Equitable Resource Governance Helps Build Peace

May 9, 2023 | Karol Boudreaux and Daniel Abrahams
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Across the Sahel, growing tensions between farmers and herders are more frequently spilling over into deadly clashes. Rapid population growth, along with the impacts of climate change such as extreme drought and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, are intensifying pressures on land and associated natural resources, contributing to this uptick in violence. 

These challenges speak to an increasingly common dynamic worldwide: climate change is exacerbating competition over natural resources, leading to increased volatility and conflict. In the coming decades, global trends—urbanization, forced displacement, rising resource demand, and environmental degradation—will only make matters worse. Without governance structures and adaptation efforts that explicitly account for the compounding challenges of climate change and conflict, many communities will continue to struggle with this dual burden.