Transhumant Pastoralism, Climate Change, and Conflict in Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eoin McGuirk ◽  
Nathan Nunn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Conflict In Africa ◽  
Transhumant Pastoralism

Climate and Conflict in Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Scheffran ◽  
Peter Michael Link ◽  
Janpeter Schilling
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Conflict In Africa

Climate change was conceived as a “risk multiplier” that could exacerbate security risks and conflicts in fragile regions and hotspots where poverty, violence, injustice, and social insecurity are prevalent. The linkages have been most extensively studied for the African continent, which is affected by both climate change and violent conflict. Together with other drivers, climate change can undermine human security and livelihoods of vulnerable communities in Africa through different pathways. These include variability in temperature and precipitation; weather extremes and natural disasters, such as floods and droughts; resource problems through water scarcity, land degradation, and food insecurity; forced migration and farmer–herder conflict; and infrastructure for transport, water, and energy supply. Through these channels, climate change may contribute to humanitarian crises and conflict, subject to local conditions for the different regions of Africa. While a number of statistical studies find no significant link between reduced precipitation and violent conflict in Africa, several studies do detect such a link, mostly in interaction with other issues. The effects of climate change on resource conflicts are often indirect, complex, and linked to political, economic, and social conflict factors, including social inequalities, low economic development, and ineffective institutions. Regions dependent on rainfed agriculture are more sensitive to civil conflict following droughts. Rising food prices can contribute to food insecurity and violence. Water scarcity and competition in river basins are partly associated with low-level conflicts, depending on socioeconomic variables and management practices. Another conflict factor in sub-Saharan Africa are shifting migration routes of herders who need grazing land to avoid livestock losses, while farmers depend on land for growing their harvest. Empirical findings reach no consensus on how climate vulnerability and violence interact with environmental migration, which also could be seen as an adaptation measure strengthening community resilience. Countries with a low human development index (HDI) are particularly vulnerable to the double exposure to natural disasters and armed conflict. Road and water infrastructures influence the social and political consequences of climate stress. The high vulnerabilities and low adaptive capacities of many African countries may increase the probability of violent conflicts related to climate change impacts.

scholarly journals Transhumant Pastoralism in the Context of Socioeconomic and Climate Change in the Mountains of Nepal

2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Popular Gentle ◽  
Rik Thwaites
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Transhumant Pastoralism

Climate Change and the Risk of Conflict in Africa

2010 ◽  
pp. 87-109
Author(s):  
Oli Brown ◽  
Alec Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Conflict In Africa

Climate change, rainfall, and social conflict in Africa

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cullen S Hendrix ◽  
Idean Salehyan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Conflict In Africa

Armed Conflict and Food Security in West Africa: Socioeconomic Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustine Ujunwa ◽  
Chinwe Okoyeuzu ◽  
Ebere Ume Kalu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Generalized Method Of Moments ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Traditional Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Conflict In Africa

Purpose West Africa represents a very good case of a sub-region currently plagued with the problem of food insecurity. Traditional theories have attributed the increasing food insecurity in the region to problems of poor governance, corruption and climate change. In view of the persistent and increasing nature of armed conflict in the sub-region, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of increasing armed conflict on food security in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member countries. Design/methodology/approach The study utilized the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) to investigate the effect of conflict intensity on food security in the 14 member states of the ECOWAS using annualized panel data from 2005 to 2015. Findings The findings reveal that armed conflict is a significant predictor of food security in West Africa. Research limitations/implications The findings of the study bring to fore, the urgent need to rethink global initiative for combating food insecurity. The effort must also identify the causes of armed conflicts and design sound strategies for de-escalating the armed conflicts. Resolving the escalating armed conflict entails developing a conflict resolution framework that is extremely sensitive to the causes of conflict in Africa and adopting localized ex ante institutional diagnostics that would help in understanding the nature of the conflicts. Originality/value Traditional theory perceives climate change, social injustices, property right, food insecurity, religious extremism and bad governance as the predictors of armed conflicts. In this study, the authors departed from the traditional theory by demonstrating that the nature and trend of armed conflict could also pose a serious threat to food security.

scholarly journals Farmers-Herdsmen Conflict in Africa: The Case of Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-706
Author(s):  
Ejiroghene Augustine Oghuvbu ◽  
Oluwatobi Blessing Oghuvbu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
General Population ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Small Arms ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
The Face ◽  
Conflict In Africa

General population growth and an increase in the number of farmers, environmental degradation, disruption of conditions for resolving land and water disputes, and the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in the Sahel and West Africa have exacerbated the struggle for the survival and security of economic livelihoods, and in particular negatively affected relationships between shepherds and farmers in several communities in Africa. This kind of conflict between farmers and herdsmen mainly applies to Nigeria, but is also present in other African countries, especially in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Senegal, Cameroon, and Côte d’Ivoire. Such conflicts are not triggered by a single reason, but are driven by a set of multi-causal factors, such as scarce resources in the face of greater need, reprisal attacks, land and climate change, etc. Obviously, in case of Nigeria this kind of conflicts have a disintegrative impact, as they lead to the inimical effects to the country’s unity. The need for fostering value reorientation and restoring earlier interactive ties between herdsmen and farmers seems vital today, so that Nigerians can learn to appreciate the values that unite them more than those that separate the society.

scholarly journals Nomadic Pastoralism, Climate Change, and Conflict in Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eoin McGuirk ◽  
Nathan Nunn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nomadic Pastoralism ◽  
Conflict In Africa

Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 723-729
Author(s):  
Roslyn Gleadow ◽  
Jim Hanan ◽  
Alan Dorin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Food Security ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Native Habitat ◽  
Insect Pollinators ◽  
Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

Modelling ecosystem adaptation and dangerous rates of global warming

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Millington ◽  
Peter M. Cox ◽  
Jonathan R. Moore ◽  
Gabriel Yvon-Durocher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Diffusion Rate ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Genetic Evolution ◽  
Rates Of Change ◽  
Rapid Climate Change ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
Intraspecies Competition ◽  
High Trait

Abstract We are in a period of relatively rapid climate change. This poses challenges for individual species and threatens the ecosystem services that humanity relies upon. Temperature is a key stressor. In a warming climate, individual organisms may be able to shift their thermal optima through phenotypic plasticity. However, such plasticity is unlikely to be sufficient over the coming centuries. Resilience to warming will also depend on how fast the distribution of traits that define a species can adapt through other methods, in particular through redistribution of the abundance of variants within the population and through genetic evolution. In this paper, we use a simple theoretical ‘trait diffusion’ model to explore how the resilience of a given species to climate change depends on the initial trait diversity (biodiversity), the trait diffusion rate (mutation rate), and the lifetime of the organism. We estimate theoretical dangerous rates of continuous global warming that would exceed the ability of a species to adapt through trait diffusion, and therefore lead to a collapse in the overall productivity of the species. As the rate of adaptation through intraspecies competition and genetic evolution decreases with species lifetime, we find critical rates of change that also depend fundamentally on lifetime. Dangerous rates of warming vary from 1°C per lifetime (at low trait diffusion rate) to 8°C per lifetime (at high trait diffusion rate). We conclude that rapid climate change is liable to favour short-lived organisms (e.g. microbes) rather than longer-lived organisms (e.g. trees).

Climate change and breeding success: decline of the capercaillie in Scotland

2001 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Moss ◽  
James Oswald ◽  
David Baines
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Breeding Success
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document