Understanding Of Natural Resources Research Articles

Revisiting the Contested Role of Natural Resources in Violent Conflict Risk through Machine Learning

The integrated character of the sustainable development goals in Agenda 2030, as well as research in environmental security, flag that sustainable peace requires sustainable and conflict-sensitive natural resource use. The precise relationship between the risk for violent conflict and natural resources remains contested because of the interplay with socio-economic variables. This paper aims to improve the understanding of natural resources’ role in the risk of violent conflicts by accounting for complex interactions with socio-economic conditions. Conflict data was analysed with machine learning techniques, which can account for complex patterns, such as variable interactions. More commonly used logistic regression models are compared with neural network models and random forest models. The results indicate that a country’s natural resource features are important predictors of its risk for violent conflict and that they interact with socio-economic conditions. Based on these empirical results and the existing literature, we interpret that natural resources can be root causes of violent intrastate conflict, and that signals from natural resources leading to conflict risk are reflected in and influenced by interacting socio-economic conditions. More specifically, the results show that variables such as access to water and food security are important predictors of conflict, while resource rents and oil and ore exports are relatively less important than other natural resource variables, contrasting what prior research has suggested. Given the potential of natural resource features to act as an early warning for violent conflict, we argue that natural resources should be included in conflict risk models for conflict prevention.

Red Sea Microbial Diversity for Antimicrobial and Anticancer Agents

Marine natural products are valuable sources that could produce potential chemotherapeutic agents, and marinederived organisms are widely recognized as important sources of these natural products with interesting biological activities. Furthermore, Red sea was recognized as a rich source of microbial diversity with unique metabolites that can be of pharmaceutical and medicinal importance. The discovery of novel active metabolites provides an intellectual challenge to examine new products for medicinal purposes. Although many bacterial strains were isolated from Red sea with potent bioactivities; however, the microbial diversity of marine environment such Red sea remained largely un-explored. Lately, it has been possible to easily collect marine samples, isolate, and further identify diverse marine organisms (e.g. bacteria, fungi, and algae and marine invertebrate) by modern molecular techniques. Based on a wide range of screening and extraction methods, a vast number of metabolites have been extracted from marine sources with potential biological activities such as antibacterial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory agents and many others. In this article, we have reviewed the previous studies that have been conducted to explore marine-derived bioactives of Red sea. In addition, we have illustrated the following aspects: (i) Red sea microbial diversity for antibacterial and anticancer agents; (ii) the conventional and molecular approach used for screening and characterization marine microorganisms; (iii) characterization of natural products of microbial origin, and (iv) drug development from novel marine-derived metabolites and clinical trials. Moreover, modern molecular technologies, meta-genomic, proteomic and bio-chemo-informatics approaches are adding more potency to the targeted search of bioactive compounds derived from marine microbes. The novel marine derived drug discovery is aimed to improve our understanding of natural resources, to improve public health awareness about the environmental microbial diversity and their importance for nutraceuticals, pharmaceutical, agrochemicals and food processing. Recently, the research area of microbial diversity of the Red sea and their metabolites has opened a new access for significant sources of more effective drug entities with low coast.

Impacting Policy: Harnessing Science on Climate Change and Water through Partnerships with Decision-makers in the Middle East and North Africa – Reflections

Bringing science and technology from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region provides an opportunity for enhanced understanding of natural resources and improved decision-making. The programme Modelling and Monitoring Agriculture and Water Resources Development (MAWRED), which develops advanced data generation as well as mapping and modelling skills in local MENA researchers, bridges the gap between policymaking and the complex science behind many applications. One of the project's foundation stones has been the building of partnerships between international donors, researchers and local government ministries/agencies in the programme's key countries of Tunisia, Iraq, the West Bank/Gaza and Yemen. Given the region's political turbulence, this process can be complex and dynamic. However, it brings huge rewards through understanding in greater detail the region's water balance, especially with regard to agricultural use and the potential impacts of climate change on food and water security.

Re-inserting and re-politicizing nature: the resource curse and human-environment relations

The last sixty years have seen a significant shift away from seeing resource wealth as a key component of positive macro-economic reform, to acceptance of the negative impacts that an abundance of, or dependence on, natural resources can have on security, economic growth, and the development of accountable political institutions. The appropriation and extraction of natural resources emerge as expressions of complex relations existing within and between states, institutions and actors. At the same time, the attention given to this potential 'resource curse' has precipitated a number of critiques that challenge not only the data and statistical methods used to link resource wealth with negative development outcomes, but also the theoretical foundation and relevance of studies that reduce complex socio-political and economic relations to the presence of specific resources. This article draws on key literature from the field of political ecology to demonstrate how the concept of 'nature' has been omitted from these discussions. Critical analysis of 'nature' can refine the theoretical foundation and practical application of the 'resource curse' thesis. By re-inserting, re-politicizing and re-localizing the concept of nature we can include local production and consumption in the analysis, while also highlighting the link between our understanding of natural resources and historically rooted discourses of 'proper-use.'Key Words: Resource curse, political ecology, security, nature

From Threat to Opportunity

The research of the relationship between conflicts and natural resourceshas been dominated by an understanding of natural resources as a causeof conflicts, and the term “conflict resources” has been used in connectionwith this. Here I o!er another approach and present the hypothesis that alack of environmental resources (environmental resources and rawmaterials are together understood as natural resources) and environmentaldegradation can o!er a peace-building opportunity. I argue thatenvironmental resources are not transportable, extractable or lootable,which decreases their market significance. At the same time, the conflict-prone communities are aware that non-tradeable goods play a vital role intheir life and the quality of the goods depends on the collaboration amongall the actors in the region. This situation results in so-called “environmentalinterdependence”. Environmental interdependence works as an impulse forcooperation across the cleavage lines. The hypothesis is tested on two casestudies – that of the relationship between Israel and Palestine and that ofthe relations between mainland China and Taiwan.

Resource concerns for territorial conflict

The objective of this paper is to engage constructively with literature on armed conflict and resources in order to draw attention both to assumptions that hinder a more accurate or useful understanding of natural resources and their role in territorial conflict as well as to aspects of this field of research that merit further work. In much of the literature on resource conflict, territorial aspects are either implicitly or explicitly tied to resource conflict largely through the assumption that the value of territory is intrinsic. Little of the literature attempts to advance theory, specifically, either on the particular role of resources or on the meaning and objectives of conflict beyond a one-dimensional objective of maintaining or securing control of territory. The paper considers themes of resource scarcity and resource abundance in conflict. A third section focuses on an analysis both of natural resource databases and of conflict databases (both international and civil) which emphasizes problematic results of blending these databases to demonstrate correlations.