processes
place

15. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
FINDING 2 -- Within this “greening in the red zone process”
there are at least five important mechanisms that explain
how the system functions from one sequential frame to the
next:
• Urgent Biophilia
Positive Dependency
• Restorative Topophilia
• Memorialization
• Symbol & Ritualization

16. 2. Use available green
1, Individuals gravitate toward available green assets
assets; experience 3. Clusters form-
for therapeutic benefits- different paths/pace
therapeutic benefits communities of practice
4. Restore and create new green assets
5. Larger greening movement
emerges
Memorialization SES Symbols &
Red zone commences Urgent Biophilia mechanism Rituals mechanism
mechanism
Virtuous Cycle
Restorative Topophilia mechanism
mechanism
Social-ecological system 6. Greening activities
recovery & resilience processes recover & restore sense of
place

17. What is the recipe?
Remember Recognize Decide Learn Invest Document Capitalize

18. Why is GRZ important to Peace
Research?
• Explicit example of critical importance of human
interdependence with the rest of nature
• Power of acknowledging our innate biophilia, our
love of life, as a powerful response to conflict and
destruction
• Points to the importance of remembering and
reconstituting our ecological identity towards
achieving balance amongst ourselves and other
members of life’s systems
• Optimistic potential to mitigate structural violence
and replace with peaceful, sustainable coexistence

19. IN CONCLUSION…
“…emerging consensus that the changing relationship
between human beings and the sustaining
capabilities of the global ecosystem is rapidly
becoming a significant source of human suffering. . .
the concerns of peace research should similarly shift
away from weaponry and military conflict to these new
sources of conflict and misery found … within the
limited capabilities of the global environment.”
Dennis Pirages, “The Greening of Peace Research”
Perhaps now the concerns of peace research are shifting
again, to new sources of resilience, and ecologically
based transitions to peace and human security.

20. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Northern Research Station
New York City Urban Field Station