Paths of Peace; a ZMT special walk

Peace is one of those words that carries many meanings behind itself, because it’s not a concrete object one can touch, in contrast, it is a concept that is very broad and perhaps sounds too utopian. In reality, peace is one of those goals that you have to achieve multiple other objectives first in order to get closer to it. At the center of each of those objectives, and eventually peace itself, is humans and in a more pragmatic term, communities. Community being one of the key components of a project like the Zagros Mountain Trail, and peace being an ever-important necessity for a community’s longevity, gave rise to the Paths of Peace project. The Paths of Peace project is a temporary project that was implemented from late 2025 to early 2026, aiming for strengthening inclusive leadership and conflict prevention in the Kurdistan Region. Funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), this project took the need for community-centered, context-specific approaches to peacebuilding seriously and created new avenues for participation, generated trust, and strengthened local resilience. Moreover, due to the fact that rural and minority voices remain underrepresented, and women continue to face structural barriers to leadership, the project ensured meaningful participation of women and rural communities across all dimensions. 

The project was implemented through three on ground activities and a social media campaign. Two of the on ground activities were one-day walks, one for women and one for youth of a local area, Rawanduz. The third activity was a three-day residency across several stages of the Zagros Mountain Trail. In total, there were fourty-seven direct beneficiaries of the project, with a gender balance considered (23 women and 24 men)

The Paths of Peace project is designed to bring together leaders and locals engaged in building peace through the simple but powerful act of walking. They are grounded in the belief that dialogue works best in motion: slowing down allows new possibilities to emerge, and embodied presence helps soften entrenched positions. 

During the course of this project, peace was established to no longer be a static goal, instead, it’s a daily need. And under the light of this discovery, and the scientific fact that we think best when walking, we benefited from the act of walking to discuss the sensitive and important topic of peace, taking it from a utopian goal to a more achievable objective. We learnt that if genuine human needs are at the center of the discussions, then we can actually become a more peaceful community. Moreover, these discussions taking place in nature, specifically the beautiful nature of the Zagros Mountain Trail, was an added advantage, because in nature everyone is more relaxed and during walking one destination is worked for by all the walkers, regardless of differences in ideology and conflicting opinions.