The Hague Conference on Environmental Security and Sustainable Development 9-12 May 2004 The Peace...
-
Upload
dina-henry -
Category
Documents
-
view
213 -
download
0
Transcript of The Hague Conference on Environmental Security and Sustainable Development 9-12 May 2004 The Peace...
The Hague Conference on Environmental Security and Sustainable Development
9-12 May 2004
The Peace Palace
PREPARING SOCIETY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: HOW GOVERNMENTS,
NGOS, THE MEDIA AND LEARNING NETWORKS CAN MAKE A
DIFFERENCE
What is Partnership for African Environmental Sustainability
(PAES)• PAES is an NGO established to promote
environmentally and socially sustainable development based on science and best practices
• Primary focus is policy research, policy advice and development
• Headquartered in Kampala with offices in Lusaka and Washington, D.C.
Africa’s environment induced conflicts
• Africa has experienced:– more than 30 wars since 1970 – more than 200 coups or attempted since 1950 – In 2000, 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa
experienced conflict in 2000
• change in frequency, nature and magnitude of these conflicts
experiencing ongoing or sporadic conflict, or were in a tenuous recovery phase
The project: integrating environmental security concerns in
development policy
• EU funded project to study the link between environmental insecurity and armed conflict in Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda.
• Focused on two ecosystems: agricultural land and fresh water
Data sources
• Literature review
• Secondary sources
• Primary sources(household surveys + community group focused discussions)
Conflicts (intra & inter household or community) - Failed state - Weak institutions - Societal heterogeneity
INCREASED ENVIRONMENTAL
INSECURITY
Competition for scarce resources - Private plots - Commons
Demographic response
- Voluntary and distress migration
- Occurrences of deaths - Change in fertility
- Poverty - Food
insecurity - Famine
Decline in livelihoods - Decline in farm productivity - Decline in agriculture linked income
sources - Erosion of physical assets - Dependency on community support
Increased vulnerability to natural & man-made hazards - Frequency of droughts - Frequent crop failure - Fewer coping mechanisms
ENVIRONMENTAL SCARCITY AND SOCIOECONOMIC
EFFECTS
Infrastructure and markets
Biophysical environment
Population pressure
Farm or plot-level responses
- Encroaching onto marginal land - Change in land cover and use - Increased cultivation intensity - Application of indigenous or new
production and land improvement technologies investment in land
Knowledge and technology
Community-level responses - Decline in size of
commons (open access) - Change in rights –access,
use and transfer - Benefit accrual and
exclusion
CHANGE IN NATURAL RESOURCE
CONSTRAINTS, PERCEPTIONS AND INCENTIVES
NR DEGRADATION - Deforestation - Range deg. - soil degradation –
physical, biological and - biodiversity loss
Property rights and institutions
Key findings:
• Farm size is small and declining• High incidence of land fragmentation• Increased cultivation intensity• Growing landlessness• Grazing land too short supply• Water stress and scarcity• Emerging land transactions
/underground/ black market
Population resource imbalance
In the 1950s when settlement systems were established, my father received 4ha land from administrative officials. He had 9 sons. I inherited only 0.45 ha (i.e. 4 ha divided by 9), which is now my sole land property. I have 11 children who must share the 0.45 ha. This means that each of the children will inherit 0.04 ha land, i.e. 4 hundred square metres. This land is just enough to put up a house.” Source: PAES Survey, Burundi, 2003.
Key findings
• Continuous shifts in coping strategies– Sell small livestock– Sell large animals– Casual wage– Reduce food consumption– Relief dependent– Migration
Types of environment induced conflicts:
- Cultivator - Cultivator• over inheritance• over individualizing the commons• resistance to settling migrants• returnees and claims to original (ancestral)
land – Cultivator –Herder – Herder – Herder– State – cultivator and State - herder
Figure 3.4. Updated land cover/use boundaries (yellow lines) overlaid on ETM+ (2000). Note
that by 2000, cultivation had expanded to most of the non-protected natural vegetation.
Study conclusions
• Environmental insecurity plays significant role in causing, triggering and aggravating violent conflicts influenced by: – Population mobility– Societal heterogeneity– Economic deprivation (poverty) – Deficient property rights– Failed state and governance
Table 1. Poverty Estimates by Village, 1994
Village(Region)
Poverty head count (%)
Poverty gap (%)
Poverty severity
index (%)
Village specific biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics
Yetmen (East Gojjam)
14 3 1Mid-elevation, bimodal, cereal-livestock farming system, high market access
Debre Birhan(North Shewa)
12 3 1Highland with mid-elevation, bimodal, cereal-livestock farming system, high market access,
Aze Deboa(South Shewa)
16 3 1Mid-elevation, hilly, bimodal, densely populated, Enset-cereal-coffee farming system, high market access
Turfe Kechemane(South Shewa)
17 5 3Mid-elevation, bimodal, cereal-livestock farming system, high market access
Addado(Sidamo)
31 8 4
Mid-elevation, densely populated, mainly Enset growing with some coffee (cereals are not common), moderate market access
Dinki(North Shewa)
39 13 6Lowland at foothills of the Rift valley, prone to droughts and famine, cereal-livestock system, poor market access
Doma(Gamo Gofa)
48 19 10Lowland at foot of mountains, history of droughts, newly settled population, cereal-livestock system, moderate market access
Geblen(Tigray)
57 21 10
Mountainous with sloping escarpments, poor soils, fall but prone to drought, cereal-livestock farming system, moderate market access
Gara Godo(Sidamo/Welayta)
78 40 24Highland village (mid-to-high elevation), semi-arid with frequent droughts, densely populated, Enset-cereal farming system.
Source: Elizabeth, 1997
Conclusions (cont.)
• The majority of rural communities relate conflicts to scarcity of and competition over access, use and transfer of land.
• In many cases, ethnicity was used as a cover for environment-induced conflicts.
Conclusions (cont.)
Water stress and scarcity are widely felt in the study countries, although only few reported actual conflicts over water
Property use rights- the case of the Nile waters: source (FAO)
Country Irrigated area % of total
BurundiDR CongoEgypt 3,078,000 61Eritrea 15,120 0.3Ethiopia 23,160 0.3Kenya 6,000 0.15Rwanda 2,000 0.05Sudan 1,935,200 38Tanzania 10,000 0.2Uganda 9,120 0.2Total 5,078,600 100
Study conclusions (cont.)
• There are well established indigenous institutional arrangements for managing conflicts in the study countries.
Study conclusions (cont.)
Conflict prevention and resolution processes and programs can bring sustainable peace if anchored in sound tenure policy and sustainable land management practices.
How and where governments, civil society and private sector can made a
difference• Integrating environmental security
concerns in development policy.
– Putting in place an integrated management of environmental risks including conflicts, natural and manmade disasters and health risks.
– Putting in place a national sustainable development strategy.
• Strengthening and developing state capacity
Making a difference:
Promote governance – rule of law, protection of property, democratic culture
• Institute effective conflict prevention and resolution process that is derived from indigenous or traditional peace making institutions.
• Enhance regional cooperation and integration as a way to reduce inter-state conflict.
Making a difference (cont.)
International community: – take into account environmental security
concerns in designing their conflict management programmes.
• Private sector:• Invest in non-traditional private sector
areas like water shed management, soil and water conservation, reafforestation
Civil society
• Communicate knowledge and promote awareness
• Strengthen alliance with state organizations and private sector