Environment on Darfur After the Conflict Essay

The world has experient a striation of struggles for preferably a desire time end-to-end history. All the time in that respect is a difference, the ab rehearses set about is for the most part attested in terms of how more casualties view been account, and the impact it has ca apply on the economy. It is thus far r be to hear people talking on the effects these contraventions keister arrest on the inse conservation of parityble milieu or which steps work been taken to protect the natural milieu from such(prenominal) employments. The natural surroundings for a huge time has been a silent victim of the conflicts that occurs both locally or internationally leaving the repercussions to be felt for quite some time.In more cases, the impact the struggle and se paritytrooperte conflicts come been having on the surround has been generally actually devastating. thither argon m whatsoever an(prenominal) pollutants that be released in the environment during the war which bottom of the inning end up pushing the natural resources. On the another(prenominal) hand, on that point atomic number 18 other natural resources that are depleted during the conflict leaving the environment at a worse position. A study puzzle is that most of the occurrent conflicts are witnessed in the developing countries which do not consider the scotch capacity to deal with the environmental problems hence causing a major frozenback.Africa has had quite long cases of civil wars some which started during the colonial period and however fetching place to now. These countries get hold of been mostly been armed combat all over the borders which were displace by the colonial powers for their on interests. just about of the wars taking place in Africa are as a cause of fighting for natural resources such as rich farming disembark or piss. repayable to the long history of these civil wars in Africa, it is difficult to know exactly what these confli cts induce ca utilise to the environment.However, looking at the order of the loss of biodiversity in the affected regions, it attain the sack be easy to realize how serious the occurrence has left-hand(a) the damage to the environment. Darfur Conflict and the Impact It Has Ca utilize on the Environment S come inhern Sudan has witnessed along civil war that has caused more nations through the United Nations body and the Afri fuel consent to try and broker peace in the region and bring things to the regulation function. The conflict that is cosmos witnessed in the region right now is considered as a war between the different ethnic and tribal lines (IRIN, para 2).The sides that are mostly conflicting are the government activitys multitude and the Janjaweed classify. in that respect are other rebel groups that founder also do the situation to be worse. The major cause of the war in Sudan has been attributed to fighting for water between the Baggara nomads who moved to the southernmost, a region mostly booked by the farming communities to search for water. This conflict has led to many casualties universe reported throughout. Despite putting in place a government of national unity, and increasing the presence of the African Union Peace keepers, the situation has not improved in any way (Borger, para 2).There imbibe been many reasons given as a source to the Darfur conflict, though the major reasons have been cited to be the increasing population which the current natural resources can not hold, hence do these people to fight for the meagerly resources. On the other hand, there have been claims that the conflict is as a result of the Arab dominants intention to wipe out the swart Africans. This has even do the United States to refer to this as a form of genocide in the area. Whichever the cause of the war, it has caused so many untold damages.The focus on this conflict has ever so been the come in of people who have died in the region, o r the number of those displaced. It is grave that peoples life and welfare is put beginning(a). This is what has been the major concern of many bodies, brass sections and other nations. However, standardised many other conflicts, littler concern has put on what effect this conflict is causing to the environment (AP, para 6). As earlier argued, the war in Sudan was triggered by the environmental problems which led to the communities to fight over just resources.It is however a harassment trend that the continued conflict is further endangering the environment that is supposed to harbor the whole population. The environment has been do worse by this conflict and made the land to become uninhabitable. This means that the tension between the conflicting communities gets to be more intense when it occurs that the natural resources are not going to admit all of them as expected (Beyrer, & Pizer pp 67). environmental degradation in Darfur has been on the rise repayable to the continued conflict.It means that the conflict that started as a result of the environmental problems is macrocosm escalated by destroying the environment further. The issues in Sudan over the environment indicate how complex the environmental matters can be in the causing breach to peace. This region has witnessed the decreased cases of traditional methods of environmental management systems, and in some places being disregarded completely. The conflict over resources in Darfur was at a local level but grow to national level where political and economic marginalization was heightened.Ethnic differences have contributed to making the matters worse to the situation. Therefore, despite having the political and economic factors leading to the problems in Darfur, the major issue surrounds natural resources (de Montesquiou, para 8). The Sudanese Arabs moved to the south to look for pasture for their animals due to the prolonged drought that was experient in their regions. This led to t hem conflicting with the black farmers whose land the Arabs were grazing on. The grazing of the animals on the farming land worsened the situation as there was increase soil erosion which made land to be poor for farming.When the black farmers realized that the Khartoum government was indifferent in solving the matter, they rebelled against them. By rebelling, the people started to fight destroying many manmade and natural resources that were on the way (Borger, para 7). When the nomads inhabited the farming areas, they started to sawed-off down the channelises. To the farmers, the cut trees were very consequential as they admitd shade for their crops and holding together the soil to avoid erosion. Due to the conflict of interest, these grand natural resources were destroyed as they were caught in between the fighting.With no trees cover, the problem of lack of rain expunge becomes even heightened, which is a outsize trouble to both the farmers and the nomads since they cannot be able to get rain that is important for the crops and animals respectively. Due to the bare land caused by the cutting of the trees, it has become harder for the farmers at the refugee camps to go back to their homes as they can not carry out any meaningful activities to such bare lands. With this kind of the situation, it becomes difficult to fake human suffering without further harm to the environment (HPN, para 3) galore(postnominal) people have been killed in the conflict while millions of others have been spiritedness in the camps after being left homeless. At the camps, the refugees need to be given their basic needs. Water is a very important good that no human beings can do without. In fact as argued throughout, the conflict has been surrounding fighting for water resources. Therefore, while at the camps, the refugees have to be provided with water. This has led to the humanitarian organizations to dig boreholes to help the refugees get water.Considering that the land in Darfur is largely dominated by hard rocks, it means that the rains that fall in the short season mostly wash away, hence, the boreholes depends on the metro reserves. Considering the rate at which the reserves are being used, it is tough to call back the consequences that await the Darfur people when the reserves go away finally be depleted. The situation talent lead to the refugees being moved to another region that can support them. There are already some areas that have reported the drying up of the boreholes. Apart from water, the refugees also need other resources for their daily work.There have been many trees that have been cut by the refugees near the camps to provide them with firewood. The trees are also cut and used to construct and reinforce the makeshift houses of the refugees. This implies that trees are being used at a higher rate than they are being replaced. There are some refugees who are confused in some economic activities. The common economic activity t hat the refugees are involved with is making mud bricks. The refugees are involved with this activity mostly because it does not need skilled labor, and the materials are readily available. A sight of water is usually used in the making of the bricks.A lot of water is used considering the dryness on most of the camp soils. Furthermore, since the refugees regard to make a lot of m unmatchedy, they try to make as many bricks as possible. The more work they do, the many materials are required. The areas that the soil for making the bricks is dug usually leaves many holes indicating the rate at which the soil is being depleted. The formation of a layer of soil takes many years, however, the refugees depletes many layers in a very short time. It is very bad to notice that the fertile soils that can be used for agricultural production is actually used for the making bricks.These soils can not be replenished in the short represent as it is being depleted. In the areas that the refugees remove the soils to make the bricks, they leave the tree roots exposed which contributes to the wilting of the trees (Homer-Dixon, pp 19). Therefore, this still adds the woes the refuges already have. Furthermore, since to make the bricks requires a lot of water, it means that the refugees have to compete on how to use the water for the domestic work and the production of the bricks. In the end, the action contributes to the hastened depletion of the water resources.The bricks cannot be complete if they have not been burnt in the kiln. The kiln requires using a lot of firewood. This means several trees have to be felled to be used in the kiln. One kiln can take as many as 35 trees for the bricks to be ready. This shows the impact this single activity can have on the important natural resources. There have been increased guts dunes in the areas that had once been covered by trees just a a few(prenominal) years ago. This is all because of the refugees activities in trying to earn a living. Most of the dams in Sudan are drying and having a lot of sedimentation as a result of deforestation.Many dams have lost their holding capacity due to these reasons (HPN, para 8). Once the war comes to an end as is presupposed, the refugees will have to go back to their homes to start a new life. They will first need to rebuild their damaged homes, which will basically require that they cut more trees to build these homes. Considering the already cut trees in their former homes, there are therefore no trees left behind to cater for their needs. This implies the expression materials will have to be sourced somewhere else, which automatically will be increasing the base of the damage to other regions.Having realized the impact the conflict is leading to the refugees affecting the environment, especially on trees, several organizations like the US aid have helped the refugees to design the cooking stoves that uses a completely trim back amount of fuel as a way of the saving th e environment. This stoves though taken as a move to save the environment, it has a largish impact on the social and cultural life (de Montesquiou, para 11). Since the conflict is between two ethnic groups with two distinct lifestyles, each group undertakes an activity that they think will destroy the other.For instance, the nomads usually graze their animals on the farmers crops. This leaves the farmers with nothing as their crops are destroyed by the animals. On the other hand, the farmers on their side burn the grazing lands for the nomads. This is even a worse action to take as it does not only affect the nomads in terms of lacking food, but it affects the farmers themselves in that the burning of the ground destroys the important living organisms that are found in the soil which helps in change the soil fertility. This means that the soil is left unproductive which will affect both the nomads and the farmers in the long run.Furthermore, the nomads are used to grazing their an imals and mournful from integrity region to another after the feeds in that area have reduced. However, due to the conflict, the migration routes for the nomads were blocked by the farmers. This made it impossible for the nomads to move from one region to another with their animals, hence meaning overgrazing in one region. The overgrazed areas will generally have very poor production as there will be increased soil erosion (Homer-Dixon, pp 29). In general, humanitarian issues are usually given much priority over the environment as a short term solution to any crisis.Therefore, some(prenominal) actions that are taken by the involved bodies do not give much or even any rumination to the environment. For instance, when the refugee camps are set up, it is aimed at providing security and a better life to the refugees. No consideration is put on what activities the refugees are going to carry out that might affect the environment whether in the long or short run. This is being evidenc ed by the number of boreholes drying up in various refugee camps (HPN, para 16). There are hundreds of thousands of the Darfur refugees who have been granted asylum in Chad.The Chadian locals are thus forced to compete for the natural resources in their territory with the refugees. Putting in mind the activities the refugees are engaged with, and the major aims of the organization that are associated with the taking precaution of the refugees which are just humanitarian care, the refugees can have a very big impact on the environment of the army country. The refugees in the camps hopes for someday to go back home. This implies they cannot have long term projects that will help in the development and taking care of the region that has granted them asylum.This might make them to be at loggerheads with the host country and thus be denied the asylum (Gouroukoun, para 7). Furthermore, as the refugees go in the Chadian soil, it is not guaranteed that they have their safety. The Janjaw eed have been following the refugees in their camps contend them. This has also posed danger to the Chadian nationals making them to move nestled to where there is security in their country. In essence, the Chadian people are not even free in their own land because of hosting the refugees.As the Chadian moves to the place they feel is more secure, they also cause congestion and constraint to the resources that are supposed to host them. There are many other effects that the conflict has caused to the environment. As the conflict rages on, both sides are heavily armed. The weapons used to attack one group leave a lot of damages to the environment. For instance, there have been many crops, homesteads and the grazing suit for each group that have been burnt by the opposing group. The oils and chemicals used to burn these properties, and the residue of the burnt products find their ways into the water bodies sordid them.This on the other hand affects the lives in the water bodies. Furthermore, as the crisis continues, weapons used like bombs have continued to pollute the environment and their effect left in the environment for along time affecting the quality of life. It is very difficult to find crops growing in a region that has experienced a battle field. This is because of the effect that the weapons and chemicals used in the process have on the environment. It is common to find that the areas that had been bombed can not sustain any agricultural activity.It thus means that as the communities fight over the scarce natural resources and keep on destroying them during the fight, it only helps in escalating the problem they are already facing (Homer-Dixon, pp 41). The Janjaweed and the other militias in the Darfur conflict are always in the hideout. Most of the hideouts are in the forests. This implies that they have to depend so much on the forests for their own needs. For instance, they have to cut down the trees to use for fuel, hunt wild animals for food , and all these activities upsets the natural environment settings.There are many regions that used to be occupied by trees and wild animals like the elephants and the antelopes but when looked at now are bare because of the activities that have been taking place in the regions. Conclusion The Darfur crisis has actually been said to have started for over three decades ago. However, it only escalated in 2003 when the current crisis became out of control. The major cause of the war has been attributed to lack of enough natural resources. The problem is that because the fights were due to the shield and the need to acquire more natural resources, it is ironical that the same resources are being destroyed.In essence, this seems to increase the problems already faced. This has created the vicious cycle of the war in the Darfur region. Therefore, unless the concerned bodies look for a way of dealing with the problem of these natural resources, it is not possible to stop this war despite the many peace agreements that might be signed by the leaders of the region. consort CitedAP. Darfur conflict worsens environment, 2007. Retrieved on October 29, 2008 from http//platform. blogs. com/passionofthepresent/2007/06/darfur-conflict. html. Beyrer, Chris & Pizer, Hank.Public Health and Human Rights Evidence-based Approaches ISBN 0801886465, JHU Press, 2007. Borger, Julian. Darfur conflict heralds era of wars triggered by climate change, UN report warns, 2007. Retrieved on October 29, 2008 from http//www. guardian. co. uk/environment/2007/jun/23/sudan. climatechange. de Montesquiou, Alfred. Darfur violence leaves environmental scars, 2007. Retrieved on October 29, 2008 from http//www. msnbc. msn. com/id/19357602/. IRIN. SUDAN Climate change only one cause among many for Darfur conflict, 2007. Retrieved on October 29, 2008 from http//www.globalsecurity. org/military/library/news/2007/06/mil-070628-irin03. htm. Gouroukoun. Chadians more and more Feel Impact of Darfur Conf lict, 2006. Retrieved on October 29, 2008 from http//www. voanews. com/english/archive/2006-04/2006-04-21-voa44. cfm. Homer-Dixon, F. Thomas. Environment, Scarcity, and Violence ISBN 0691089795, Princeton University Press, 2001. HPN. Environmental degradation and conflict in Darfur implications for peace and recovery, 2008. Retrieved on October 29, 2008 from http//www. alertnet. org/thenews/newsdesk/HPN/10adb58d76337a4eb2b436c319bf427e. htm.