• Energy Research
• political science close
• 2. Zero hunger close

Despite strong interest and conflict research spanning multiple disciplines, connections between water flows and conflicts remain unclear, due to incomplete datasets on water-related conflict-cooperation events and poor understanding of socioeconomic and biophysical causes of such conflicts. The dataset on water-related conflict-cooperation events compiled in this study extends to 2019, updating previous datasets that covered only up to 2008, yielding important new insights on cooperation-conflict trends. Global and regional trends were analyzed using the new events dataset, together with changes in hydroclimatic variables and population density. The analysis revealed that water-related cooperation was far more common than conflicts across all regions, in both drier and wetter climates, indicating that abundance and lack of water can both promote cooperation. However, conflict events were more common in drier climates where water is scarcer. This cooperation-conflict balance shifted in the 2000s, with conflict events increasing, to outnumber cooperation events in 2017. The main shift occurred in Africa and Asia, where increased conflicts in Africa coincided with a prolonged period of below-average precipitation and severe drought, while the shift in Asia coincided with increased evapotranspiration caused by human activities and increased population density. Differences between regions were confirmed by event descriptions, with events in Africa relating to water access and farmer-herder conflicts, and events in Asia relating to irrigation and dam construction. These differences highlight the need for regional-scale analysis of water-related conflict-cooperation trends and pathways. With climate change and human activities expected to increase, the increasing trend in conflict events could persist, with water resources becoming a more frequent cause of future conflict. Identifying these complex cooperation-conflict changes is vital in determining future actions required to reduce conflict events and promote cooperation on water.

A large number of governance interventions are being developed in order to reduce deforestation and enhance the sustainability of commodity supply chains across the tropics. The extent to which individual agricultural commodity supply chain interventions can achieve scale, and environmental or social objectives, depends in part on the ways in which those interventions interact with other interventions. We use a case-study of the new Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) cattle certification program in Brazil to explore the different ways in which governance interventions interact. We examine the broad landscape of policies and programs that affect sustainability in the cattle supply chain in Brazil, and assess whether such interventions support or constrain the scaling up of the SAN cattle program. We conducted semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders from government, private sector, and civil society organizations. We found that multiple interventions are acting in a complementary manner to enhance sustainability and therefore enable the scaling up of the SAN program, by aiding compliance with environmental laws, adoption of good production practices, and improved monitoring. At the same time, limited development, implementation, and complementarity of some interventions could be antagonistic to the SAN program's expansion because they maintain a context in which many actors operate far below the sustainability criteria required by the program. Our holistic approach enables us to identify specific gaps in the complex landscape of governance interventions in Brazil. Greater strategic complementarity and coordination between interventions may catalyze a more coherent and effective pathway to reduced deforestation and enhanced sustainability.

AbstractFood security remains a critical global issue, made more difficult because of the rising world population, climate challenges affecting food production and a focus on market-based solutions that undermine subsistence production in vulnerable rural areas. Particularly affected are countries across Asia where poverty, hunger and malnourishment affect a significant proportion of the population. Drawing on Sen’s entitlement theory, we argue that a shift in focus from national food production to intra-household food access enables a critical reflection on consumption smoothing strategies adopted at this level. In particular, we draw attention to the tendency for women and girls to eat less as an intra-household adaptation strategy. We present findings from our research in rural areas of Bangladesh and note that adaptation strategies adopted by households in response to food insecurity. We note that strategies designed to address food insecurity must include gender mainstreaming to ensure that women and...

Corn-based ethanol can make a dent in demand for oil, but at what price? Food costs go up. Environmental damage worsens. If oil prices fall, ethanol production will probably collapse-as it did 20 years ago.

Abstract. Turkana, in northwest Kenya, is the country's poorest and least developed county. Pastoralism in Turkana is well adapted to the harsh climatic conditions but an increase in drought frequency associated with global climate change and intensifying violent conflicts between pastoral groups, poses significant challenges for local communities. The conflicts are especially violent in the border region between the Turkana and the Pokot communities. In this very region significant oil reserves have been found recently. The first aim of this paper is to analyse how the oil exploration affects the communities' vulnerability to climate change. Secondly, the paper explores the risk of the oil explorations to create new conflicts or aggravate existing ones. The primary method of the study is qualitative field research supplemented with a geo-spatial analysis of conflict data. The field research was conducted in October 2013 and April 2014 in three villages with different levels of engagement with the oil exploration. At the time of the research, oil exploration was expected close to Lokwamosing while it had recently started in the vicinity of Lopii and had been ongoing for a longer time close to Nakukulas. The findings suggest that the oil exploration increases the community's vulnerability to climate change. Further, unmet community expectations for water, employment and development pose a significant risk for violent conflict between local communities and the operating oil company. Intercommunal conflict over water and land could increase as well.

There is currently no scientific evidence regarding the current climatic or other epidemiological factors that could influence the occurrence of heartwater in South Africa.The objective was to determine whether climatic changes or other epidemiological factors influence the occurence of heartwater in South Africa.A survey was conducted to scrutinise these factors using both veterinarians and farmers working in known areas in which heartwater had previously been confirmed to establish the value of each of these factors. Based on the observations, meaningful tendencies were noted, and conclusions drawn.These include changes in the spatial distribution of heartwater in many areas, with serious expansion, in some instances, of up to 150 km. In total, 48% of veterinarians and 42% of farmers reported seeing increase in the number of farms affected by heartwater. Climate change as a causative factor indicated by observations of increased average temperatures, milder frosts, less rain and shorter rainy seasons was identified by the majority of farmers but not by as many veterinarians. Respondents in both groups considered vegetation change an important factor. Increasing number of wildlife, especially antelope, was seen as a major factor by most veterinarians and also by many farmers. Both groups identified the movement of livestock and wildlife as an increasingly important factor that should be of major concern for both industries because it leads to the avoidable spread of many diseases apart from heartwater.Movement controls should be reinstated and reinforced by vigorously enforced legislation. The role of genetically determined resistance or resilience to heartwater infection in ruminants should be investigated. Breeding better adapted animals could provide part of a sustainable approach to the disease.

This paper scrutinized the links between social status and income of rural households to provide insight into how social status is indicated and used as a strategy for improving livelihood income. It also provides a brief look into some selected key determinants of livelihood income. We applied a two-stage least-squares estimation to household-level data from rural areas in the Tigray regional state of Ethiopia. We also proposed the latent class analysis model to identify the number of classes for the variable “social status”. The results indicate that livelihood income is significantly affected by households’ social status, indicating that high status household heads tend to enhance their participation in different social networks with the intention of strengthening the social bonds that they have and improving their status in the community, which in turn has an economic payback. Apart from this, household heads’ access to off-farm work, size of owned land, exposure to multimedia, livestock ownership and spatial proximity to towns were the variables that have significant positive effects on livelihood income.

Abstract Global climate change affects hydrology and ecology, and aggravates the contradiction between water resources supply and demand, thus leading to transboundary water conflict and cooperation attracting increasing attention. This paper uses the precipitation data sourced from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre, hydropolitical data collected from the Transboundary Freshwater Disputes Database and, for approximately half a century of socioeconomic indicator for countries, to discuss the relationship between precipitation change and transboundary hydropolitics. As demonstrated by the panel regression results, lower precipitation would lead to more water conflicts and more significant change of precipitation would lead to more water hydropolitical events. This result remains robust after adjustment being made to the defined thresholds of conflict and cooperation. The findings suggest that the countries in a transboundary river ought to avoid conflict and seek more cooperation, considering the uncertain prospect of precipitation changes.