Natural Resources and Conflict: SDC Brief Calls for International Process on Environment-Climate Change-Fragility-Conflict Nexus

Jul 24, 2018 | Leila Mead, IISD
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Destruction and overexploitation of natural resources and ecosystems can increase the risk of violent conflict, according to a brief titled, ‘Fragility and Conflict,’ published by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) Climate Change and Environment Network. Highlighting the environment-climate change-fragility-conflict nexus, the publication underscores that: competition over declining natural resources, such as freshwater, fertile soils, fisheries and forests, may affect livelihoods and indirectly increase the risk for conflict; climate change may exacerbate existing challenges; and the risk of conflict is greater in fragile contexts than where governments or society have the capacity to cope with challenges.