Morgan McCollum: Looking to Afghanistan to Understand the Importance of Natural Resources

Review of:

"International Symposium on Harnessing Natural Resources for Peacebuilding:

Lessons from US and Japanese Assistance"

On Wednesday, July 20^th, I attended the International Symposium on Harnessing Natural Resources for Peacebuilding. The concept behind the symposium is that natural resources can and usually do play a significant role in post-conflict areas. The availability of natural resources can lend a hand in peacebuilding efforts, and can also be destructive to peacebuilding efforts. One example of positive natural resource use is giving excombatants access to arable land. However, with over 45% of post conflict areas falling back into conflict, the lack of natural resources can be an even more important issue. For example, the lack of water can be a detriment to the peacebuilding process. Natural resources, or the lack there of, tend to be neglected in the peacebuilding process, but can easily push an environment on the brink of chaos back to complete instability.

One of the most current examples of the importance of natural resources in a post-conflict area is Afghanistan. Two areas that Afghanistan struggle with are the implementation of roads, and the trafficking of drugs.

Professor Jon Unruh of McGill University states there are clearly many pros to building a road, including increased communication, travel, possible increased standard of living, etc. However, there is also the risk that building a road will add to the insurgency in Afghanistan. One example of this is that city dwellers that require the court system will now be able to travel to Taliban areas and use their courts, which often are easier and more corrupt. In addition, the implementation of a road has been linked to land grabbing, based on a study of nine provinces residing along the Ring Road. There is also the added risk of landmines and explosives being located on the roads, and the potential increase of military presence. This is a question of how land can and should be used, and whether roads will help with the peacebuilding process, or work entirely against it.

One of the biggest issues affecting our world at large is the trafficking of drugs. Mr. David Catarious discussed the role that Afghanistan plays in supplying 80 percent of the world’s opium supply. Poppy plants secrete latex that can then be extracted and turned into heroin. The heroin is then trafficked from Afghanistan to Russia and Europe and all across the world. Poppy plants have been found to be one of the most, if not the most, lucrative crop in Afghanistan. Not to mention it grows easily and can be grown in between various harvest seasons. Thus, it is difficult to convince farmers in Afghanistan to stop growing the crops; especially when the farmers themselves are not the ones trafficking the drugs. There is a large need for education and a need for higher value crops to be introduced to the land. It is a question of whether a. the land should be saved, and farmers should be educated, b. farmers should be allowed to continue to grow poppy, or c. the land should be eradicated entirely. One man asked a question that likely was on many people’s minds: as American citizens, should we care about the poppy farmers? Or rather, should we care about our youth that are dying every day from drug use? From an American citizen standpoint, should we not just go in there and eradicate every single poppy plant and not care if we harm another country’s farmers?  It’s clearly a perplexing issue.

While the meeting overall did not contain information on natural resources and China, the topics, including the two listed above, provide provoking lessons. It is clear that the potential is there for natural resources to a. cause initial conflict, b. aid peacebuilding efforts, or c. complicate peacebuilding processes. Thus, it is important for all countries to carefully analyze and protect their natural resources, for the continued disappearance of them could eventually lead to disaster. Looking to Afghanistan as an example, I leave with the question: are one country’s natural resource concerns solely its own, or are they a global problem?

For more information, a final copy of Harnessing Natural Resources for Peacebuilding: Lessons from US and Japanese Assistance, edited by Carl Bruch, Mikiyasu Nakayama, and Ilona Coyle, is scheduled to publish in August 2011.