cascao leipzig contested natural resources horn darfur gambella
TRANSCRIPT
Contested natural resources and political conflict:
case-studies from Darfur and Gambella
European Conference on African Studies
Leipzig, Germany
4-7 June 2009
Ana Elisa Cascão
King’s College of London, UK
CEAUP, Portugal
Ethiopia and Sudan: Territory and Natural Resources
Agriculture and Livestock:• Main economic sectors• Main source of livelihoods• Inputs: Land and Water• Competition for control• Patterns of cooperation and conflict
Environmental challenges:• Overexploitation of land and water resources• Environmental degradation• Uneven patterns of rainfall• Desertification
Other challenges:• Population growth• Population movements (migrations, refugees, etc)• Resource-grabbing
Land Use
Darfur
Gambella
Livestock Density
Darfur
Gambella
Human Density
Darfur
Gambella
Ethiopia and Sudan: Political dimensions of resource-based conflicts
Blurred political setting: • Property rights/Land Tenure• Acess and distribution• Unclear development options• Traditional conflict-resolution mechanisms• Alternative conflict-resolution mechanisms?
Power politics:• Marginalisation • New competition: for political power and weatlh • Political manipulation of group-identities• Selective empowerement
“Extra” political dimensions: • Porous administrative borders• Spillover effects of neighbouring conflicts
DARFUR – A local water war? Roots of the Conflict: Resource-based
• Semi-arid region• Concentration of population• Longstanding competition for fertile/grazing
land – land tenure problems• Competition for water access• Agro vs. Pastolarist disputes• Customary conflict resolution
1980s: • Increasing desertification/degradation • Limited water supplies• New agro-pastoralist migrations • Growing competition for resources• Governance failure
“Darfur is an environmental crisis – a conflict that grew at least in part from desertification, ecological degradation and a scarcity of
resources, foremost among the water” (Ban Ki-Moon, 2007)
DARFUR – how a resource-conflict became a political conflict
1990s: • Darfur: Underdeveloped and marginalised region• Increasing competition for natural resources• Increasing competition for political influence• Increasing political unrest• Local/National governance failure
2000s: • “Black Book”: call for power/wealth redistribution• Intra-state spillover effects (Central government + SPLM
involvement)• Instrumentalisation of identities (ethnicity)• Empowerement of militias• Inter-state spillover effects (Sudan-Chad relations)
GAMBELLA – Resource-based conflict?
Gambellaregion
The setting• Marginalised and underdeveloped
region• Political instability• Federal/regional complexity• Population movements• Spillover effects from Sudan
The competition(s)• Competition for land and water –
farmers, pastoralists, new comers• Problematic land tenure• Patterns of cooperation and conflict• Competition for political power• Instrumentalisation of identity politics
The environment?
GAMBELLA – The environment
Vast water supplies and fertile land
But...• Increasing ecological degradation/deforestation
• Increasing pressure over riverian areas• Potential land grabbing
Baro River
Akobo River
Sobat River
Gilo River
White Nile River
GAMBELLA – Pressure over riverian areas
80s Highlanders
80s Army
and Refugees90s U
rban
Dw
ellers
+ M
ovem
ent
90s/2000s
Pastoralists
90s/2000s
Pastoralists
90s/
2000
s P
asto
ralis
ts
90s/
2000
s
Pas
tora
lists
Conflict
Conflict
CONCLUSIONS• Potential for resource-based conflicts in Ethiopia and
Sudan is high
• Growing pressure over land and water resources
• Environmental degradation – social, economic and political impacts
• Trend: political instrumentalisation of resource conflicts
• Growing competition for political resources
• Risk for transboundary spillover effects