Resource Rights and Disaster Resilience

Resource Rights and Disaster Resilience

For the poorest, access and control over resources are important determinants of vulnerability and resilience, shaping both their exposure to hazards and their capacity to cope with and recover from natural disasters.

Events like hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes damage the land, sea, forest and other resources vital to peoples' livelihoods. They kill titleholders, destroy documentation and erase demarcations. Compensation after such disasters is often inadequate, and movements of people can increase competition over scarce resources.

For vulnerable communities, the threats will only increase as climate change leads to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Recognizing this, IISD's research has focused on the ways in which clearly defined, equitable and provable resource rights can play a key role in helping poor and marginalized communities survive disasters and recover after them.

Where to Read More

Addressing Land Ownership after Natural Disasters - An Agency Survey (PDF - 259 kb)» Oli Brown, Alec Crawford, 2006 The final results of a survey of humanitarian professionals which gathered opinions and experiences on how best to tackle issues of land ownership after natural disasters.
Natural Disasters and Resource Rights: Building resilience, rebuilding lives (PDF - 436 kb)
Natural disasters damage and destroy the land, sea and forest resources vital to peoples' livelihoods. Where resource rights are clearly defined, equitable and verifiable, poor and marginalized communities are better equipped to survive disasters and recover after them. Oli Brown, Alec Crawford and Anne Hammill discuss the role of resource rights in pre-disaster resilience and post-disaster reconstruction.
Forests, Natural Disasters and Human Security (PDF - 122 kb)
What role do forests play in reducing human vulnerability to natural disasters? And what are the wider implications of forest degradation for human security? Anne Hammill, Oli Brown and Alec Crawford of IISD assess these questions in a March 2005 article for the IUCN/WWF Forest Conservation Newsletter "Arborvitae."

Key Publication

Trade, Aid and Security: An agenda for peace and development

» Oli Brown, Mark Halle, Sonia Peña Moreno, Sebastian Winkler, Earthscan, 2006.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur. All resonate loudly on the international stage, exposing and illustrating the intractable links among global security, war and conflict, the control over natural resources—be they oil, water, timber or "conflict diamonds"—and the deployment of aid money and the manipulation of international trade policies. This volume, written by leading authorities from across the globe, introduces the linkages among trade, aid and security, and exposes how inappropriate or misused trade and aid policies can and do undermine security and contribute to violence and the disintegration of nation states. On a practical level, they demonstrate how six key areas of trade and aid policy can be used to help forge stability and security, reduce the likelihood of armed conflict and assist economic and political recovery in our war-torn world. Foreword by Lloyd Axworthy. More...

» Themes

» Initiatives

» Trade, Aid and Security (TAS)

» Business and Conflict

» Environment and Security (E&S)