Medeshi Sept 26, 2008Somaliland
From Plunder to Prosperity: Resolving Resource-Based Conflict in Somaliland
Abstract :
After decades of political upheaval in the Somali region, land tenure systems in Somaliland lie in grim disarray. Years of civil war steadily eroded traditional systems of managing land and resources and resolving conflict, the Somaliland government has been unable to fully restore or replace these systems, and poverty is extensive throughout. Together, these three factors have provided the conditions for a scramble for dwindling natural resources that now poses a great threat to the people of Somaliland, to her environment, to economic growth and to prospects for lasting peace. Agriculture, both rain-fed and irrigated, for food crops and fodder, is slowly eating away grazing land. The Diaspora and other returnees are bringing newly acquired enthusiasm for the business of sedentary agriculture, while livestock herders turn to farming out of desperation. As agriculture expands its hold over the countryside, pastoralists and farmers are increasingly coming into conflict over scarce land and water. The devastated rural economy, victim of war, drought and the livestock export ban, drives the rural poor to any means necessary for survival. Forests, one of the few remaining resources in Somaliland left to exploit, are now falling at ecologically suicidal rates at the hands of loggers and charcoal burners. Somaliland takes great pride in its traditional modes of conflict resolution based on the intervention of elders respected for their wisdom and experience, but traditional systems are becoming increasingly untenable in the face of the many conflicts over natural resources and their varied and complex nature, often beyond the scope of traditional intervention.
Abstract :
After decades of political upheaval in the Somali region, land tenure systems in Somaliland lie in grim disarray. Years of civil war steadily eroded traditional systems of managing land and resources and resolving conflict, the Somaliland government has been unable to fully restore or replace these systems, and poverty is extensive throughout. Together, these three factors have provided the conditions for a scramble for dwindling natural resources that now poses a great threat to the people of Somaliland, to her environment, to economic growth and to prospects for lasting peace. Agriculture, both rain-fed and irrigated, for food crops and fodder, is slowly eating away grazing land. The Diaspora and other returnees are bringing newly acquired enthusiasm for the business of sedentary agriculture, while livestock herders turn to farming out of desperation. As agriculture expands its hold over the countryside, pastoralists and farmers are increasingly coming into conflict over scarce land and water. The devastated rural economy, victim of war, drought and the livestock export ban, drives the rural poor to any means necessary for survival. Forests, one of the few remaining resources in Somaliland left to exploit, are now falling at ecologically suicidal rates at the hands of loggers and charcoal burners. Somaliland takes great pride in its traditional modes of conflict resolution based on the intervention of elders respected for their wisdom and experience, but traditional systems are becoming increasingly untenable in the face of the many conflicts over natural resources and their varied and complex nature, often beyond the scope of traditional intervention.
Read full report at : From Plunder to Prosperity: Resolving Resource-Based Conflict in Somaliland
