In many climate-vulnerable and conflict-affected regions, climate change and conflict reinforce one another, affecting the safety and security of people, communities, and societies.
Local peacebuilders understand these connections because they are active before, during, and after conflict. They understand local realities because they are part of the communities they work in and have built trusted relationships across conflict lines that external actors often lack.
Across the GPPAC network, local peacebuilders don’t just recognise how climate change and resource stress can intensify existing fragility. As individuals embedded in their communities, they also act as first responders to climate-related challenges and are already developing community-based solutions that can strengthen their safety and security. They use the GPPAC network to bring their locally grounded expertise, experience, and solutions together across regions, recognising that climate, peace, and security challenges are interconnected and cross-border and that responses must be too.
For the 2026 International Day of Peace, we introduce some of the GPPAC members behind this work and show why investing in local peacebuilders is not only an investment in peace but an investment in more effective climate action.
This article is an excerpt from the full text – click here to read it on the GPPAC website!
Why invest in local peacebuilders working on environment, climate, peace, and security?
Because they see opportunities: Creating new entry points for regional cooperation in Northeast Asia
In Northeast Asia, much of the regional debate views security through traditional, state-based “hard” security frameworks, focused primarily on military threats and defence. At the same time, shared environmental challenges such as marine degradation, extreme weather events and biodiversity loss heighten regional vulnerabilities, but also offer a less politically sensitive entry point for cross-border cooperation amid high geopolitical tensions.
Environmental organisations and peacebuilding actors in the region often work in siloes, with few opportunities to explore where their work intersects. GPPAC members are bridging this gap by bringing environmental peacebuilding into the Ulaanbaatar Process, a long-standing Track II civil society dialogue on peace and stability in Northeast Asia.
Since 2015, the Ulaanbaatar Process has provided space for civil society representatives from across the region, including North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia, the United States and Mongolia, to engage in sustained dialogue. GPPAC members are now using this established platform and the relationships built through it to explore how addressing environmental challenges together can maintain regional dialogue among civil society actors, foster trust across borders, and bring their perspectives into relevant policy discussions, even when formal political channels are stalled.
Identify shared environmental challenges ➡️ Connect environmental and peacebuilding actors through the Ulaanbaatar Process ➡️ Create new entry points for regional dialogue ➡️ Build trust and sustain cooperation across geopolitical divides
Bringing climate and environmental issues into the Ulaanbaatar Process is also broadening who can participate in conversations about regional peace and security, particularly young people. These issues can provide a more tangible and accessible entry point into conversations traditionally shaped by hard-security concerns, while bringing a new generation and new perspectives into regional dialogue and giving young people a greater role in shaping the future they will inherit.
