Equitable management of natural resources can bring peace to Afghanistan: UN
Geneva, 25 June 2013: Sustainable and equitable management of Afghanistan’s natural
resources such as land, water, forests and minerals can contribute to peace building
in the country, according to a United Nations report released on Monday.
The
report, Natural Resource Management and Peace building in Afghanistan, describes how
the UN and the international community can assist the Afghan Government to improve
the management of natural resources in a way that contributes to peace and development
on a national scale.
“Effective management of natural resources will help
build peace in Afghanistan, and therefore development work and investment in all natural
resource sectors must be managed carefully,” said the Deputy Special Representative
of the Secretary-General with the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Mark
Bowden. “Disputes in Afghanistan over natural resources can aggravate existing ethnic,
political and regional divisions,” he added.
The study, which was funded by
the European Union (EU), also aims to encourage international organizations to introduce
mechanisms into their projects to ensure that they do not inadvertently exacerbate
conflict over natural resources.
Up to 80 per cent of Afghans are directly
dependent on natural resources for income and sustenance, and 60 per cent of the population
obtain their livelihoods from agriculture, making equitable management of these resources
particularly relevant in the country.
Natural resources contribute to underlying
tension and conflict in Afghanistan as powerful groups try to gain control over access
to irrigation water for downstream provinces, communities compete over land, illegal
trade of forest timber and gemstones is widespread, and corruption is rampant.
“The
issue in post-conflict countries is how to make natural resources a blessing that
reinforces stability and not a curse that drives conflict,” said Nicholas Haysom,
a Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan.
The
report notes that the international community can help improve the management of natural
resources in Afghanistan by building capacity to help implement management structures
and laws relating to natural resources, supporting community-level dispute resolution
processes, improving data collection to enable early warning alerts when risks are
detected, providing funding for conflict resolution that takes an environmental approach,
and making environmental assessments a standard component of all development projects.
Led
by the UN Environment Program (UNEP), the report was developed in close collaboration
with the Natural Resources Contact Group of the UN in Afghanistan and produced at
the request of the UN Country Team, in partnership with the EU-UN Global Partnership
on Land, Natural Resources and Conflict. Source: UN