Building a sustainable peace: How peace processes shape and are shaped by the international legal framework for the governance of natural resources
| Date | 01 April 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12307 |
| Author | Daniëlla Dam‐de Jong |
| Published date | 01 April 2020 |
RECIEL. 2020;29:21–32.
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21
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel
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Natural resou rces are strong ly connected to t he onset, durat ion and
recurrence of armed conflicts.1 The contributi on of the illicit tra de in
natural resou rces to the financing of arm ed conflicts, incl uding the on‐
going conflict s in the Democratic Republ ic (DR) of the Congo and the
Central African Republic, has been well documented.2 Likewise, con‐
1 See,e.g.,KBa llentinean dHNitzschke(e ds),Profiting from Peace: Managing the Resource
Dimensions o f Civil War(LynneRi enner2005) ;andCBruch,CM uffettandS SNichols,
‘NaturalRe sourcesandPo st‐conflictG overnance:B uildingaSust ainablePe ace’inC
Bruch,CMuf fettandSSNi chols(eds),Gove rnance, Natu ral Resources , and Post‐conflic t
Peacebuilding (Earthsca n 2016) 1.
2 Thearmedcon flictintheDRC ongohasbeenf inancednot ablythroug htheillicit
exploitat ion and smuggl ing of tin, tant alum, tungste n and gold, whil e diamonds and gol d
are among the p rimary sour ces of revenue for ar med groups ope rating in the Ce ntral
AfricanRep ublic.Forre centovervie ws,seeUnite dNationsSecu rityCounc il(UNSC)
‘MidtermRep ortoftheUNG roupofExper tsontheDe mocraticRe publicoftheCo ngo’
UNDocS/2017/1091(22Decemb er2017)11–16;andUNSC‘FinalR eportoftheP anel
ofExpert sontheCentr alAfricanRe publicexte ndedpursu anttoSecurit yCouncil
Resolutio n2339(2017)’UNDo cS/2017/1023(6December2017).
Received:31Janu ary2019
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Revised:5July2 019
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Accepted:10July20 19
DOI: 10.1111/re el.123 07
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Building a sustainable peace: How peace processes shape
and are shaped by the international legal framework for the
governance of natural resources
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Crea tive Commons Attr ibution License, w hich permits use , distribution an d reproduction i n any medium,
provided the o riginal work is prop erly cited.
© 2019 The Authors . Review of European, Co mparative & Internati onal Environmenta l LawpublishedbyJo hnWiley&SonsLtd .
Email: d.a.dam@law.leidenuniv.nl Natural resources a re strongly connec ted to the onset, dur ation and recurren ce of
armedconflict s.However,evenafteranarmedconflicthasfor mallyended,natura lre‐
sources can be an imp ortant trigger for a rel apse into armed conflict. For t hese reasons,
it is of the utmost impo rtance, both fr om a security and a de velopment perspe ctive,
to address natural re sources as an integral part of the peace p rocess. This article aims
to assess how provisions in pe ace agreements addressing na tural resource governance
are embedded in th e international legal f ramework. It inquir es into the particu larities
and legal nature of pea ce agreements and examine s the various functions of nat ural re‐
source arrangemen ts as part of peace agreements . Finally, as each category of natural
resources comes with distinct legal questions and peacebuilding challenges, the article
zoomsinon watergovernance asacase studytoe xplorethe differentways inwhich
natural resource arrangements in peace agreements and international law interact. The
analysis isbased on as tudyof 40 intra‐State agreement s,incl udingt he2015 South
Sudanagreement ,the2015Maliagreementa ndthe2016Colombianagree ment.
flicts over lan d use and ownership have p layed an important ro le in the
armedconflictsinGuatemala,ColombiaandSudan,amongs tothers.3
Recent report s furthermore poi nt to water shortages, exa cerbated by
climate change and p opulation growth, as one of t he most acute risks
for the outbrea k of future armed c onflicts.4 However,evenafter an
armed conflic t has formally ended, n atural resources c an be an import‐
anttriggerforar elapseintoarm edconflict.S ometimesthi sisbecause
access to natural r esources for arm ed groups as a sour ce of conflict
funding has not be en properly cut off. In othe r situations, disputes b e‐
tween local c ommunities and the government o r between such com‐
munities over the a llocation of natural reso urces or the distributio n of
their benefits are the trigger.5 This is especially so when acce ss to
3 See,e.g.,Un itedNationsD epartme ntofPolitica lAffairs(U NDPA)andUnitedN ations
Environmen tProgramme(U NEP),‘Natura lResourcesan dConflict :AGuideforMedi ation
Practiti oners’(2015)35 –36.
4 See,e.g.,G lobalHigh‐le velPanelonWate randPeace,‘AMat terofSurviv al’(2017);
WorldBank,‘ HighandDry :ClimateChan ge,WaterandtheEc onomy’(2016)19–20.
5 SeeCWebersika ndMLevy,‘Redu cingtheRiskofC onflictRec urrence:Th eRelevance
ofNaturalRes ourceManage ment’inBru chetal(n1)39.
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