Managing Resources Wisely for Global Peace and Stability

Dr. Erika Weinthal serves as the John O. Blackburn Distinguished Professor at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, where she has established herself as a leading authority on environmental security and global environmental politics. Her expertise centers on water and energy issues, with significant contributions to understanding environmental conflict and peacebuilding. She is the author of "State Making and Environmental Cooperation: Linking Domestic Politics and International Politics in Central Asia," which received both the 2003 Chadwick Alger Prize and the 2003 Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize. Her scholarly work includes co-authoring "Oil is not a Curse" and "Water Quality Impacts of the Energy-Water Nexus," as well as co-editing several influential volumes including "The Oxford Handbook on Water Politics and Policy" and "The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics." As a founding Vice President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association and member of the UN Environment Programme's Expert Group on Conflict and Peacebuilding, she has shaped international environmental policy. Her contributions to water diplomacy were recognized with the 2017 Women Peacebuilders for Water Award. Currently, she serves as Director of Graduate Studies for Duke's University Program in Environmental Policy, Co-Director of the Duke Human Rights Center, and holds professorships at both Duke Kunshan University and the Sanford School of Public Policy.

Marc Levy serves as the deputy director of the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University's Earth Institute, where he heads the Science Applications Division. As a political scientist specializing in human dimensions of global environmental change, he has established himself as a leading authority on environmental security, sustainability metrics, and global environmental governance. His extensive research portfolio includes over 50 peer-reviewed publications and two co-edited books. He has held significant roles in major international assessments, including serving as a Lead Author for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Working Group II and as Coordinating Lead Author for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. At Columbia University, he holds positions as an adjunct professor in the School of International and Public Affairs, teaching graduate courses on environment-security linkages, and co-directs the Certificate Program in Environment, Peace and Security. Since 1998, he has served as the lead project scientist of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center. His work with the World Economic Forum includes chairing the Global Agenda Council on Measuring Sustainability and co-leading the Environmental Sustainability Index and Environmental Performance Index initiatives, which have been featured at Davos since 1999. His research has received support from numerous prestigious organizations including NASA, NSF, USAID, and various UN agencies.

Richard Matthew is a distinguished Professor of International and Environmental Politics at the University of California, Irvine, where he serves as Associate Dean of Research and International Programs in the School of Social Ecology. As the founding Director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs and the Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation, he has established himself as a leading authority on environmental security and peacebuilding. His research explores the complex intersections between environmental factors and violent conflict, with particular focus on how natural resources can either fuel conflicts or serve as pathways to peace. With a Ph.D. from Princeton University, he has conducted extensive fieldwork in conflict zones across South Asia and Africa, contributing to over 150 publications including seven books. His expertise has been recognized through appointments as Vice-President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association, Senior Fellow at both the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Geneva and the Munk School at the University of Toronto. His work demonstrates that environmental issues are increasingly critical to security, showing that conflicts linked to natural resources are twice as likely to relapse within five years. Matthew's contributions have earned him recognition from the U.S. Congress, California State Legislature, and City of Los Angeles, while his insights have been shared through multiple TEDx talks and as a featured storyteller on The Moth.

David Jensen currently serves as the Regional Coordinator of the Digital Transformation Programme for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), covering North America and the pan-European regions. His career spans significant contributions to environmental peacebuilding and digital innovation in environmental management. From 2009 to 2019, he led global efforts to establish environmental peacebuilding as a new multidisciplinary field, focusing on using natural resources and environmental management for conflict prevention, mitigation, and recovery. He co-founded several influential digital platforms, including CODES, STRATA, MapX, Earthschool, AI for the Planet, and the UN Biodiversity Lab. His academic credentials include an MSc in Biology from Oxford University and an undergraduate degree in Geography from the University of Victoria. As a thought leader in environmental security, he has coordinated multiple flagship policy reports and co-edited a six-volume series on post-conflict peacebuilding and natural resource management, covering 60 conflict-affected countries. He is a founding board member of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association and has been featured on TEDx discussing natural resources and peacebuilding. His pioneering work includes developing the MapX platform, which helps stakeholders map and monitor natural resources using planetary data and frontier technologies. Jensen's expertise extends to environmental applications of frontier technologies in conflict-affected countries, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, and citizen science.

Carl Bruch is a distinguished Senior Attorney and Director of International Programs at the Environmental Law Institute, where he has established himself as a leading authority on environmental law implementation and natural resource management. His extensive work spans multiple continents, helping nations develop and implement effective environmental governance frameworks. As an accomplished scholar and practitioner, he has authored more than 80 journal articles, book chapters, and reports, while editing over ten books in the field of environmental law. His expertise encompasses environmental peacebuilding, post-conflict resource management, and environmental damage mitigation during armed conflicts. Beyond his role at ELI, Bruch's career includes significant positions with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW). He currently serves as an adjunct professor at American University's School of International Service, teaching environmental peacebuilding at the master's level. His work focuses particularly on advancing compliance and enforcement, public participation, and constitutional environmental law, with special attention to conflict-affected countries throughout Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.