May 20, 2013

Learning from Conflict

Thanks to our first Landscape Roundtable contributors, Saswati Bora, Elisabeth Kvitashvili, and Delia Catacutan, for sharing their perspectives on the topic of conflict, resource management and related impacts on food security. Each of the authors pointed out that the connections between resource management and conflict are complex and can take place at multiple scales. Although we need to be realistic about the ways that conflict limits options and opportunities for collaborative resource management, integrated landscape management approaches, done sensitively and well, have the potential to mitigate or prevent conflicts related to resource use and access.

A host of stresses on natural resources can contribute to conflict. All of the authors agreed that increasing scarcity and limited access to land, water and other resources exacerbate existing conflicts and can even provoke new ones. Integrated landscape management can, at times, according to Saswati Bora, “promote sustainable use and conservation in an equitable manner.” However, landscape approaches are not a silver bullet. Elisabeth Kvitashvili’s post highlighted the need for integrated approaches to be “conflict sensitive.” Effective and equitable integrated landscape approaches will need to consider the economic, political and social relationships in the landscape, alongside ecological and spatial relationship. If not, these approaches are as likely to generate conflict as they are to mitigate it.

In central Niger, a landscape approach has already reduced conflict over resources, not only by direct changes to land management practices, but also by changing who has the right to use and manage forest resources. In other cases, like the Manupali River watershed case presented by Delia Catacutan, taking a landscape approach could help resource users to address the underlying causes of scarcity rather than adopting solutions that prevent conflict in the short-term, but may lead to more prolonged conflict in the future. Landscape approaches can reduce competition by improving production and delivery of resources, as well as address some of the structural issues that make systems vulnerable to conflict.

These thought-provoking posts raise a number of important questions for us to consider beyond this Landscape Roundtable: 1) How do we analyze the potential for conflict in landscapes to be aware of any pitfalls in using a landscape approach? 2) Are conflict sensitive landscape approaches realistic and cost-effective? 3) Are there practical examples of how landscape approaches have improved equitable resource management by bringing various actors together?

We hope you enjoyed the first Landscape Roundtable. The next, taking place in July, will focus on urban food systems. Please contact us if you have questions/comments or are interested in contributing.

Read the full series:
On the Topic of Conflict – Introduction to the Roundtable

Landscape Approaches in Managing Conflict – Saswati Bora

Becoming Conflict Smart – Elisabeth Kvitashvili

Watershed Wars: Avoiding Water Rights Conflict between Smallholders and Agri-Industries – Delia Catacutan

Photo credit: FAO

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