An international seminar on Natural Resources and Implications for Conflict Resolution, held on April 22 at UNU-IAS in Yokohama, examined the intersection of peacebuilding, environmental change, and natural resources, especially with regard to their linkage to conflict. The seminar commenced with the opening remarks from Govindan Parayil, UNU-IAS director and UNU vice-rector, Claudia ten Have, Managing Research Fellow & Coordinator of the Sustainable Development Governance Program at UNU-IAS, and Mikiyasu Nakayama, professor of the Department of International Studies at the University of Tokyo.

David Jensen, head of the Policy and Planning Team of UNEP’s Post-conflict and Disaster Management Branch, then introduced UNEP’s report entitled From Conflict to Peacebuilding: The Role of Natural Resources and the Environment and explained the link between natural resources, conflicts, and the environment, pointing out that misuse of resources leads to conflicts, which contribute to instability, which in turn contributes to “conflict relapse”, making peacebuilding difficult. He noted that environmental cooperation could become a “bridge-building tool for bringing communities together”, resulting in peace.

Anita Pratap speaks at the UNEP report launch event at UNU-IAS. Photo: UNU-IAS.

Anita Pratap, former South Asia bureau chief of CNN, Carl Bruch, senior attorney and co-director of international programmes at the Environmental Law Institute, and Jon Unruh, associate professor of the Department of Geography at McGill University, provided commentary on Jensen’s presentation and further highlighted the links between natural resources and conflict.

Christian Webersik, JSPS-Postdoctoral Fellow at UNU-IAS, spoke on climate change, conflict, and livelihoods and looked at the examples of Haiti and the neighbouring Dominican Republic to show how deforestation in the former contributes to erosion, agricultural deterioration, ultimately destabilising the country.

Mami Sato of the University of Tokyo spoke on “Demobilization, Reintegration, and Natural Resources in Afghanistan” noting that DDR (demobilization, disarmement, reintegration) took place only in safe regions, not in unsafe regions, thereby providing groups like the Taliban opportunities to regroup and strengthen.

Mikiko Sugiura, also of the University of Tokyo, presented “Water Resource Management, Agricultural Productivity, and Flood Control: A Case Study of Japanese Water Projects after WW II” that examined how centralized irrigation had a negative effect and de-centralized irrigation a positive one on the agricultural productivity of post-war Japan.

• More information on the event on UNU-IAS website.