Natural resources and conflict: a deadly ralationship.

• Author: Renner, Michael
• Position: Ecology

"A substantial portion of the Western world's cell phones, furniture and wood products, and jewelry bears the invisible imprint of violence."

JONAS SAVIMBI led a violent life and died a violent death. Yet, when the leader of the Angolan rebel group UNITA (Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola) was killed in an ambush in February, 2002, his death freshened hopes that Angola might finally emerge from the nightmare of a quarter-century of nearly uninterrupted civil war. In short order, a cease-fire was signed and plans made for the demobilization and disarmament of rebel fighters.

The United Nations Children's Fund has described Angola as "the worst place in the world to be a child." Almost 30% die before they reach the age of six. Nearly half of all Angolan youngsters are underweight, and a third of school-age children have no school to go to. Adults are hardly better off. Two-thirds of Angolans scrape by on less than a dollar a day, and 42% are illiterate. Unsafe drinking water (68% of the population lacks access) and a pervasive shortage of health services (80% have no access to basic medical care) have combined with food shortages to limit life expectancy to 47 years. The 2002 Human Development Index of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), a broad gauge of social and economic progress, ranked Angola 161st out of 173 nations.

Endowed with ample diamond and oil deposits, Angola should not be on the bottom rungs of the world's social ladder. Instead of a blessing, though, its natural resource wealth has turned out to be a curse. While the majority of the population lived in misery and terror, the leaders of both the government and the rebel UNITA forces devoted most of the money they gained selling the nation's resources to buying weapons and lining their own pockets. The conflict ravaged the economy, displaced close to 4,000,000 people--one out of three Angolans--and left about 1,000,000 dependent on foreign food aid. The ideological differences that first sparked the war came to reside in the dustbin of history, but resource-driven greed and corruption proved to be powerful fuel for its continuation.

Although a somewhat extreme case, Angola is merely one of numerous places in the developing world where abundant natural resources help fuel conflicts. Altogether, about a quarter of the roughly 50 wars and armed conflicts active in 2001 had a strong resource dimension, in the sense that legal or illegal resource exploitation helped trigger or exacerbate violent conflict or financed its continuation. The human toll of these resource-related conflicts is horrendous. Rough estimates suggest that more than 5,000,000 people were killed during the 1990s; close to 6,000,000 fled to neighboring countries; and anywhere from 11,000,000 to 15,000,000 were displaced inside the borders of their home nations. However, some people--warlords, corrupt government officials, and unscrupulous corporate leaders--benefited from the pillage, taking in billions of dollars.

Since the late 1990s, awareness has grown rapidly of the close links among illegal resource extraction, arms trafficking, violent conflict, human rights violations, humanitarian disaster, and environmental destruction. Expert panels established by the UN have investigated cases in Angola, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Civil society groups have launched a campaign against "conflict diamonds" from those countries and have shed light on other conflict resources. Company and industry practices are coming under greater scrutiny. Media reports have helped carry these concerns from activist and specialist circles to a broader audience. All of this comes against the background of an intensifying debate over the unchecked proliferation of small arms, the weapons of choice in resource-based conflicts.

In some places, the pillaging of oil, minerals, metals, gemstones, or timber allows wars to continue that were triggered by other factors--initially driven by grievances or ideological struggles and bankrolled by the superpowers or other external supporters. Elsewhere, nature's bounty attracts groups that may claim they are driven by an unresolved grievance--such as political oppression of the denial of minority rights--but are in effect predators enriching themselves through illegal resource extraction. They initiate violence not necessarily to overthrow a government, but to gain and maintain control over lucrative resources, typically one of the few sources of wealth and power in poorer societies. They are greatly aided by the fact that many countries are weakened by poor or repressive governance, crumbling public services, lack of economic opportunity, and deep social divides.

Another dimension to the relationship between resources and conflict concerns the repercussions from resource extraction itself. In many developing nations, the economic benefits of mining and logging operations accrue to a small business or government elite and to foreign investors. Meanwhile, in case after case, an array of burdens--ranging from the expropriation of land, disruption of traditional...