Full Description
Inhabitants of poor, rural areas in the Global South heavily depend on natural resources in their immediate vicinity. Conflicts over and exploitation of these resources - whether it is water, fish, wood fuel, minerals, or land - severely affect their livelihoods. The contributors to this volume leave behind the polarised debate, previously surrounding the relationship between natural resources and conflict, preferring a more nuanced approach that allows for multiple causes at various levels. The contributions cover a wide array of resources, geographical contexts (Africa, Asia and Latin America), and conflict dynamics. Most are of a comparative nature, exploring experiences of conflict as well as cooperation in multiple regions.
This volume finds its origin in an innovative research programme with the acronym CoCooN, steered by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO/WOTRO) and involving universities and civil society partners in many countries. It presents the conceptual approaches adhered to by each of seven interdisciplinary projects, ranging from green criminology and political ecology to institutional analysis, legal pluralism and identity politics. The volume will be of interest to academics and practitioners concerned with an understanding of conflict as well as cooperation over natural resources.
Contents
1. Introduction 2. Conflict and cooperation on natural resources: Justifying the CoCooN programme 3. New directions in conflict research from an economics perspective 4. How natural is natural? Seeking conceptual clarity over natural resources and conflicts 5. Analysing the role of politics in groundwater management - research in Ethiopia, Palestine and Yemen 6. Harms, crimes and natural resource exploitation: A green criminological and human rights perspective on land-use change 7. Property rights, nationalisation and extractive industries in Bolivia and Ecuador 8. Engaging legal systems in small-scale gold mining conflicts in three South American countries 9. Theorizing participatory governance in contexts of legal pluralism - a conceptual reconnaissance of fishing conflicts and their resolution 10. An analytical framework for assessing the impacts of Jatropha Curcas on Local Livelihoods 11. Challenges in the design of a research and development programme on conflict and cooperation over natural resources
