Livelihood Conflicts: Linking poverty and environment as causes of conflict, Leif Ohlsson, SIDA, 2000

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" Without environmental protection, there will be no sustainable development, and no successful poverty reduction. We are gradually beginning to understand how environmental issues are linked to other development issues, and just how decisive the management of environmental resources is for people's livelihoods. Sida's efforts to promote environmentally sustainable development are based on an increasingly complex analysis of the role of environmental issues in development cooperation. This type of analysis constantly needs both further refinement and broadening into new areas. What sometimes has been called " The new security agenda" constitutes a new area of this kind. In order to contribute towards conflict prevention, we need more knowledge about the mechanisms that link loss of livelihoods, environmental degradation, and resource scarcities to conflicts.

The aim of this publication is to share some thoughts provoked by ongoing research in this field, and to summarise insights gained. The field of investigation is wide, and does not easily lend itself to summary. Interested readers will find further material in the references. Additional material, can be found in the parallell Sida publication (in Swedish) "Sambanden mellan miljö och konflikter" (The links between environment and conflict). Dr. Leif Ohlsson is responsible for the text. He is a researcher at the Department of Peace and Development Research, University of Göteborg.

Mats Segnestam

Head of Sida’s Environment Policy Division "

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