Natural Resource

Africa is not poor, it is poorly led. – Omoruyi Aigbe

ABSTRACT

Africa's colonial legacy has been blamed for the socioeconomic, security, political challenges, the tension and hostility among the many ethnic groups, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Political historians have traced security challenge, conflict and instability in most Africa nations, especially in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR), Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, and elsewhere to colonial programs of division, discrimination, collective exclusion, and manipulation of ethnic identity envisioned to ensure power and control over vast natural resources.

Africa's natural resource wealth, which ought to be a blessing, is arguably a curse, natural resource in Africa has become a source of tremendous suffering, which Collier, (2007) referred to natural resource trap. There is a strong correlation between natural resource, conflict and security challenge in Africa, the ongoing conflict, which is arguably a civil war in the world’s newest country, South Sudan demonstrates the effect of natural resource made conflict.

Conflicts involving the ownership, management and control of natural resources have engaged attention about Africa in the last decade. To date, there has been limited empirical study, which examines the effect of natural resource and leadership on conflict and poverty. However, there is a handful of research which analyses the relationship between conflict and poverty. While this paper also seeks to look at conflict and poverty in Africa, it is interested in exploring the role of natural resource and leadership.

This paper presents the LCA-based results of a research programme called Cicle Pell: Industrial ecology in the animal-to-leather chain funded by the EU in the framework of the Community Program Interreg III C, Regional Framework Operation, "Ecosind". The main aim of the Ecosind is to define the basis to implement a new strategy of industrial sustainable development in the Southern Europe regions. In the Ecosind framework, the general aim of the Cicle Pell project is to identify the economic and environmental improvements which can be achieved by companies in the leather industry and the related supply-chain by applying the industrial ecology principles and tools. In this paper the results of the LCA of bovine leather manufactured in Italy and Spain will be described in order to put in evidence the eco-profile of the two systems and to find out if the difference in the adopted technologies and cooperative management solutions have led to significant environmental differences.

Collective action in agriculture and natural resource management is all too often perceived of in terms of the mere number of participants, with little consideration given to who participates, why, and the outcomes of inequitable participation. The literature is replete with cases of how uncritical approaches to participation structure positions of privilege vis-a-vis project benefits and the natural resource base (Munk Ravnborg and Ashby, 1996; Rocheleau and Edmunds, 1997; Schroeder, 1993). Yet lessons on how to engage with local communities in ways that promote equitable participation of women, the poor and other stakeholders are only now coming to light. This paper focuses on approaches under development under the rubric of the African Highlands Initiative to bring collective action principles to bear on gender-equitable change processes in natural resource management. The paper utilizes a number of case studies to illustrate the relative strengths and weaknesses of different app...

This paper describes the methodologies adopted and the results obtained in assessing the groundwater resources of Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. Also some early and recent studies on the aquifer systems in the two metropolis are presented to draw some comparisons on the assessment and data acquisition methods and identify some gaps involved and the improvements needed. Some of the indicators used in assessing groundwater potential and associated problems include storage coefficient, transmissivity, safe yield, and salt water intrusion. The complex and expensive nature of actual field monitoring and analysis has encouraged the use of mathematical models in this study. Specifically, models adopted by NHRC and JICA were used and their respective capabilities, data requirements and modeling results for water balance are described. Although the two models have specific inputs unique to each model and the NHRC model used secondary 9 year data (i.e. 1982-1990) while JICA used one-year actual...

A solução dos problemas na Amazônia não são independentes, mas conectada com outras partes do País e do mundo. A redução dos desmatamentos e queimadas na Amazônia depende do desenvolvimento de atividades agrícolas adequadas nas áreas já desmatadas e que tenham mercado, em vez do uso “sustentável” da floresta e de direitos difusos. Nesse sentido, uma política agrícola teria efeitos mais positivos do que uma política ambiental, que não pode ser efetuada de maneira isolada das demais regiões do País, sob risco de transferir contingentes populacionais de outras localidades. Há necessidade de elevar a produtividade das atividades agrícolas na Amazônia, reduzirem a pressão sobre os recursos naturais com risco de esgotamento, incentivar plantios racionais de recursos extrativos potenciais, substituir as importações de produtos tropicais (seringueira, dendê, cacau, etc.), melhorarem as relações de troca dos produtos amazônicos versus produtos importados da Zona Franca de Manaus, efetuar a r...

Cotton farmers in many developing countries are facing decreasing marginal returns due to stagnating yields and high input costs. Conversion to organic management could offer an alternative. In a two year comparative study in central India covering 170 cotton fields, organic farms ...

Since machine tools are used extensively throughout their functional life and consequently consuming valuable natural resources and emitting harmful pollutants during this time, this study reviews strategies for characterizing and reducing the energy consumption of milling machine tools during their use. The power demanded by a micromachining center while cutting low carbon steel under varied material removal rates was measured to model the specific energy of the machine tool. Thereafter the power demanded was studied for cutting aluminum and polycarbonate work pieces for the purpose of comparing the difference in cutting power demand relative to that of steel.

this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Policy Research Working Papers are available online at http://econ.worldbank.org. I.

Borana pastoralists in southern Ethiopia are faced with the challenge of developing more efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. In past decades poorly adapted development interventions and inadequate land-use policies aggravated by population growth have weakened pastoral rangeland management. Ignoring pastoralists’ technical and organizational capacities has contributed to progressive land degradation, the erosion of social structures and poverty. The Endogenous Livestock Development concept recognises pastoralists’ indigenous knowledge-based strategies and priorities, and uses them as the bases for further development of their production system and social relations, to be utilized, improved and combined with modern technologies. This paper explores the Borana pastoralists’ adaptive strategies for improved utilization of natural resources and the manner in which they respond to environmental risk and external influences such as water development and new formal administ...

This paper explores the relation between countries’ pattern of trade specialization and long-term economic growth. It shows that countries specializing in the export of natural resource based products only fail to grow if they do not succeed in diversifying their economies and export structure. This conclusion follows from an empirical investigation that has three innovative features. First, it uses a

Although forest fires have become a critical question in Mexico following the fire season of 1998, there is little knowledge regarding the effects of fire events on forest structure, composition, and dynamics in mixed pine-oak forests in northern Mexico. Objective of this ...

This paper applies a spatial economic regression model to analyze the relation between deforestation in the period from 1989 to 1994 and access to roads and markets, ecological conditions, land tenure, and zoning policies in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The data comes from a Geographic Information System (GIS) compiled by the Natural Resources Department of the Santa Cruz Government. Locations closer to roads and the City of Santa Cruz and that have more fertile soils and higher rainfall have a greater probability of being deforested. The same also applies to colonization areas. National parks and areas occupied by indigenous people do not have significantly less deforestation than sites with similar acess and ecological conditions. Forest concessions, on the other hand seem to protect forests.

In this paper, the deterministic parameter identification procedure proposed in a companion paper is applied to suction-dependent elasto-plasticity problems. A mathematical model for such type of problems is firstly presented, then it is applied to the parameter identification using laboratory data. The identification procedure is applied in a second example to exploitation of a gas reservoir. The effects of the

Conflict scholars have argued that natural resources, such as oil, diamonds, and gemstones, may increase the chances for civil wars because rebels can sustain their organizations by looting resources and because certain types of resources, such as oil, create weaker state governments that are less capable of putting down insurgencies. Natural resources like oil also raise the value of capturing the state through war. However, empirical studies typically treat natural resources as exogenous variables, failing to consider the possibility that war alters the production levels of various natural resources. This endogenous relationship may help to explain the inconsistent empirical results linking natural resources and civil war onset. This article examines the two-way relationship between natural resources and civil war, focusing on oil, diamonds, and fisheries. The empirical findings suggest that most of the relationships run in the direction from war to resources, with no significant effects of resources on the onset of civil war. States with civil wars experience lower oil and diamond production, while marine fisheries production recovers in civil war–torn states.