ENVIRONMENT: Report Points to a Link Between Mountains and Conflict

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Oct 24 2002 (IPS) - Nobody suggests that a step towards world peace might be for people living in the mountains to move down to the plains. But experts are suggesting that the mountains are more prone to conflict than the plains, and they want the world to see why.

When most people think of mountains they think of tourism. But a new correlation between mountains and conflict is brought out in a report Mountain Watch produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC).

"The report shows that globally approximately 41 per cent of mountain land has fallen within the radius of a high intensity human conflict between 1946 and 2001, compared with 26 per cent of non-mountain land," says Adrian Newton, lead author of the report. A war is defined as a conflict in which at least 1000 battle deaths a year occurred for at least one year between 1946 and 2001.

Mountain Watch is a preliminary report, and the link between mountains and conflict is an early one. But a lot of people associated with the report are looking at the reasons behind this link. "Mountain dwellers are traditionally independent of people downstream, they like to live away from the big brother in big cities," Andrei Iatsenia, UNEP mountain programme coordinator told IPS. "Could this be leading to conflicts?"

Iatsenia explored other factors in a chat with IPS. "Out of 29 conflict zones declared by the United Nations Secretary-General, more than 20 are in mountain areas," he said. "Clearly, that is disproportionately higher. When you look at rainforests or coastal areas, you have a competition for resources, but there is also an abundance of resources. In mountains less than 5 per cent of land is suitable for irrigation."

There is fierce competition for this, he said. "There is erosion, and access to resources is limited," he said. "So there is more pressure in fragile systems, and therefore a higher danger of conflict. It is not easy to commute to employment; you have to develop work locally."

Mark Collins, director of UNEP-WCMC admits that "we do not have all the answers why this is the case." Also, he told IPS, "not all conflicts have been mapped." But there is little doubt that mountains are more likely to be scenes of serious armed conflict.

Take Afghanistan, or the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Or the Balkans. Extensive areas have also been affected by conflict in Eurasia and Southeast Asia. "The highest level of mountain land that has witnessed war is in Africa where 67 per cent has been impacted by high intensity conflict," the report says.

The report itself offers some explanations for conflicts in mountains that may find commonality despite the huge differences in the political causes of conflict between Afghanistan, Africa and the Balkans. "Despite the intensification of agriculture in mountain regions, these lands are less suitable for growing crops than more low land areas," the report says. "This allied to environmental degradation may play a role in increasing the risk of armed conflict in mountain regions."

Evidence suggests that civil wars, rather than interstate wars, may be more likely in mountain regions, the report says. "Mountains give strategic advantage to insurgents by providing places of refuge," it says. "Mountainous terrain hinders road building, thereby restricting law enforcement. A lack of infrastructure can therefore make insurgent civil war more likely or prolonged." On the other hand in a place like the Netherlands where there would be nowhere to hide, says Iatsenia.

Competition for natural resources intensifies as populations increase and access to resources improves through the development of infrastructure. "In countries dependent on natural resources for income, competition between powerful elites over ‘lootable resources’ such as timber and minerals can lead to prolonged civil strife," the report says.

Many mountain areas are also centres of narcotics production, which can also lead to armed conflict," the report says. "The role that mountains play in water provision may become the focus of increasing conflict in future."

But conflict damages the environment, just as the environment creates conditions for conflict. Three decades of armed conflict in Afghanistan has resulted in the environment suffering heavy damage from military activity, refugee movements, over-exploitation of natural resources, and lack of management and institutional capacity, the report says. Three years of drought have added further pressure.

More than 60 per cent of the land surface of Afghanistan consists of mountains and hills. "The forests have been important refuges for threatened wildlife populations, including Asiatic black bear, Persial leopard, Caspian tiger and Bactrian deer," the report says. "Afghanistan has lost up to 30 per cent of its forests in the past 20 years and the Caspian tiger and Bactrian deer are thought to be extinct from there."

In Africa armies rely on forests to provide food for them, and they can also trade in endangered species, says a UNEP official.

The environmental impacts of wars can be substantial, the report points out. Military operations can directly result in environmental degradation, overexploitation of natural resources and increased pollution.

Wars also often result in the migration of large numbers of people, resulting in increased pressure on natural resources, for example around refugee camps. Conflicts can also have major impacts on biodiversity, as a result of habitat destruction, pollution, increased harvesting of species and disruption of migration routes.

Mountains can also prevent conflict, but given the nature of prevention, this role becomes difficult to quantify. Many national boundaries occur within mountain regions and can become the focus of interstate conflict, but "mountains also form a barrier to invasion, and are inherently easier to defend than lowland areas," the report says.

Policies to prevent conflicts and rebuild post-conflict societies in mountains should seek to strengthen local decision-making and improve sustainable livelihood options for local communities, the report says.

ENVIRONMENT: Report Points to a Link Between Mountains and Conflict

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Oct 24 2002 (IPS) - Nobody suggests that a step towards world peace might be for people living in the mountains to move down to the plains. But experts are suggesting that the mountains are more prone to conflict than the plains, and they want the world to see why.
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