Suchergebnisse

The sustainability paradox and the conflicts on use of natural resources / E. Gunilla Almered Olsson and Pernille Gooch -- Natural conflicts in the capitalocene / Pernille Gooch, Anders Burman and E. Gunilla Almered Olsson -- Water, conflicts and sustainable development / Sofie Hellberg -- Forest-related community-outsider conflicts through the lens of property rights, access and power / Josefin Gooch -- Conflicts in the management of fisheries / Staffan Larsson -- The raptor and the lamb : on human-wildlife conflicts / Eileen O'Rourke -- From dystopia to utopia and back again : the case of the Van Gujjars pastoralists in the Indian Himalaya / Pernille Gooch -- Undermining the resource ground : conflicts connected to natural resource exploitation experienced by Sami reindeer herders and Adnyamathanha traditional owners / Kristina Sehlin MacNeil -- Environmental justice in a post-agreement Colombia : peace for an ecologically and socially sustainable land-use? / Torsten Krause -- To change, or not to change? : the transboundary water question in the Nile Basin / Ana Cascão -- Benefit sharing for risk reduction and fostering sustainable development : current understanding and mechanisms / Shivcharn Dhillion -- Power and knowledge use in coastal conflict resolution / Olga Stepanova -- Environmental conflicts : towards theoretical analyses of social-ecological systems / Karl Bruckmeier -- The transformative potential of the food system concept : sustainability conflicts or sustainability transitions? / E. Gunilla Almered Olsson.

General scientific consensus is growing that natural resources play an important role in violent conflicts. Both scarcity and abundance contribute to violent conflict, depending on the socio-economic and political conditions at play. Therefore, the criticality of natural resources might better describe the link to violent conflict than scarcity or abundance. Yet, research struggles to unravel the precise socio-environmental mechanisms that bring about natural resource conflicts. Consequently, interventions in natural resource management have shown limited effectiveness towards conflict prevention and peacebuilding. The overarching aim of this thesis is to advance the understanding of mechanisms underlying violent natural resource conflicts towards effective prevention. This thesis focuses on violent natural resource conflicts within states since 1989, because with the end of the Cold War the character of armed conflicts turned increasingly intrastate. I pose the following questions: (1) What constitutes critical natural resources? (2) Are natural resources and violent conflicts related quantitatively, after considering their complex socio-economic and political contexts? (3) What are the core socio-environmental causal pathways linking natural resources and violent conflicts? (4) What opportunities are available to prevent violent conflict from resource use? A multi-method approach was applied, including systematic literature reviews, open-coding of text data, predictive modelling with logistic regression and machine learning techniques, causal network mapping, and a network analysis of the causal map. The first paper of this thesis shows that existing descriptions of critical natural resources overemphasize their economic importance at the expense of ecosystem support and socio-cultural functions of natural resources; and that non-renewable resources are overrepresented compared to renewables. Therefore, it proposes a new, holistic, definition of criticality for natural resources, based on a hierarchy of human needs instead of only economic value. The second and third papers confirm the importance of natural resource variables in numerically predicting conflict, though their effects are often mediated by the intervening socio-economic variables. More specifically, renewables such as water and food are important predictors of conflict, while non-renewables are less important than prior research suggested. Of all socio-environmental interactions identified, food production interacts most strongly with its economic and demographic context. The fourth paper identified key structural points on the causal paths towards natural resource conflicts, which potentially function towards effective prevention. To reverse vicious circles of conflict to virtuous circles of peace, my analysis found that it is necessary to improve state and natural resource management institutions, balance resource availability and demand, limit population movements, and ensure adequate livelihoods. My analysis further found that resource exploitation and the revenues generated thereof, as well as environmental conservation and curbing environmental degradation can stabilize peaceful situations.

The interpretation of the resource-conflict link that has become most publicized—the rebel greed hypothesis—depends on just one of many plausible mechanisms that could underlie a relationship between resource dependence and violence. The author catalogues a large range of rival possible mechanisms, highlights a set of techniques that may be used to identify these mechanisms, and begins to employ these techniques to distinguish between rival accounts of the resource-conflict linkages. The author uses finer natural resource data than has been used in the past, gathering and presenting new data on oil and diamonds production and on oil stocks. The author finds evidence that (1) conflict onset is more responsive to the impacts of past natural resource production than to the potential for future production, supporting a weak states mechanism rather than a rebel greed mechanism; (2) the impact of natural resources on conflict cannot easily be attributed entirely to the weak states mechanism, and in particular, the impact of natural resources is independent of state strength; (3) the link between primary commodities and conflict is driven in part by agricultural dependence rather than by natural resources more narrowly defined, a finding consistent with a "sparse networks" mechanism; (4) natural resources are associated with shorter wars, and natural resource wars are more likely to end with military victory for one side than other wars. This is consistent with evidence that external actors have incentives to work to bring wars to a close when natural resource supplies are threatened. The author finds no evidence that resources are associated with particular difficulties in negotiating ends to conflicts, contrary to arguments that loot-seeking rebels aim to prolong wars.

This paper examines resource-related conflict among pastoralists in southern Ethiopia, specifically the Somali and Oromo ethnic groups. It applies theories of property rights, environmental security and political ecology to discuss the complexity of the conflict, using narrative analysis and conflict mapping. Results reveal that the conflict results from interrelated cultural, ecological and political factors. The systems of governance, including the setting up of regions on an ethnic basis and associated competition for land and control of water-points, have contributed to violent conflict between the two ethnic groups. The creation of new administrative units (kebeles) close to regional boundaries has exacerbated the conflict. Moreover, change in land use, prompted by insecure property rights to communal land, rather than expected increase in economic benefits has caused conflicts among the clans of the Oromo. The findings suggest Ethiopian authorities support the functioning of traditional access options, successful operation of customary courts and penalising opportunistic actors to address inter-ethnic conflicts. Applying land use and administration guidelines and empowering customary authorities would reduce the incidence of inter-clan conflict.

Summary
Several studies on the Niger Delta have focused on the effects of oil production on the environment and conflicts associated with the mismanagement of oil revenue. However, inadequate attention has been given to a positive outcome of the conflict: the link between conflict in the region and the development of indigenous innovative strategies for petroleum refining. This briefing therefore utilises primary and secondary data to examine how conflicts over the exploitation and management of the benefits from natural resources have contributed to innovation.

The resource curse, as manifested by an increased likelihood of conflict over rents, can be mitigated by institutions. Lei and Michaels find that discoveries of "giant" oil fields increase the likelihood of violent conflict, but they find no evidence that democratic institutions mitigate this risk. We test whether institutions mitigate the resource curse by reducing the risk of natural resource conflicts. Our results indicate that high quality economic institutions reduce the likelihood of territorial (separatist) conflicts following natural resource rent windfalls. Highly autocratic and highly democratic institutions also reduce the likelihood of territorial conflict after natural resource rent windfalls. (JEL Q34, O13, P48, D74)

Competition for natural resources has spawned unprecedented conflict between users, resulting in litigious and legislative actions. Citizens often expect Cooperative Extension professionals to engage communities in collaborative processes to manage these conflicts. This paper examines thirty-five skills Cooperative Extension professionals need if they are to engage communities in collaborative processes. Survey methodology is used to assess the skills extension professionals perceive as most needed, and the ranked means of the perceived skill needs are presented. The results offer information useful to strengthen the capacity of extension professionals to play an important role in helping citizens manage natural resource conflicts.