Why environmental transformation causes violence: a synthesis.

Abstract

The author explores causes linking environmental degradation, war, and violence. The structural cause of a conflict should be distinguished from conflict dynamics or intensity. Conflicts escalate to violence if government troops take punitive actions arbitrarily against settlements. The greatest conflict potential is ethno-politicized conflict and interregional or demographically driven migration conflicts in countries with poor state operations. Conflicts in national sacrifice regions and in marginalized ecoregions are usually localized within states. Environmental conflicts (ECs) are characterized by overuse of renewable resources, pollution, and impoverishment of the space of living. ECs may be ethnopolitical (center periphery, internal, and cross-border); demographically caused migration; international water-related; and global conflicts. The potential for EC is dependent upon discrimination against actors in a sensitive ecological area and a high level of dependence on natural capital. ECs are likely to escalate when economic expectations and/or greater demand for resources contradict limited options for development, degraded resources, and poor state performance. Five key situations may exist before violence erupts: manipulation of the environment by dominating actors, disparate contexts, scarcity of regulatory means, formation of allies with similar environmental problems, and spillover from a historic conflict. EC discrimination can range from being a background reason to a proximate trigger for violent conflict. It is important to distinguish between the conflict, the trigger, the target, the channel, and the catalyst.

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