ABSTRACT
High-value natural resources—such as timber, minerals, and opium—are often sources of tension and violence during post-conflict transition periods. Resource production areas and trade routes are commonly hot spots for armed groups, including security forces that have been demobilized but not disarmed and reintegrated; they also tend to be theaters for clashes between competing groups that run protection rackets for illegal activities. Armed groups rely on resource sectors for survival; they may also engage in resource-related human rights abuses—as, for example, when security forces forcibly displace local residents or migrant workers, or compel them to engage in forced labor in order to open up land for resource projects.
