KABUL - Afghanistan has abundant mineral, water, rangeland and forest resources. Although geographically dispersed, these resources have the potential to dramatically improve the living standards of the country’s citizens. Or that very wealth could lead to further conflicts between Afghan communities as well as neighbouring countries.

That is the dilemma that has led to the creation of a programme that aims to promote collaboration and cooperation in the area of natural resource management. The project is being led by the United Nations (UN) Country Team and the Sustainable Livelihoods Working Group, together with the Government as well as NGOs.

By examining the causes of local conflicts through the lens of resource management instead of attributing conflicts to causes like ethnic tension or political differences, the objective of the project is to better understand and raise awareness of the dynamics of that conflict. Thereafter the programme aims to guide projects to be more conflict sensitive in their design and implementation.

“Addressing conflicts over natural resources requires local knowledge, political will and the buy-in from affected communities,” said Nicholas Haysom, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan. “The effective governance of natural resources is especially important in the context of societies with weak institutions because control over the benefits from local natural resources is a chief motivator of ethnic or identity-based conflicts.”

The Working Group has identified numerous instances in Afghanistan where conflicts between communities have a significant environmental management component.

For instance, Kuchi nomads have been moving their herds of goats through pastures owned by Hazara farmers for centuries. But tension between the two groups has sometimes spilled into armed clashes. In the news the sources of this new tension get explained in different ways. For some the conflict can be traced to ethnic issues. For others the root cause is political differences. Yet interviews with some of the affected Hazara communities suggest it is more complex than this. They are worried that ever-larger Kuchi herds of goats and sheep are taking ever-larger quantities of pasture-lands from these farmers. Kuchis nomads respond that some Hazara communities are ignoring longstanding laws and traditions that permit the nomads’ herds to graze along predetermined summer and winter pastures routes.

Lately leaders from both groups have signed up for a programme called “Peace on the Pastures”, which was spearheaded by the Vice-President’s office and supported by UN agencies, various ministries and NGO’s.

To ease tension, the project empowered Kuchi and Hazara elders to work as “Peace Ambassadors”. There were also development projects and farmers and herders were instructed in reconciliation techniques. The project is being viewed as a possible model but success isn’t assured. Despite positive signals from both groups community leaders still expect tension and violence to continue.

Similar efforts at turning conflict into cooperation are taking place in other parts of the country. Water resources are particularly contentious, as Afghan rivers flow from the highlands across cultural and political boundaries. The Patkia river, for example, flows south through several Afghan provinces and then into Pakistan. During times of drought communities along the way have less water, causing tension and economic difficulties for communities further downstream. The Working Group is helping communities explore ways to manage the river in a way that takes into account the interests of these different groups.

These resources are just two of the many natural resources and peace-building initiatives across the country. Mining, extractive industries for petroleum, forestry in the east and even groundwater access in cities are also being looked at.

“Our goal is to map potential resource conflicts – conflicts over renewable resources, land and tenure rights and extractive industries,” said Andrew Scanlon, country manager for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Afghanistan. “The project is important because sustainable development and stability will depend on environmental sustainability as much as economic growth and security. All of these elements are interlinked.”

By UNAMA Kabul

(This article appeared in the Issue #6 of the "Afghanistan and the United Nations" newspaper published by the United Nations in Afghanistan)