ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a cursory survey of how different types of natural resources affect post-war environmental peacebuilding in order to demonstrate the importance of factoring in sustainable management of both renewable and non-renewable resources at the end of conflict. It explores how scholars are beginning to think about the relationship between renewable and non-renewable resources, and the ways those connections contribute to conflict and/or peace. The renewable resource most often associated with conflict and peacebuilding is water. The non-renewable resource most associated with conflict is oil. The chapter examines the role of forests and minerals – both singly and through their interactions – in contributing to conflict in West Africa, as well as how those resources should be utilized in the peacebuilding process. It contends that environmental peacebuilding as a field requires more research targeted at explicating how natural resource interplay impacts the risk of conflict as well as peacebuilding objectives.
