Post-war societies not only have to deal with continuing unpeaceful relations but also land-related conflict legacies, farmland and forest degradation, heavily exploited natural resources, land mines, a destroyed infrastructure, as well as returning refugees and ex-combatants.
Over the coming decades, competition and conflict over land is likely to intensify with the growing pressures of climate change, population growth, increased food insecurity, migration and urbanization.
The rise of land deals poses unpredictable risks to war-torn societies, exposing them to the violent folds of the global economy. In Sierra Leone, commercial land leases have perpetuated the chieftaincy monopoly, further curtailed social mobility, and sparked particular resentment among youths and ex-combatants.
Efforts to ensure sustainable peace can help to support access to safe, reliable and affordable energy in the long term. Energy access in turn can help to reduce conflict due to specific food security and livelihood benefits, such as the ability to safely cook food and carry out income-generating activities.
Facing land grabs and eviction in the name of development, women worldwide increasingly join land rights struggles despite often deeply engrained images of female domesticity and conventional gender norms. Yet, the literature on female agency in the context of land struggles has remained largely underexplored.
In north-western Kenya, significant oil reserves have been discovered and the first oil trucks have left Turkana County in June 2018. On the east side of Lake Turkana, the largest wind power project on the African continent was completed in mid-2017.
Much has been written on land deals, their impact and challenges of contestation in the Global South. Multiple studies show that communities are high-spirited as long as they oppose the actual conversion of their land.
This article serves as an introduction to the special issue ‘A Local to Global Perspective on Resource Governance and Conflict’. It advances the debate on natural resource governance and conflict by bringing together three different strands of literature with the aim of developing a local to global research perspective and framework for analysis.
The aim of the study is to investigate the land-related causes of conflict in the Jubaland State of Somalia. The study findings are expected to guide the work of the UN in peace building and land conflicts management and to inform land policy processes and other land governance interventions in Jubaland and Somalia as a whole.
The study has three specific objectives:
Nature and Peace in Colombia: The dissolution of the FARC guerrilla in Colombia has made it safe to work in the rainforest again. Now, the region’s biodiversity is vulnerable to development and exploitation of natural resources.
