Resource information
This article describes the effects of conflict on the environment and environmental management, focussing on Lesotho, a country historically affected by environmental degradation problems such as devegetation, soil erosion, and desertification. It outlines the history of environmental projects in the country and ways in which a lack of attention to conflict has prevented them from working.Its exposition of the history of resource management projects in Lesotho reveals that:attempts by both the British and post-colonial governments to manage land use were viewed as repression or infringement of rights by people in the villages who used the land later competition for limited resources manifested itself in conflict between neighbouring communities successive projects aimed at curbing soil erosion in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s failed because they were not supported by local farmers, and so were not maintained after the termination of the government intervention.Focussing on the National Environmental Youth Corps Project, a programme for environmental rehabilitation and management by unemployed youths set up in 1992, the article notes that this project appeared well-designed and ensured community participation. But there were several problems: the selection of only 20 per cent of the villages’ youths to implement the project was a source of conflict, since the youths were paid an allowance for their work. These positions were highly sought after, as they were in areas experiencing high poverty and unemploymentalthough it was initially planned to transfer the rehabilitated land to the youth groups, village elders reneged on this plan once it had become apparent how valuable the (previously degraded and valueless) land had become the conflict within the village hindered its environmental impact; for instance, villagers drove animals over soil conservation structures built by the youth group, and village elders took no action to curb such behaviour in more than half the sites, the initial objectives of putting some of the rehabilitated lands back into production were never realised there was conflict between traditional village chiefs and elected members of Village Development Councils, which tended to be elected on political lines; ambiguity over which had the right to allocate land for environmental programmes divided villagers over whether to support or obstruct the programmes. The article concludes that planners, environmentalists and development agents need to be equipped with conflict management skills, and to take into account social conflicts such as those between traditional and elected leaders, when planning and implementing environment management problems.
