Key Message

Inequitable access or unsustainable use of resources constrains livelihoods, which can exacerbate tensions and lead to conflicts. Preventing or resolving local resource-related conflicts requires a solid understanding of livelihoods.

Natural Resources, Livelihoods and Security

What's New in Natural Resources, Livelihoods and Security?

  • Climate change as the 'new' security threat: implications for Africa (PDF - 133 kb)
    Once an environmental issue, then an energy problem, climate change is now being recast as a security threat. Africa is particularly vulnerable – with its history of resource, ethnic and interstate conflict. This article for the journal International Affairs charts the dimensions of the climate security challenge in Africa and analyzes the role of adaptation policies in future conflict prevention.

Around the world, people depend on the environment in different ways to meet their basic needs and earn an income. Pastoralists in the African Sahel have a flexible but finely-honed system for maximizing soil, water and temperature conditions to support their herds. Communities in the Tanguar Haor wetland of Bangladesh depend on deep annual flooding cycles to sustain their mix of fishing and farming activities. Conflicts over access to and use of natural resources have plagued both communities, further undermining their fragile livelihoods.

Understanding the link between environment and security at the community-level often requires an intimate understanding of livelihood dynamics, the different forces that threaten their sustainability, and local capacities for coping with crises, scarcity or disasters. In fact, IISD views livelihoods as the "missing link" between poverty, environmental degradation and conflict.

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