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Natural Resources, Conflict of Interests, and Their Management

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Managing Natural Resource Conflicts with Participatory Mapping and PGIS Applications

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Abstract

As essential sources of livelihood, income, and influence, people everywhere develop strong desires to control their natural resources. Consequently, communities readily mobilize around land issues, thereby making land and resources therein the foundation for many disagreements. Nonetheless, relentless expansion in urbanization, population growth, and climate change are causing significant shortages in the supply of essential natural resources. Intense competition for the resources has created a need for strategies that accommodate multiple interests and respond to changing needs of the people. The availability of low-cost digital mapping technology has created a unique opportunity to explore novel, spatially driven participatory mapping strategies for managing natural resource conflicts and prevent the disputes from escalating into violent clashes. Besides mapping, the participatory mapping projects create platforms for adversarial parties to meet, exchange views, and learn to develop trust for each other to prepare them for consensus over divisive issues. This chapter provides an overview of natural resources and explains how the growing environmental threats and demand for natural resources has increased the frequency and intensity of resource conflicts, rendered traditional resource management strategies ineffective, thereby necessitating the search for new strategies for managing resource conflicts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, USA

    Peter A. Kwaku Kyem

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Kyem, P.A.K. (2021). Natural Resources, Conflict of Interests, and Their Management. In: Managing Natural Resource Conflicts with Participatory Mapping and PGIS Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74166-2_1

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