Peace parks
Protected areas that span a contested or shared border, managed jointly so neighbours cooperate over nature instead of fighting over it.
Start small
Bring together rangers or conservation staff from each side of a border plus community representatives for a one-day joint walk and workshop on a shared species or river. Agree one joint activity, such as a shared wildlife count, within six months. Cost is mainly transport and permits, roughly USD 500 to 2,000. Before going further, map who lives in and uses the land and seek their consent.
The problem
Ecosystems and wildlife ignore borders, so fragmented, militarised frontiers break habitats and block regeneration. Peace parks protect whole ecosystems across a border and give former rivals a practical reason to cooperate.
Where it fits
Thrives where a border runs through a single ecosystem, where states already want better relations or have just signed a peace deal, and where park agencies on both sides can work together day to day. Needs joint management bodies, shared monitoring, real participation and benefit-sharing for local and Indigenous communities, and agreements at the level where cooperation actually happens.
The principle underneath
Shared ecosystems create shared interests. When neighbours manage one landscape together, routine cooperation between rangers, scientists and officials builds trust and habits that outlast political tension, while nature gains connected habitat. It only becomes peace for people too when those living in the landscape share in decisions and benefits.
A pattern in nature
Wildlife corridors and watersheds that ignore political borders; migrating herds that knit separate ranges into one system.
Who to call
IUCN WCPA Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group (Global Transboundary Protected Areas Network); Peace Parks Foundation; Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration; SANParks transfrontier conservation team; Elaine (Lan Yin) Hsiao (researcher on transboundary conservation and peace); Environmental Peacebuilding Association.
Watch out for
Fortress conservation that removes or restricts local and Indigenous people. Treating peace as a branding label rather than a goal with its own process. Benefit-sharing limited to trickle-down tourism revenue. Extractive industries carving out the protected area later. Treaties signed by heads of state with no capacity on the ground.
Where it comes from
The first International Peace Park, Waterton-Glacier, was designated by Canada and the United States on 2 May 1932. The model spread through IUCN's Parks for Peace work and, in southern Africa, the Peace Parks Foundation and SADC transfrontier conservation areas from the late 1990s. Many of these landscapes are the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples (for example the ‡Khomani San in the Kalahari). Draw on their knowledge only with their consent and on their terms.
Where it's worked
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, Canada and United States · 1932 to present
World's first International Peace Park; later recognised as a World Heritage Site (1995), with both parts also UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.
DocumentedSource
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Botswana and South Africa · 1999 agreement, opened 2000
35,561 km2 park with no internal border fence; in 2002 the ‡Khomani San and Mier communities won ownership of 50,000 ha inside the park, leased back to SANParks, with veld schools for traditional knowledge.
DocumentedSource
Cordillera del Cóndor, Ecuador and Peru · 1998 to present
The 1998 Presidential Act ending the border war created contiguous protected areas on both sides as part of the settlement; tensions between conservation, mining and Indigenous rights persist.
DocumentedSource
Greater Virunga Landscape, DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda · 1990 informal, 2015 treaty, 2016 census
Virunga Massif mountain gorillas rose from 480 (2010) to 604 (2015 to 2016) in a jointly run census, partly credited to transboundary collaboration between the three countries.
DocumentedSource
Limpopo National Park, Mozambique (Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park) · Study published 2012
Cautionary case · park creation tied to post-war regional cooperation led to the planned resettlement of about 6,000 residents under pressure from livelihood restrictions and rising wildlife numbers.
DocumentedSource
Where it failed
Displacement · in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park, part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, about 6,000 of roughly 26,000 residents were slated for resettlement; officials said moves were voluntary, but livelihood restrictions and over 3,000 wildlife relocated from Kruger pushed communities to accept. Indigenous rights · in the Cordillera del Cóndor, Indigenous communities say promises to include them in governance were broken and that mining interests pushed to shrink the protected area. Weak peace mandate · a 2018 review of 56 transboundary agreements covering 32 areas found most never mention peace or conflict, none require Free, Prior and Informed Consent, and none address past conservation-induced abuses such as forced displacement of Indigenous peoples. Paper parks · top-down treaties in violent landscapes such as Kidepo (South Sudan and Uganda) made little progress on the ground.
Related Fruit
- TreeIndigenous ranger and guardian programsPaid Indigenous rangers or guardians, employed by their own communities, care for and monitor their traditional lands and waters on their own terms.
- TreeCommunity forest managementLegal rights to manage, use and earn from forests go to organised local communities, which then protect them better than many parks do.
- TreeWildlife crossings with exclusion fencingUnderpasses, overpasses and rope or pole bridges, paired with fencing that funnels animals to them, reconnect habitat split by roads and stop roadkill.
- TreeIndigenous joint management of protected areas through land use agreementsTraditional Owners and a parks agency share the management of protected land under a binding agreement, so Country is conserved with its custodians, not instead of them.
- TreeParticipatory community mapping for land rightsCommunities map their own customary territory with sketch maps, GPS and 3D models, turning unwritten tenure into evidence that governments and courts recognise.
- TreeLocal peace committeesStanding community committees of rival groups, officials and civil society that mediate disputes early and stop them turning violent.