Sustainable Management Of Natural Resources As Regulation Mode To New Conflicts Dynamics – The Organization for World Peace

November 6 marks the annual date of The International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, which had been previously established under the tenure of Kofi Annan as United Nations Secretary General. Despite the periods of post-conflict reconstruction and the stepping into the 21st Century which was projecting new modes of International Cooperation, the issues of the environment and natural resources become grave and rise as new security threats. According to the United Nations, in the last 60 years, 40% of armed conflicts relate to natural resources. Additionally, the increasing impact of climate change is evident in all parts of the world and new wars have broken out with control over resources. Wood, diamonds, gold, minerals and oil, or other scarce resources such as land and water attract a lot of attention. Conflicts occur when armed factions seek the monopoly of the exploitation of a given resource. These altercations fall into multiple shapes from armed conflicts but also social conflicts. To this day, few missions of peacekeeping have been deployed to help host countries to manage their available natural resource, among them stand The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has long partnered with the Peacebuilding Commission which is committed to help conflict-affected countries consolidate peace, by addressing the root causes of conflict and building the foundations for sustainable development. Furthermore, UNEP also partners with a wide range of institutes aiming to establish the largest global research programme on natural resources and post-conflict peace-building. Accordingly, the focus of the program includes land and water, high-value extractives such as oil, gas, minerals, metals and gems, as well as renewable resource sectors such as forestry, fisheries and agriculture. Perhaps, the competition between actors can regulate through peaceful means with fair distribution, or with a strong and just legal system. Nonetheless, the system could not always succeed to regulate peacefully the interests of rivals, which in this way continues to sustain conflict.

It is clear to note that the relation between resource dependence and violence tend to strengthen. Indeed, the value of  certain resources on the global market, coupled with their limited availability and access, increase their rare and important value. Therefore, conflicts persist to the extent that the uneven distribution of incomes generated by the resource, corruption or poor management, increase the feeling of injustice that exacerbates tensions between rivals. Furthermore, the issues of frontier, land and maritime dispute can participate to the longevity of the conflict. It is also important to note the separatist ambitions for resource-rich regions can play a dramatic role. For example Katanga or Kasaï in the Democratic Republic of Congo, two regions rich in minerals that have experienced separatist episodes in the past. It is crucial to tackle the longevity and intensity of conflict since the monopolization of resource and their income tend to strengthen rivals’ position and while shrinking the necessity to find an agreement. Moreover, the natural resource can offer financial motivation to rivals which brings them to reject peace agreements. A situation where the disputed territory possess resource with high economic value, the rivals could well seek to monopolize them more.

Therefore, this is an imperative that measures have to be agreed upon in order to face the threat of resource wars which is increasingly asserting as major issue of the current matters of conflicts management. The presence of natural resources increase the risk of collision to the extent that they constitute a source of enrichment for whom exploit them. The UN and the Secretary General have considered the necessity to bring about the questions of the allocation, of the property and the access to natural resource into the strategies of peace-building in the aftermaths of conflicts. In November 2012, the g7+ group of 20 conflict-affected states have approved the need to tackle the issue of natural resource conflicts as considerable mean of stabilization and resilience. Moreover, the international community’s role needs to be enhanced in the battle against illegal resource exploitation. In this way, the secretariat of the g7+ suggested that the UNEP would come into a formal partnership in order to develop a strategy and relevant tools to help fragile states manage their natural resource, in line with many of the recommendations of the 2009 policy report. There are multiple approaches to address this relation to natural resources. It has been observed that if the rivals are in position of domination within the conflict, therefore the strengthening of its means of warfare could allow them to get victory directly which brings us to an exit of the conflict. However, if peace seems more profitable to the different warring parties, it is possible that the rivals would seek to negotiate peace, here, to shorten the conflict. In the case of territories with more or less numerous and high value resources, the interplay between the costs of war and how much it could bring is enough to encourage opponents to find an agreement. Developing a strategy for conflict resolution appears crucial in identifying the opportunities for cooperation and new steps in alternative conflict management.

The resources should be shared and not monopolized by one party, when that latter occurs, measures have to be put in place to automatically devaluate the value of the monopolized goods and make them illegal to sell as mean of dissuasion. In order to secure the resolution of such conflicts, it is key to assemble a wide range of skills. NGOs and political institutions have to come together and assess the grip and consequences these conflict could have on the civilians. Indeed, that social conflicts can arise when a population is ignored during the implementation of an extractive project or when the dramatic impacts of exploitation bring the population to express its grievances and claim the respect of its rights to the actors they consider as responsible.

Today, climate change and the increasing pressure on the planet’s natural resources increase the risk of conflict around the world. Our reckless over-consumption of these resources will not help to ease tensions, therefore the major International Institutions should initiate a real reflection on their supply of resources, both in terms of the long-term availability of these non-renewable resources as well as socio-economic consequences the environmental impact of their operations in the producing countries. Rethinking our consumption of natural resources would be a positive first step toward peace consolidation.