Interest in the intersections of environmental issues, peace and conflict has surged in recent years. Research on the topic has developed along separate research streams, which broadened the knowledge base considerably, but hardly interact across disciplinary, methodological, epistemological and ontological silos. Our forum addresses this gap by bringing into conversation six research streams on the environment, peace and conflict: environmental change and human security, climate change and armed conflict, environmental peacebuilding, political ecology, securitisation of the environment, and decolonizing environmental security. For each research stream, we outline core findings, potentials for mutual enrichment with other streams, and prospects for future research.

Este articulo explora las oportunidades y los desafíos de la cartografía social como metodología participativa y colaborativa de investigación para caracterizar los conflictos socioambientales en tres territorios de la cuenca alta del rio Cauca, al suroccidente de Colombia. El texto esta organizado en cinco partes: (i) introducción al articulo, (ii) descripción del problema y del contexto de investigación, (iii) presentación del contexto etnográfico y decisiones metodológicas, (iv) reflexión sobre el proceso y los productos cartográficos, y (v) conclusiones sobre los principales desafíos metodológicos identificados durante el desarrollo de esta investigación.

This article discusses the results of a pilot research strategy for monitoring environmental hazards derived from the use of mercury in artisanal gold mining in the Alto Cauca region, Colombia. During 2016 and 2017, a transdisciplinary approach was established to inquire on the health, environment, and territorial problems originated from artisanal mining. In this article, we specifically focus on how this particular issue affects women in the area. We establish a closed-loop approach for integrating social action research with analytical sciences/engineering to understand risks associated with Hg²⁺ levels in artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Cauca department. We develop a platform known as closed-loop integration of social action and analytical chemistry research.

The Colombian Peace Agreement signed in 2016 was saluted internationally by scholars, policy makers and practitioners for encompassing the concept of territorial peace as a means of ensuring local participation in the strengthening of state institutions. Based on engaged research conducted in the Department of Cauca and Bogotá between 2017 and 2020, we critically analyse territorial peace, exploring its ideation, implementation, and subsequent decline in favour of security and stabilisation. We argue that the government’s peacebuilding rationale and mechanisms sought to reinforce the neoliberal state through a constrained participation model, which marginalised the progressive struggles of local communities living in former conflict affected areas. Without a radical breakdown of pre‐existing power structures of exploitation and domination, community participation in peacebuilding runs the risk of legitimising state‐led initiatives that ensure the political rule of capital, strengthen the bureaucracies of the centralised state, and create new violent disputes without resolving existing ones.