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- Convenors:
-
Gordon Crawford
(Coventry University)
Zainab Mai-Bornu (University of Leicester)
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- Chair:
-
Zainab Mai-Bornu
(University of Leicester)
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Palmer 1.06
- Sessions:
- Friday 30 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Climate change-induced conflict is of increasing concern, with poor communities most affected. Global warming has Intensified pressures on land and water in already resource-scarce situations, increasing potential for local conflict. Simultaneously, local agency can also prevent / resolve conflict.
Long Abstract:
Climate change-induced conflict is an emerging phenomenon of increasing concern. While conflict over natural resources is not new, the impact of human-made global warming is distinctive and different. Climate change, inclusive of extreme heat, drought and excessive rainfall, produces conditions that many settled human societies have not experienced before, with poor and marginalised communities often severely affected. Such conditions lead to intensified pressures on the availability of resources such as land and water in already resource-scarce situations, increasing the potential for local conflicts. For example, the escalation of farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria and elsewhere in West and Central Africa is partly explained by climate change-induced desertification leading to decreased availability of arable and grazing land, and hence increased conflict over land usage between different socio-economic groups. Political instability or weak governance can also exacerbate the potential for conflict. Africa in particular contains countries that are characterised by state instability and highly vulnerable to climate change-induced weather extremes, though this combination is also experienced elsewhere globally. The impact of climate change can also push people to move, potentially exacerbating tensions within and between countries as access to food and water resources is increasingly constrained. Such increased connections between climate change and conflict requires reflection by scholars on ways to prevent and resolve conflicts. This panel welcomes papers that explore the climate change-conflict interconnection, as well as interventions to reduce potential conflict. In particular, we are interested in bottom-up approaches to conflict mediation that focus on local agency.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 30 June, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
The paper will critique environmental peacebuilding from the perspective of world ecology, problematising its tendency to depolitise and decontextualise territorial power dynamics. Drawing from Colombian case studies, the paper will show how this can legitimise dispossession and limit local agency.
Paper long abstract:
Environmental peacebuilding is an increasingly popular approach towards peacebuilding that foregrounds nature and socio-ecological relations as a foundation for peace, rather than a driver of conflict. The approach disrupts conventional conceptualisations of nature as a purely economic resource and has produced particularly insightful research into conflict in the context of climate change. The paper will critique environmental peacebuilding from the perspective of Moore's concept of world ecology, suggesting a significant limitation of the approach is its tendency to depoliticise conflict and post-conflict scenarios, which in turn naturalises capitalist dynamics of appropriation and exploitation. Concurrently, an over-reliance on technological solutions at the expense of participatory methods limits the agency of local actors and increases the risk of co-optation. The paper will briefly propose a re-interpretation of environmental peacebuilding that incorporates the participatory and praxis-orientated nature of world ecology and demonstrate how this can be effectively applied to peacebuilding theory and practice through a comparison of two peacebuilding case studies in Colombia: the Program for Development and Peace in Magdalena Medio (PDPMM) and the Guardians of the River Atrato, in Chocó.
Paper short abstract:
There has been social unrest among pastoralists and host communities of farmers in Nigeria as a result of resource scarcity necessitated by climate change impact. This study sets to uncover the factors that will offer pastoralists a lasting solution that simultaneously reduces conflict potential.
Paper long abstract:
Farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria have intensified due to resource scarcity necessitated by climate change. The cultivation of Napier grass has both the potential to promote social security and also reduce conflict with host farmer communities. This study aimed at investigating factors influencing the willingness of pastoralists to adopt its cultivation. Primary data were collected with an interview schedule from 200 participants in north central Nigeria using a multi-stage sampling procedure. Data analysis was done using frequencies, percentages, Tobit regression and Chi square analysis. Results showed that majority (94.0%) of respondents indicated their willingness to cultivate Napier grass for the promotion of social security. Inferential statistics showed that herd size and ownership, membership of association, attainment of formal education, longer years of experience of conflicts with crop farmers and awareness of Napier grass benefits were significant factors that support the willingness of the pastoralists to adopt Napier cultivation to raise cattle while longer years of settlement, older age and land acquisition to raise cattle were significant determinants that negate the willingness of the pastoralists to adopt Napier cultivation at p < 0.01. In conclusion socio-economic factors and perceived benefits of Napier cultivation influenced the willingness of pastoralists to cultivate Napier grass to raise cattle, with the potential thereby to reduce conflicts with farmer communities. This study therefore recommended a policy formulation to birth a program for the implementation of Napier grass cultivation in Nigeria since most of the pastoralists are willing to cultivate Napier grass based on the potential benefits.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the intensification of herder-farmer conflicts in Nigeria due to climate change, and explores their impact at local level and national and local interventions to resolve them, including through natural resource governance.
Paper long abstract:
Herder-farmer conflicts in West Africa are not new. However, environmental changes driven by climate change are intensifying the frequency and scale of such conflicts, with increasing destruction and fatalities and the greatest impact on marginalised groups. This is notably so in Northern Nigeria as well as other parts of West Africa. The paper investigates conflicts between crop farmers and nomadic herders over land and other natural resources in Nigeria. It explores the key drivers of conflict, including climate change, increases in population and human settlement, and changes in traditional modes of agriculture. These drivers increase competition for dwindling natural resources leading to conflicting claims and rights to farmland, pastures and water bodies, and in turn to violent conflict. The paper examines the impacts of such conflicts on local communities and their livelihoods, especially those of marginalised groups, such as women and youth. Additionally it analyses conceptions of conflict and the efficacy of interventions at local and national levels by state, traditional authorities and civil society organisations aimed at conflict resolution. Further, it explores wider approaches to natural resource governance to address both the drivers of conflict, notably climate change, and to build community trust and cohesion.
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses the vulnerabilities of rural areas of Northern Nigeria to climate change.It further examines how climate change drives insecurity in the rural areas of Northern Nigeria and the impacts of insecurity and conflicts in worsening existing development challenges in the rural areas.
Paper long abstract:
Climate change is considered one of the contemporary challenges to security and development across the world. The African continent is the most vulnerable to the devastating impacts of climate change despite its relatively low contribution to the gas emissions. Nigeria has also faced the impact of climate change in forms of droughts, floods, heatwaves, desertification and wildfires at intensified levels. These changes are worst for the rural areas whose source of livelihood largely depends on agricultural activities that are weather sensitive like rearing of crops, herding and fishing. In Northern Nigeria, rural areas are the major producers of both food and livestock for individuals living in both rural and urban centers. However, the inability of the rural areas to adapt to climate change has displaced thousands of people, intensified competition for scarce resources like water and arable land, increased poverty and escalated conflicts and ultimately deepening underdevelopment. This paper posits that in rural areas of northern Nigeria, climate change, remains a key driver of food and human insecurity manifesting in conflicts like farmer herder crises and banditry reported to have claimed thousands of lives. Besides the physical casualties of deaths and internal displacement of farmers and herders as a result of the incessant clashes, the study asserts that climate change and insecurity further compounds the existing problems of poverty and undevelopment in Northern Nigeria. The study agues that policy priority must be given to rural areas to adapt to climate change and control consequent high levels of insecurity.