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

Study countries

Key terms

Environment

Environmental security

Conflict

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.

Plate 4. Severe soil erosion leads to gullies as found in areas adjacent to Kibale National park.

Key findings

• Continuous shifts in coping strategies– Sell small livestock– Sell large animals– Casual wage– Reduce food consumption– Relief dependent– Migration

Mapping of population movements in UgandaI

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

Closing remarks

• Conflict management is a development agenda. Sound environmental management (environmental security), as an integral part of development, is an important tool for the attainment of sustainable peace and development.