ECCP: Spotlight on working groups
And a thank you to a community member!
Dear Colleagues,
It’s been a couple of weeks since I was last in touch with an update on our Community of Practice. I’m glad to be in touch today with some links, invitations, and a spotlight on our working groups.
As headline news, I’m really pleased to share that we received 25 proposals for the ECCP Community Fund’s first 2026 window! Our budget committee is reviewing proposals against the posted criteria, and soon, the proposers themselves will vote on which proposals should receive funding. You’ll receive information on the final chosen projects here in this newsletter! We’re also exploring opening another window later this year — please stay tuned.
If you’re new to the ECCP, welcome. Watch the recording of our February 2026 New Member orientation here. You can follow the ECCP conversation on WhatsApp in our three groups: English, French, or Spanish. In 2025, we also launched an ECCP LinkedIn group, by popular request.
Our next general monthly networking meeting will be held Tuesday 21 April at 14h CET. You can register your interest on this sign-up sheet if you’d like to receive calendar invitations for our monthly meetings.
Environment, peacebuilding, and security
The mainstream narrative on “national security” is regularly repeated in the media in discussions on natural resources, climate change, or biodiversity loss, and at what feels like an increasing pace. What is the alternative narrative? What are alternatives to militarized approaches to security?
Our Policy Working Group on Environment, Peacebuilding, and Security has made good progress this year. They met yesterday (notes here) and are narrowing down both a set of talking points on alternatives, as well as a set of actions & groups for collaboration and coordination.
You can join the next conversation and learn more by signing up here.
Peace@CBD and Peace@COP
Similarly, our Policy Working Groups on bringing conflict sensitivity to multilateral climate change and biodiversity policy spaces are working to identify entry points and create or share resources with those who make decisions.
On biodiversity, the CBD COP17 will be held later this year in Armenia. The Peace@CBD group is working on a portfolio of entry points for different kinds of actors in the conflict-sensitive conservation space. What can practitioners do? What about policy makers? Funders? Researchers? I’ll gladly share that when ready, and we welcome your input via this link here.
On climate change, the UNFCCC COP31 will be held later this year in Turkey. The Peace@COP31 group has been engaging with various parts of the COP apparatus to bring conflict sensitivity expertise, including submitting expert opinions to open submission windows. Members of the ECCP are also participating in Colombia & The Netherlands’ conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, to be held later this month. Join the climate conversation here.
Green energy transition
Our final Policy Working Group has been hard at work this year to develop materials and recommendations about various aspects of the so-called green energy transition. (Not sure what that means? Here’s a working glossary.)
The group started with critical minerals. The green transition depends on critical minerals — lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, and rare earths — for renewable energy, EVs, and battery storage. Without conflict-sensitive approaches, the rush for minerals risks displacement, corruption, environmental harm, and fuelling and sustaining armed conflict. Read examples and recommendations here.
The green transition working group is shifting to land, forests, and agriculture now. You can join the conversation here.
Fourth International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding this June
Join the Environmental Peacebuilding Association and University of Ottawa for the Fourth International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding! The conference will bring together 300+ people from around the globe to discuss approaches and solutions on environment, conflict, and peace.
A free Virtual Day takes place on June 9 or attend the in-person conference at the University of Ottawa from June 16-19, 2026. View the full agenda and register now: https://www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/conferences/4th-international-conference
If you’d like to join a WhatsApp group for ECCP members attending the conference, please email ecosystemforpeace@gmail.com. We will monitor membership in that specific group to ensure members are indeed attending. The intention of the group is onsite coordination.
Call for feedback on peace for development
The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Mr Surya Deva, will present his 2026 report the General Assembly on “Peace for development.”
To inform this thematic reports, the Special Rapporteur seeks to collect input from States and other stakeholders such as international organizations (including UN entities), national human rights institutions, development finance institutions, businesses, industry associations, civil society organizations, trade unions, human rights defenders, Indigenous Peoples, community organizations, research centres, academia and lawyers. Please feel free to answer the questions most relevant for your work.
The deadline is 17 April 2026.
As always, I warmly recommend that you subscribe to the Environmental Peacebuilding Association’s email newsletter for a more comprehensive resource roundup! As a reminder, please always feel free to send reports, publications, event announcements, and other ECCP-related resources my way. You can also post them directly in our WhatsApp community or LinkedIn platform, linked at the top of this email.
Finally, I’d like to conclude by expressing my warm gratitude to ECCP member Ramanuj Mitra who has volunteered to support the moderation of our WhatsApp groups after a rather annoying couple of weeks of spam. Thank you so much for your proactive support, Ram! We appreciate it immensely.
That’s it for this week.
Take care,
Annika