The Role of Land and Natural Resources in Conflict and Peacemaking

Aiming to contribute to the literature of what works to make peace, this volume examines the roles of land, water and mineral resources in conflict and peacemaking. The analysis focuses on six cases of prolonged, ethno-national, asymmetric conflict and six cases of special interest.

The data show that land, water and mineral resources have consistently been either a cause of war, a source of funding for war or a weapon of war. Yet, the goal of using natural resources in security, free from armed conflict or kidnappings, has been a reason for local or international communities to incentivise and/or facilitate peacemaking processes.

Nine of the cases ended in a negotiated, written peace accord which lasted more than 5 years. While some of the conflict areas saw a resurgence of armed conflict, other cases are exemplars of lasting peace agreements. The analysis shows what was successfully addressed in peace accords, as related to land and natural resources; what was addressed in aspirational terms that were never fully implemented; and what decisions were left to political processes that were agreed to, ending extensive armed conflict.