Shopping Cart
RSS FeedDisasters and Peacemaking: Helping Communities Heal
Worldwatch Live Online Discussion
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: Worldwatch Researchers
February 2, 2006 - 3:00pm EDT
A new report on the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami says that governments have violated human rights and ignored the most vulnerable populations. And a day after President Bush declined to address mistakes in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina in his annual State of the Union speech, a U.S. Government report says lack of leadership and poor planning hampered the disaster relief effort.
What should governments do to prepare for disaster? How can communities weakened by violence and war bounce back from disaster? What role should the international community play? Worldwatch researchers Michael Renner and Zoë Chafe will answer your questions.
Steve Conklin, Worldwatch Institute: Welcome to Worldwatch Live. Today we are joined by Worldwatch Researchers Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner, who will be taking your questions on disasters and peacemaking. Welcome, Zoë and Michael!
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: Thanks, Steve, for moderating this chat. This is one of a series of chats that we are doing to highlight the many issues and connections among disasters, environment, development, conflict, and peace efforts. So we're glad to see a number of thoughtful points being raised here.
Srinagar-Garhwal, India: Dear respondents, i am afraid that the present way of so called developement of developed countries will turn into a uncontrolled dissaster. These countries are cutting the same branch on which thay are standing. They dont know that the fire which they are burining today will lead to swallow them to in near future. My question is when they will understand the exact situation and will controll the use and emission of harmful chemicals and gases?
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: You are correct in pointing out that unsustainable resource use can lead to increased vulnerability. Human actions can actually worsen the impacts of disasters, leading to what we call "un-natural disasters." For example, deforestation in Pakistan led to landslides after the devastating earthquake in October 2005. A variety of studies are now looking at the links between sea temperature change and hurricane frequency and strength. And mangroves are a clear indication of ways in which natural barriers can be inadvertantly destroyed: in Sri Lanka, coastal areas where mangrove forests were intact sustained less damage than areas in which the trees had been cut down for shrimp farming or building development. Our hope is that governments will notice these important links and consider environmental conservation as an integral part of disaster preparedness planning.
london: How can ethnic groups discriminated by governments in developing countries like srilanka bounce back from disasters like tsunami when foreign aid is pervented from reaching them? International community should insist that proportionate aid should reach all ethnic groups affected by tsunami.
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: This is a key question certainly in the Sri Lankan context, but is also of broader significance. The potential silver lining in disasters is precisely that parties to a conflict may come to recognize that they have common needs and interests. These overlapping interests necessitate cooperation, and that is only possible if the parties are willing to find ways to resolve their conflict in a fair manner.
But as the Sri Lankan experience shows, it's entirely possible that foreign disaster aid is simply seen as a prize to be fought over, or can be used as a lever by one side against the other. In that case, a disaster doesn't help to overcome existing divide, it actually deepens the divide.
The international community, as you rightly sugest, has a huge responsibility here to see to it that aid plays a positive role instead of further exacerbating tensions. The international community has largely failed to do that in Sri Lanka. It's understandable that donors are reluctant to deal with the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) due to their tactics. In particular, the ruthless measures taken by the LTTE to eliminate any and all opposition to their rule within the Tamil community is highly problematic.
But what all this suggests is that the international community needs to work far harder to address and overcome these challenges. In Aceh, which has been hard hit by the December 2004 tsunami, it looks like there is far greater willingness between the conflict parties to compromise. But even there, there's an ongoing challenge for donors to ensure that aid money is spent and distributed in a way that does not discriminate against any community. The new report by Action Aid suggests that in just about all the tsunami-affected countries, the poor, the vulnerable, and women are not being treated fairly.
Washington DC: What role does business and the private sector play in helping to mitigate the effects of natural disasters?
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: Thanks for this interesting question. The private sector is an important player in both disaster preparedness and disaster relief. One of the most interesting examples that I've come across on the relief side is a partnership between the American Forest and Paper Association and two environmental groups, WWF and Conservation International. Working together, the industry group and organizations collected timber from the US to send to Aceh (Indonesia). Their goal was to minimize the amount of wood that would have to be harvested from Aceh's sensitive tropical forests to rebuild houses and other types of infrastructure. There was concern that overharvesting wood from Aceh's forests could actually put Aceh's residents at increased risk for future disasters, such as landslides after heavy rains. In terms of preparedness, tourism operators are great candidates for assisting with education about disaster risk. Hotels often have access to outside information and warning systems, including weather forecasts, that others in the same area do not have. These businesses can be a crucial link to otherwise isolated communities. At the same time, badly planned tourism development can actually undo disaster mitigation. In many areas affected by the tsunami, hotels had been built too close to the coast, encroaching on natural habitat that could have provided protection to nearby communities.
Syracuse, New York: How have you seen participatory mapping, either GIS or low-tech cartography, used in facilitating processes that bring communities together to respond to disaster in a conflict zone?
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: This is another great question. Participatory mapping can be a wonderful tool for involving local community members in the process of assessing local resources and taking stock of local needs. What we've found in our research is that local community participation is key to effective relief programs. If local community organizations are empowered to make decisions and facilitate the involvement of outside aid groups immediately after a disaster, they will be able to communicate their needs directly to aid providers. This does not mean that the national government should not be involved--the national government has an important role to play in directing aid disbursement and coordinating the actions of a variety of national and international agencies (something that was highlighted again in US Government reports about the response to Hurricane Katrina). However, the focus should be on getting information about local needs up to the national level. GIS and other types of mapping systems can be invaluable tools, both for making initial estimates and for organizing information that comes in from the community level.
Hilo, Hawaii: While some disasters promote cooperation, others like droughts and famines (fueled by global warming and population pressures on diminishing resources) fuel conflicts such as those in Somalia. What are the most effective ways to address those issues is a timely manner to avoid or minimize the effects of catastrophic collapse?
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: Yes, you are absolutely right to point out this important distinction. When a disaster strikes suddenly, like an earthquake or a tsunami, it is most likely seen as something that is beyond human capacity to prevent. But other types of disasters, like droughts and famines, usually develop slowly and last much longer. That often translates into a sense that human actions may have influenced and worsened these events (which per se is not incorrect) and that therefore "the other" (community, country, etc.) is at fault for what is happening. Slow-moving disasters lend themselves more for finger-pointing.
There is relatively little that can be done once slow-moving disasters have been set in motion. It's crucial therefore, to focus much more on disaster prevention. And that means safeguarding overburdened eco-systems. It means that our habits with regard to energy and water use, land use, etc. need to change fundamentally. We need to recognize the connections between disasters and environmental sustainability issues. That's true not only with regard to the onset of disasters, but also with regard to how well we are protected against the impacts of disasters by (intact or impaired) the earth's ecosystems.
Denver, CO: I would like to know whether you have any examples of a really good disaster response. it seems like we're always hearing about responses that have been poor, or could have been done differently. Are there any positive models or examples?
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: The world's response to the December 2004 tsunami is actually a fairly good example of a promising response. Certainly when we look at the speed of many governments, NGOs, businesses responding, and when we take into account the unparalleled generosity of the response. Most often, aid pledges are far higher than the actual aid being delivered. After the tsunami, there was not much of a discrepancy. The UN system, in part via the special envoy's office, worked quite well.
All of this is not to say that there aren't things to criticize about the post-tsunami response. But to be fair, that disaster is of such enormous proportions that it is to be expected that challenges remain.
Another example that comes to mind, and one that Americans may not know (or not want to know) about is Cuba. Cuba has a well-organized system to warn the population against hurricanes and to move people out of danger zones ahead of an approaching storm.
Ultimately, the challenge in generating better responses to disasters may also come down to this: we need to learn not to see affected communities purely in terms of victims, but rather in terms of complex human beings (like ourselves). That means that disaster relief is hardly ever a simple matter of just supplying relief goods like medicines, food, and tents. It means we have to do a better job at understanding how affected communities work and how we can best interact with them. Disaster relief (and prevention) is a complex. multi-dimensional undertaking.
Burlington VT: Hi Michael Good to see your project is coming along since we last met in Germany. You may be interested in my recent op-ed piece in the Pakistani Press on this topic: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C10%5C31%5Cstory_31-10-2005_pg3_3 Best wishes Saleem
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: Hello Saleem,
it's nice to see you found your way into the chat! Let me compliment you on a very well-done op-ed piece, and let me say to everyone participating in this chat (or reading about it later on our Web site) that I highly recommend your piece.
Sadly, the sentiments expressed --namely, that there is an urgency to pursue peacemaking efforts over Kashmir before anger and extremism take precedence-- are not heeded enough. And similar arguments can be made in other crisis spots around the world. Policy-makers in the United States, and their counterparts in many other countries, should grasp such rare opportunities to overcome long-standing conflicts. Developments in Aceh (Indonesia), where the tsunami convinced the government and pro-independence rebels to make peace afte 29 years of conflict, stand as a model.
So, thank you, Saleem!
Steve Conklin, Worldwatch Institute: Thanks for joining us today, Zoë and Michael!
Zoë Chafe and Michael Renner: Many thanks to all the participants for your interesting questions. We look forward to continuing research on this important subject.
