This document discusses analyzing the spatial and temporal relationships between protected areas and civil conflicts in Central Africa from 1960 to the present. It proposes modeling whether conflict is more likely near protected areas or after their designation using the World Database on Protected Areas and Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset, which records conflict events, groups, and territorial control changes. The ACLED project backdates conflict information for African states to independence and codes events from a variety of sources to integrate into mapping and analysis software.

2. The Confluence of Protected Areas and
Armed Conflict in Central Africa
Jake Lowenstein (jlowenstein@AMNH.org)

4. Grus japonensis

8. “In some respects, indeed, wildlife benefits
from warfare: combatant armies effectively
designate war zones as “off limits” to casual
wanderers thus quarantining large areas of
Africa from hunters and poachers.” Meyers
(1979).
Virtually no work has been done to
quantify large-scale patterns on the
relationships between civil-conflict
and biodiversity.

10. Project Idea
• To model the spatial-temporal relationships
between protected areas and civil conflict
in Central Africa 1960-present.
• Is conflict more likely to occur with proximity
to PAs?
• Is conflict more likely to occur after PA
designation?

11. Datasets
• World Database on Protected Areas
• Armed Conflict Location and Events
Dataset (ACLED)

12. ACLED
• Designed for disaggregated conflict analysis
and crisis mapping
• Data are currently being coded from 1997
to early 2010 and the project continues to
backdate conflict information for African
states to the year of independence.

13. ACLED
• These data contain information on
• the date and location of conflict events
• the type of event
• the rebel and other groups involved
• changes in territorial control.

14. ACLED
• Events are derived from a variety of
sources, mainly concentrating on reports
from war zones, humanitarian agencies, and
research publications.
• The precision of each event is coded.
• Data can be assimilated easily into any GIS,
mapping program, or statistical package.