Natural Resource Management and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan
Publisher: UNEP
Date: 2016
Topics: Extractive Resources, Governance, Renewable Resources
Countries: Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s precious natural resources – its land, water, forests and mineral deposits – are critical to the country’s prospects for a peaceful and prosperous future. However, the management of natural resources can also influence conflict in Afghanistan. Natural resources are scarce resources that communities fight over, instruments of coercion used to exert control, and a source of illicit revenues that sustains corruption and the war economy and provides incentives for peace spoilers. In essence effective natural resource management (NRM) is a form of conflict prevention, bringing order and predictability to situations where otherwise competition is rife. This map is by no means comprehensive but illustrates some of the ways natural resource management impacts peacebuilding in Afghanistan.