The UN and the Secretary-General also recognize the need to integrate questions of natural resource allocation, ownership and access into peacebuilding strategies in the immediate aftermath of conflict.
Skip to main content. Welcome to the United Nations Toggle navigation Language:. Drawing on experiences in more than 20 countries, Helvetas learned that any complex management of natural resources will likely have to address the issues of ownership of natural resources, allocation of power to manage and control natural resources and the sharing of natural-resource benefits.
Many political contexts are therefore inevitably affected by conflicts. Land, water, forests and livestock as well as marine life are primary sources of income for a good part of the population of developing countries. In many cases, natural resources are considered common goods or are utilized by several users. Resource management always involves cooperation but also different — often competing — interests. To prevent violent conflicts, assess risks and foster adaptation as well as innovation, we advocate for increased analysis of interest and needs of actors, as well as their power relations and rights that influence resource management in different settings.
Evidence shows that good analysis and subsequent measures allow projects to increase their impact and contribute to conflict prevention. Conflicts over natural resources are not a new phenomenon. A series of factors or trends are known which often trigger or substantially exacerbate conflicts over natural resources. The following list gives an overview of such factors:. Development practitioners must be aware that any intervention they might make around natural resources — even the most well-intended and humanitarian one — will introduce new factors, which might change the existing balance of power.
Any such intervention may increase existing conflictive situations or even create new ones. London: IIED. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 5 7 : p. Focus group discussion with pastoralists, Kompienga, East Region, 9 December Dakar: IPAR, p.
Nori, M. Droits pastoraux, modes de vie et adaptation au changement climatique. Pastoralism in Africa's drylands: reducing risks, addressing vulnerability and enhancing resilience. Rome: FAO. Moutari, I. In interviews farmers and pastoralists indicate how farmers are increasingly giving their animals to herders in all three regions.
Land tenure and rural development in Burkina Faso: Issues and Strategies. Idrissa, R. Tinder to the Fire. Burkina Faso in the Conflict Zone. Dakar: RLS. Focus group discussion with pastoralists, Bogande, East Region, 10 December Focus group discussions in Gayeri with pastoralists and farmers, December International Journal of the Commons 13 2 : p.
Schlager, E. Land economics 68 3 : p. Focus group discussion with pastoralists, Bogande. Focus group discussion with pastoralists, Fada, East Region, 8 December Focus group discussion with young pastoralists, Pama, East Region, 11 December Focus group discussion with pastoralist women, Fada, East Region, 10 December Focus group discussion with farmers and other resource users, Nouna, Boucle du Mouhoun, 12 December ; Focus group discussion with farmers and other resource users, Gorom, Sahel region, 19 December Focus group discussion with farmers and other resource users, Barani, Boucle du Mouhoun, 13 January ; Focus group discussion with farmers and other resource users, Kompienga, East Region, 10 December ; Focus group discussion with farmers and other resource users, Fada, East Region, 10 December ; Focus group discussion with farmers and other resource users, Gayeri, East Region, 11 December ; Focus group discussion with farmers and other resource users, Dori, Sahel Region, 30 January Interview with local authority, Barani, Boucle du Mouhoun, 12 December Focus group discussion with farmers and other resource users, Djibo, Sahel Region, 29 January Le Meur, P.
The European Journal of Development Research 22 5 : p. In Adapting social science to the changing focus of international agricultural research , ed. Ehui, S. Nairobi: ILRI. Molenaar, F.
The Hague: Clingendael Institute. Olaniyi, R. Journal of Asian and African studies 50 2 : pp. For more information on the Rouga see Molenaar, F. International Crisis Group. Brussels: International Crisis Group. Interview with pastoralists, Kompienga, East region, 11 December Meinzen-Dick, R. Legal pluralism and dynamic property rights. Washington D. Moritz, M. Human Organization 69 2 : p. Drent, A. In On retaliation: towards an interdisciplinary understanding of a basic human condition , ed.
Turner, B. The legitimacy and motivation of even the most principled international organizations and NGOs are under constant scrutiny.
Coordination among them can also be poor. Resolving resource conflicts requires a wide range of skills. These include an understanding of precedent, local history and the political economy, including the contested role of the state, and the ability to build trust, be creative and manage complex processes. Knowledge of natural resources and resource governance is also essential. These skill sets are available but are dispersed between local and international actors, governments and NGOs, natural resource experts, and political scientists.
But the knowledge base has grown. There is more understanding of the complex interactions between political grievances, governance and access to resources, and how processes such as soil erosion, desertification and climate change can provoke violence.
The role of droughts in Syria and Sudan in ratcheting up feelings of inequality and injustice are cases in point. There is a better sense of timing and of the critical moments that can deflate or turbocharge violence, including elections, constitutional reviews, loan negotiations and private-sector deals relating to extractives. In most cases, and in most societies, rich and poor, conflicts have been resolved locally or politically, through treaties, financial deals and legal agreements, usually without massive violence or civil war.
But a feature of fragile states is that local and traditional mechanisms that govern the use of resources, and through which disputes may once have been resolved, are weak or have broken down. National institutions and the rule of law in general are also weak. A natural resource lens yields insights not just into the dynamics of conflict but also resolution. Agreements involving natural resources can serve as confidence-building measures.
0コメント