Natural Resource Conflicts Research Articles

A Model of Natural Resources Conflict Resolution in Kalimantan Tengah Using The Dayak Hinting Pali Custom Ritual

As a result of neglecting environmental damage and other impacts, of course, this has created conflicts over natural resources between indigenous Dayak communities and companies operating in Central Kalimantan. In dealing with environmental disputes, the community continues to look for a way out through various settlement efforts made in the context of fighting for community justice and environmental justice. One of the alternatives used by the Dayak customary law community in Central Kalimantan when the law or formal process is constrained or stalled in dealing with conflicts between the community and the company is by empowering the Hinting Pali. This research is legal research using a conceptual approach. The legal materials used were secondary and tertiary legal materials which were analyzed using an analytical description. Based on the results of the research, the meaning and essence of Hinting Pali are based on the perspective of kaharingan religious rituals (such as hintingidentical to the Tiwah traditional ceremony) and based on the point of view of hinting as an effort to defend land rights for indigenous Dayak people, hinting has experienced a change in meaning to the era of penetration of oil palm plantations in Central Kalimantan. The Dayak customary ritual Hinting Pali empirically in Central Kalimantan is used as an alternative model for resolving natural resource conflicts. Several cases of conflict between the community and the company have used hinting pal as a means for the company to comply and resolve the problem with the community. From the explanation above, it can be concluded that empirically the Dayak Hinting Pali in Central Kalimantan is used as an alternative model of conflict resolution involving land, natural resources, and customary forests.

Revisiting the success of co‐management in forest protected areas of Bangladesh: Untangling the interplay of power, participation, and community empowerment

AbstractThis narrative review critically assesses the implementation and purported success of co‐management in forest management in Bangladesh. Co‐management has gained global popularity, celebrated for its participatory approach to natural resource conflict resolution, yet critiqued for potential design flaws, susceptibility to elite capture, and perpetuating power imbalances in predominantly top‐down management cultures. Despite two decades of application and reports of positive outcomes in managing forest protected areas of Bangladesh, concerns persist regarding the authenticity of its success and sustainability, particularly in terms of power dynamics and effective community participation in decision‐making processes. The review delves into these aspects, revealing instances where successes might be superficial, overlooking the underlying issues of power disparity among stakeholders. It highlights the crucial role of enhancing social capital within co‐management frameworks to foster institutionalization and sustainability. Recommendations include advancing robust collaboration and communication, alongside the adoption of adaptive management practices to navigate the complex interplay of natural, social, and institutional challenges.

Can multi-stakeholder platforms and dialogues facilitate the meaningful and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples in managing natural resource conflicts?

Indigenous Peoples have important roles and contributions in the systematic and sustainable management of natural resources; however, their full and effective participation in the related processes, mechanisms including related multi-stakeholder platforms, and dialogues (MSPDs) are not always ensured at the national and global levels. This article focuses on the review and analysis of the published and online papers, reports on Indigenous Peoples, and their contributions and conflicts related to natural resources, especially concerning power, politics, and policies with specific examples in the Asian context. The interest-based “power sharing” and “power with governance” model is appropriate for the effective engagement of Indigenous Peoples in multi-stakeholder dialogue on natural resources.

Conflict sensitivity and activism: insights from Cambodia's resource conflicts

ABSTRACT This paper examines debates relating to international aid, civil society, and natural resource conflicts, through a case study of conflict sensitivity programming in Cambodia. The paper highlights the value of confrontational activism, yet the practice of conflict sensitivity can dissuade such activism. Embedded in the country's history and politics, the paper analyses the conflict sensitivity work of an international non-government organisation, revealing significant community-level success, including women's empowerment, but limitations in addressing systemic drivers of conflict. The case study also reveals how the application of conflict sensitivity contributed towards conflict and risk avoidance. In a global context of prevalent natural resource conflicts and related violence, this paper calls for critical reflection on the practice of conflict sensitivity, which continues to gain popularity globally. For development institutions and practitioners, conflict sensitivity has extensive value, but it must be implemented in ways that do not inadvertently dissuade more emancipatory civil society activism.

Commitment vs. noncommitment behaviors in natural resource conflicts: A case study of groundwater resources

We examine the problem of natural resource exploitation when an exceptional extraction of a resource (groundwater) is needed and devoted to a different use than its regular use. The study applies a two-stage Stackelberg game to examine the strategic behavior of players who compete for water. The leader, with varying weights assigned to the different uses and environmental concern, is the manager of the new (nonregular) resource use, who only intervenes in the second stage of the game. The follower is a regular (agricultural) resource user. We examine the crucial resource of groundwater, introducing two types of Stackelberg equilibria (open-loop and feedback) that can arise depending on agents’ commitment behavior. We compare the extraction behaviors of the leader and the follower for the two equilibria and the effects on the final state of the resource and agents’ profits. Unexpectedly, we demonstrate that situations can occur in which noncommitment strategies could be more favorable than commitment strategies in terms of the final aquifer stock and the regular user’s profits. To avoid that noncommitment strategies are implemented in these circumstances, the weights assigned by the leader to the different uses will play an important role.

Natural Resource Conflict: An Appraisal of Rumuekpe Oil and Gas Conflict

This study examined the oil and gas conflict in the Rumuekpe community in Emohua Local Government Area, Rivers State. The objective was to interrogate the relationship between oil and gas and conflict and its impact on Rumuekpe community. Frustration and Aggression theory and Resource Curse thesis were used as the theoretical frameworks. Methodologically, the study relied on qualitative data obtained from Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and supplemented the information by secondary data. The study found that the destruction of lives and property was a major consequence of natural resource conflict in Rumuekpe. The study also found that the conflict in Rumuekpe community was caused by the failure of oil companies and the government to respond to the developmental needs of the people. It also found that the divide-and-rule tactics of oil companies were what fuelled conflict in the community. The study concluded that oil-bearing communities will continue to lack meaningful development, provided oil companies continue their divide-and- rule tactics. It therefore recommended the strict enforcement and implementation of the Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) under the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) between oil companies and communities as this will translate into sustainable development. It also recommended that community members should use dialogue in the resolution of disputes rather than resorting to violence.

Socio-economic and Political Drivers of Renewable Natural Resource Conflicts among Crop Farmers in Southeast Nigeria

Socio-economic and Political Drivers of Renewable Natural Resource Conflicts among Crop Farmers in Southeast Nigeria

Natural Resource Conflict and Resolution Practice in Nepal

Natural resource conflict and management practices in Nepal have been significant due to the diverse geographical and ecological features as well as socio-economic complexities. Nepal is home to a wide range of natural resources which often become a source of dispute among different stakeholders. The paper explores the conflict associated to Natural resources which covers classes of interest group, disagreements, public protests, physical assaults, and the filing of cases in courts. It has been prepared by collecting data from primary and secondary sources when unstructured observation, focus group discussion and interview with respondent were conducted for primary data and books, journals were used for secondary data. The Balakhu village was selected purposively to study of condition, use pattern of natural resource in the village. Differences between rules and behavior, social relations, and the incompatibility of goals, actions and interactions framed in their specific context and time would be considered in analyzing resource conflict. Such conflict can be resolved by using formal practice of rule and regulation or law and using informal practice of traditional methods.

Climate change and natural resource conflict in ECOWAS and ECCAS regions: implications for state security forces

Climate change has emerged as the imminent threat to national security in many regions of the world. Nowhere is this reality more acute than in West and Central Africa where surging population growth, rising urbanisation, persistent environmental degradation, emergence of violent extremist organisations and weak state capacity have created a perfect storm of insecurity. It is against this backdrop that this article examines the nexus and dynamics of climate change and natural resource conflicts in ECOWAS and ECCAS regions, with a view to highlighting its security implications. This study notes that climate change contributes to increased conflict, but along indirect pathways. Across the two regions, climate change is experienced through rising temperatures, droughts and destructive floods, which greatly undermine people’s well-being and compound the fragility of states. This calls for the capacitation of state security forces through orientation and training that foster good understanding of the complex relationship between climate change, peace and security. The study concludes by offering strategic recommendations and policy directions to effectively tackle the climate change and natural resource conflict challenges in the contiguous regions.

Africa's Great Moderation

Abstract Over the past 30 years, African economies have experienced remarkable improvements in macroeconomic conditions, characterised by higher and more stable real per-capita growth rates and lower and more stable inflation. This paper documents the persistent decline in macroeconomic volatility at the aggregate and sectoral levels and seeks to provide explanations. Sectoral analysis shows a particularly strong reduction of growth volatility in agriculture and, to a lesser extent, in services. Classical structural change only explains a small fraction of the moderation. Analysis of further factors yields that changes in structural characteristics such as institutions, trade intensity and diversification, natural resource dependence or conflict incidence do not explain the moderation. On the positive side, the paper provides evidence to suggest that changes in the external environment, improved macroeconomic policy frameworks and ‘softer’ structural improvements, such as the deepening of the domestic financial sector, were important in reducing macroeconomic volatility on the continent.

Unpacking the dynamics of natural resource conflicts: The case of African rosewood

Fueled by surging demand in Asia, the exploitation of African rosewood (Pterocarpus erinaceus) has become a lucrative venture in sub-Saharan Africa that has sparked widespread resource conflicts over the last decade. While some of these conflicts have produced fatal outcomes, little is known about the nature of these conflicts and the underlying drivers. Drawing on empirical evidence from four communities in northern Ghana where African rosewood extraction is rife, this paper unpacks the drivers and dynamics of African rosewood conflicts. We find that violent conflicts over African rosewood exploitation are driven by negative othering, engrained power differences, and resource appropriation by external actors. These drivers are connected in complex ways to the flow of transnational capital and commodity chains beyond local politics. This paper contributes to the broader literature on natural resource conflicts, especially the ongoing debate on why resource conflicts turn violent. Given the potential for resource conflicts to contribute to unsustainable resource exploitation, environmental policy must pay attention to these multi-scalar dynamics and drivers.

The Regulations for Management of Coastal Natural Resource Conflicts in Indonesia-Malaysia Border

<p>Indonesia and Malaysia will continue to engage in violent and protracted border conflicts over natural resources due to limited natural resources. Due to the scarcity and abundance of renewable resources, there are border disputes between Indonesia and Malaysia. Illegal fishing is a concern for both countries. This study aimed to determine the management of Indonesia-Malaysia coastal natural resource disputes. This was normative legal research that employed statutory, empirical, and case methods. The study found that Indonesia and Malaysia need to strengthen their laws as a follow-up to their bilateral agreements, considering that illegal activities often occur along land and sea borders. Another problem is that maritime regulations in Indonesia and Malaysia have different problems and challenges, ranging from the lack of specific regulations to the existence of illegal activities on the sea and land borders of each country. The laws governing maritime sector activities are vulnerable to institutional conflicts due to overlapping regulations and legislation resulting from cross-border processing at maritime borders. Therefore, from a regulatory perspective, it is necessary to strengthen various existing regulations.</p>

Citizen Participation in Natural Resource Governance: A Case of Oil in South Sudan

South Sudan has immense economic potential in its natural resource wealth, such as oil. Nevertheless, the resources have not been utilised towards development. Instead, it has experienced resource conflicts that compromise the continent's peace and security. This paper evaluates the role of citizen participation in natural resource governance in South Sudan and its impacts on oil governance. The paper hypothesises that citizen participation is critical in natural resource governance and a vital tool for promoting peace and security in societies. It argues from the perspective of natural resource conflicts and governance. It asserts that citizen participation addresses negative aspects such as corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, gender discrimination, and ethnic polarisation. It argues that there is a great need to enhance structures that support citizen participation towards effective governance of resources and, hence, sustainable peace. The paper adopted the mixed-methods research methodology.

Conflict Management Strategies and Farmers-Herders’ Conflict in Benue State, Nigeria, 2011-2021

The study examined conflict management strategies and farmers-herdsmen conflict in Benue State, 2011-2021. Farmers-herders conflict, a new normal of the wave of Nigeria’s internal violence is one of the major challenges that have threatened the security and unity of Nigeria resulting in a significant increase in the number of cases associated with natural resource conflicts. At present, Benue state could be regarded as the epicentre of the conflict. Attacks in Benue State villages have resulted in several deaths and the destruction of properties. The study adopted Conflict, Frustration-Aggression and Eco-Violence theories as its theoretical construct. The study adopted a triangulation method of data gathering technique. A sample size of 399 was determined using the Taro Yamane formula. 378 copies of questionnaires were distributed across the three local governments, namely Logo, Guma and Agatu (regarded as epicentres of violent attacks by herdsmen) from each of the three senatorial districts of Benue State. Tables, percentages and bar charts were used in the presentation of data. The study revealed that the major cause of the conflict between farmers and herdsmen in Benue State is land; the conflict management strategy (style) adopted by farmers and herders during conflict situations is the forcing or competition strategy, whereas the Federal Government and security agencies employ the avoidance strategy, among others. Also, the study concludes that there is a significant relationship between conflict management strategies and farmers-herders conflict in Benue State, among others. Consequently, the recommends amongst others a collaborative initiative such as setting up conflict management committees by the government to include farmers and herdsmen; the rule of law should prevail.

Natural resources governance and conflicts: Retrospective analysis

Rapid increases in natural resources globally during the 1970s have had far-reaching environmental consequences. The rising exploitation of environmental assets has progressively detrimental societal effects. Therefore, the current study aims to identify the nexus between natural resources and governance conflicts while assessing the role of governance in natural resource management. The results identify three significant categories of governance challenges (associated with capacity, connectivity, and knowledge) and three domains of good governance (effectiveness, involvement, and efficiency). The results highlighted that developing countries would likely need more decision-making power, financial and human resources, leadership on crucial resource challenges, and conflict resolution mechanisms. On the contrary, research into natural resource management governance structures in industrialized countries has often shown problems with policy clarity and the alignment of stakeholder institutions' goals and aims. The study adds to the existing literature by summarizing new organizational capacities and governance frameworks essential for better natural resource management.

Interview with Christophe Hodder, the United Nations Climate Security and Environmental Advisor to Somalia, United Nations Environment Programme

This is an interview with Christophe Hodder, the United Nations Climate Security and Environmental Advisor to Somalia, United Nations Environment Programme. In the interview, Hodder explains why it is so important for conventional security practitioners to build environmental considerations into peacebuilding. He explains how natural resource conflicts between groups are key sites of contestation in Somalia, more salient as the country experiences climate change. He talks about how militant groups use resource and resource conflicts to their advantage. Resolving natural resource conflicts is also important entry points for action, for addressing sources of conflict and building a foundation for peace. In the current moment, even as Somalia is beset by a difficult drought, it is important to work on long-run peacebuilding efforts through environmental restoration. Hodder provides examples of river bank protection programs and water catchment as areas ripe for cooperation.

Managing Intractable Natural Resource Conflicts: Exploring Possibilities and Conditions for Reframing in a Mine Establishment Conflict in Northern Sweden

Natural resource management (NRM) increasingly relies on communicative measures to enable reframing in intractable conflicts. Reframing occurs when disputants change their perceptions of a conflict situation, and/or their preferences for dealing with it. However, the types of reframing possible, and the conditions under which they can occur, remain unclear. Through an inductive and longitudinal analysis of a mine establishment conflict in northern Sweden this paper explores to what extent, how, and under what conditions reframing can occur in intractable NRM conflicts. The findings reveal the difficulty in achieving consensus-oriented reframing. Despite multiple dispute resolution efforts, the disputants’ perceptions and preferences became increasingly polarized. Nonetheless, the results suggest that it is possible to enable reframing to the extent that all disputants can understand and accept each other’s different perceptions and positions, i.e., meta-consensus. Meta-consensus hinges on neutral, inclusive, equal, and deliberative intergroup communication. However, the results show that intergroup communication and reframing are significantly informed by institutional and other contextual factors. For example, when implemented within the formal governance system in the investigated case, intergroup communication lagged in quality and did not contribute to meta-consensus. Moreover, the results show that reframing is strongly influenced by the nature of the disputed issues, actors’ group commitments, and the governance system’s distribution of power to the actors. Based on these findings, it is argued that more efforts should focus on how governance systems can be configurated so that high-quality intergroup communication and meta-consensus can be enabled and inform decision making in intractable NRM conflicts.

Sharing epistemic power: digitally mediated wolf monitoring in Finland

ABSTRACT Although digital tools have expanded opportunities for various social groups to participate in biodiversity research, these tools typically assign citizens tasks that make them mere assistants of professional researchers, thus maintaining conventional power relations in research processes. Problems may arise if power asymmetries and participant expectations concerning data and participation are neglected in contested situations—for example, in conservation or natural resource conflicts. In participatory wolf monitoring in Finland, participation itself has become a power struggle. The digital participatory tool enforces strict scientific criteria for data validity and constrains possibilities for citizens to use the data produced. This situation perpetuates rather than helps resolve the persistent conflict over knowledge regarding wolves. While preparing the latest wolf management plan, Finnish wolf policy stakeholders compared the digital tool used in Finland with another tool used in Scandinavia. This comparison enabled them to envision opportunities to reorganise collaboration and share epistemic power more equally. Such alternative wolf ‘data stories’ could be essential in finding a way forward in this polarised situation. Wolf ‘data stories’ demonstrate that even subtle changes in digital designs could make participatory architectures more responsive to multiple knowledge needs. These changes need not compromise the high quality of evidence required by authorities for public decision-making. This role aligns with the growing academic interest to envision and probe alternative techno-scientific practices, especially in Science and Technology Studies.

Developing a subseasonal ecological forecast to reduce fisheries bycatch in the Northeast U.S.

Over the past decade, substantial progress has been made in projecting and predicting the spatial distribution of many marine species at seasonal to multidecadal time scales. However, managers and fishers often need to make decisions at much shorter time scales. Subseasonal environmental forecasts, which generate predictions over one to several weeks, can now be combined with species-specific habitat preference data to create ecological forecasts that could facilitate dynamic spatial management. The development of such predictive tools could aid in identifying optimal times and areas for fishers to maximize target catch and avoid nontarget catch. Nontarget catch, or bycatch, can have numerous and potentially severe economic and ecological consequences. Here, we focus on a population of anadromous fish known collectively as river herring (alewife and blueback herring), as they are species of concern and are heavily impacted by bycatch. Using bottom trawl survey data from the Northeast US and subseasonal forecasts of sea surface temperature, we constructed a bycatch risk model to generate probabilistic predictions of river herring distributions in regions frequented by the US mid-water trawl fishery. Assessments of model skill showed that our ecological model performed well in predicting the distribution of river herring and that subseasonal forecasts were effective at 1-week timeframes. There was a clear seasonal effect on forecasted bycatch risk throughout the Northeast US, with particularly high risk in winter and spring months. Importantly, variability in risk was detectable at the weekly timescale and our model identified specific areas and times that fishers should avoid in order to decrease their likelihood of bycatch. The bycatch risk forecast developed in this study is a significant advance from near-real time forecasts and the foundation to build forecast systems by combining species co-occurrence models with subseasonal forecasts. As these subseasonal forecasts are available globally, this approach could be adapted to facilitate the management of other natural resource conflicts around the world.

Functional industrial policy mechanism under natural resource conflict: A case study on the Chinese new energy vehicle industry

Energy conflict is one of the natural resource conflicts that China is currently facing. In order to alleviate the conflict in non-renewable resources such as oil and natural gas, industrial policy is a widely used means by the government. In the early stage, China's industrial policies were selective industrial policies, which tended to replace market competition with government choice. Based on the case study of China's new energy vehicle industry, the industrial policy has been gradually transformed into functional industrial policies, and the policy objective is to create conditions to improve industrial competitiveness. The design of industrial policy tools is based on the market mechanism, strengthens the construction of infrastructure such as charging piles and hydrogen stations, and supports the R&D of core components of new energy vehicle enterprises. It is suggested that China's new energy vehicle industrial policy should return to the fundamental goal of energy conservation and emission reduction, avoid the government's choice to replace the market mechanism, and build a new industrial policy operation structure with the cooperation of the government, market and third-party professional institutions.