As Germany prepares to host the Berlin Climate and Security Conference 2025, new evidence from Somalia shows how restoring degraded land can help reduce conflict. Backed by Germany, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Organization on Migration (IOM), institution-building projects are bridging climate, peace and security offering a glimpse of what integrated solutions can look like on the ground.
In the plains of Somalias south-central Hirshabelle State, limited grazing land and sparse water resources have long been a source of conflict among clans. That fighting deepened after a historic 2022 drought.
But observers say a new plan focused on arresting Hirshabelles environmental decline is helping to foster peace.
During peace talks between four villages, clan members hammered out a strategy for sharing and conserving both pastures and ground water. Since then, tensions have eased, according to one study that surveyed local residents.
The work in Hirshabelle was funded by Germany and led by IOM and UNEP. It is part of a larger UN push to promote peace in Somalia by reviving grasslands, watercourses and other ecosystems.
So many of Somalias conflicts are linked to a scarcity of resources, which is a problem thats only going to get worse as climate change intensifies, says Cecilia Aipira, the Chief of UNEPs Disasters and Conflicts Branch. But improving access to vital resources, and restoring the environment as a whole, can help prevent fighting before it happens.
Somalia has been wracked by decades of conflict, which has displaced nearly 4 million people and deepened poverty.
Drought and desertification are breeding political instability and resource scarcity, fueling inter-communal tensions and creating openings for extremist groups to exploit conflict. Climate change is behind some of the violence, acting as what experts call a threat multiplier.
To counter problems like those, the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), the UN Department of Peace Operations (DPO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) established what is known as the Climate Security Mechanism. Launched in 2018 it is designed to help the UN system address climate-related security risks more systematically, including in countries like Somalia.
Two years later, Christophe Hodder became the UNs first Climate Security Advisor to Somalia. His role was to support the countrys Ministry of Environment by conducting risk analyses, supporting field missions, securing funding and growing partnerships.
Key to our work has been getting UN and government decision makers to recognize environmental issues not as peripheral concerns but as fundamental drivers of conflict, says Hodder. Our goal is to support them with the skills and capacity to work effectively at this critical intersection.
In the city of Jowhar, Hirshabelles capital, teams have rehabilitated the municipal water system, which serves 1.6 million people, and restored nearby ecosystems. That has increased access to water, reducing inter-community conflict, says Hodder.
In the Galmudug coastal area, the advancement of sand dunes due to intensified winds threatening to uproot villages was stymied by the planting of cacti plants that bind the shifting sands. This has allowed local communities to stay in place, preventing challenges that often arise from forced migration.
In various areas across the country, a programme tackling deforestation from illegal logging which worsened drought impacts helped Somali officials enforce a charcoal ban, promoted alternative energy, rehabilitated land and helped residents secure sustainable jobs. Two new acacia tree nurseries were established in the village of Yontoy, restoring land while also reducing competition over natural resources.
I encourage people in my village to plant trees so that they can use them in the years to come, said Deeqa Abdi Osman, who helps run a Yontoy nursery. The project has increased our capacity and skills related to natural resource management, group management and financial management.
Bolstering the flow of aid to Somalia has been a key part of the UNs efforts, says Hodder. One example is a new procedure which sees IOM match funds raised by UNEP for community-generated project proposals. This has financed the projects in Galmudug and Hirshabelle, helping ensure efforts are both locally owned and embedded within broader humanitarian response plans.
Since 2022, the World Bank has funded a US$70 million programme that focuses on developing water, agricultural, livestock and environmental services for rural Somali communities across the country. And, significantly, after making its first visit to Somalia in March 2024, the Green Climate Fund committed a landmark US$100 million toward building climate resilience in the country.
Partnership and collaboration with Somalia which contributes its full financial share to UNEPs Environment Fund has been foundational to progress, most importantly through policy reform.
Climate-peace-security considerations are now embedded in the Somalia national climate change adaptation plan, its Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement, and its stabilization strategies. Climate-sensitivity is institutionalized in threat assessments carried out by security forces, and water scarcity and desertification are included as core security risks in state-level planning.
Beyond Somalia, the growth of the UN Climate Security Mechanism has signaled a major shift in how the UN weaves environmental expertise into its security architecture, says Hodder. For example, the UN has created 10 other climate security advisor advisor posts, including in Afghanistan, Iraq and South Sudan.
Somalia still has a long way to go before conflict is a thing of the past, says UNEPs Aipira. But the peacebuilding efforts of the last few years offer a ray of hope.
The German-funded partnership between UNEP and Somalia illustrates that environmental restoration and the institution-building that enables it is not only crucial ecologically but its also foundational to peace, says Aipira.
Somalia is one of UNEPs full-share funding partners, and Germany among its top funding partners. Their contributions to UNEPs core fund, the Environment Fund, enable UNEP's global body of work. Learn how to support UNEP toinvest in people and planet.
