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| A child is put to work at a militia-run mine in Watsa. |
The Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) in South Central Africa has a very long history of
conflict. Although the DRC escaped its Belguim colonial government when it
gained independence in 1960, the country has since suffered from a great deal
of internal conflict. A series of conflicts sparked in the 1990’s, and tensions
are only now beginning to dissipate. In accordance with many of the class
readings, environmental factors play a great role in the reoccurrence and
severity of these violent conflicts and thereby, must play a role in
peacekeeping efforts. Furthermore, environmental condition is sensitively entangled
with economic conditions, which are clearly also independently related to
conflict outbreaks. Recent large-scale sustainable energy project proposals
offer a potential start to mitigating climate change, decreasing conflict, and
sustainably developing the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The DRC is plagued
with a variety of violent rebel groups that create a confusing web of conflict,
most notably including ethnic tensions from both within the DRC as well as from
fleeing rebels after the Rwandan genocide. However, one unifying certainty is the
rebel groups’ unanimous interest in the DRC’s impressive resource wealth. Rebel
groups control mines and feed raw materials into the world’s biggest
electronics and jewelry companies. Tragically, the profits only finance chaos
and do nothing for the poverty stricken communities. Although the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) implemented a Conflict Minerals Rule in the past
few years in an attempt to stop the funding of rebel groups, this has proven to
be difficult mostly due to the massive number of corrupt and small-scale
illegal ‘informal’ mines. Congolese communities are intensely dependent upon
the mining activities as a means of subsistence. However, Lahiri-Dutt points
out that the only ‘lawful’ official impact of ‘legitimate’ mines for the local
communities is large-scale displacement without compensation. (Lahiri-Dutt 19)
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| The Rubaya camp in North Kivu Province is home to 50,000 people uprooted by fighting between the government and M23, a Rwanda-backed rebel group. |
Climate change
intensifies conflict through a variety of chain reactions. In Climate change, rainfall, and social
conflict in Africa, Hendrix and Salehyan cite the IPCC climate scenarios
consensuses that northern and southern Africa will become significantly dryer,
while eastern Africa will be significantly wetter. (46) The DRC’s southern
location makes it prone to resource scarcity conflict issues during the
impending droughts. This will place pressure on the agriculture economy, and
their low adaptive capacity will only pronounce those impacts, including
different levels of political conflict. (Hendrix 46) IPCC climate projections
expect increased rainfall in eastern Africa, causing runoffs, flooding and will
likely devastate the already minimal infrastructure (i.e. roads). More
importantly, Hendrix and Salehyan’s main findings conclude that extreme,
increased rainfall events have the strongest relationship with violent conflict
events. The eastern part of the DRC has already been afflicted with violent
rebel activity around a concentration of mineral resources. The recent decrease
in tensions (since the disintegration of the M23 rebels) is still far too
vulnerable in the east and cannot afford any additional stressors.
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| A boy waits his turn for spoonfuls of rice and beans in Pluto. In some areas of eastern Congo up to 40 percent of gold miners are children, often forcibly recruited by militias. |
The DRC’s specific
resource curse condition is extremely multifaceted and will need many varying
solutions in varying disciplines. However, the recent sustainable energy
investment projects in Southern Africa offers the potential to make substantial
long-term improvements towards true political and social stability. The World
Bank’s approval of these projects will expand electricity access to the 83% of
the population currently without electricity. This is critical for poverty
reduction efforts by attracting investments, expanding exports and creating
jobs. This will diversify the export industry past conflict minerals and offer
communities truly conflict-free job opportunities. The World Bank’s press
release also states that it “will provide support for brokering and finalizing
cross-border, technical and commercial agreements in order to attract
sufficient private sector financing.” This has the potential of resolving the
Rwandan-DRC border concerns by collaboratively addressing rebel activity.
One of the
projects is the Inga 3 BC Hydropower Development project in the DRC. The DRC is
estimated to have the third largest hydropower potential after China and
Russia. The project will strengthen the DRC’s institutional capability, expand
growth, and offer one of the most affordable sources of energy in Africa. The
electricity generation potential is projected to provide a surplus that will be
sold to “credit-worthy business and other regional users”. Inga 3 BC has a
smaller footprint compared to hydropower projects of the same capacity, thereby
coinciding with the DRC’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emission
contributions to climate change. The investments in more environmentally
sustainable energy projects will decrease biomass deforestation activity and
increase food security with alternative agriculture opportunities.
The environment’s
role in causing violent conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo must be
equally prominent in ending violent conflict. Sustainable energy projects offer
alternative means of economic growth, which will alleviate dependence upon
lootable resource excavation for subsistence and reduce poverty. The DRC’s
resource curse is still multifaceted and multidisciplinary. Luckily, there are multifaceted
solutions that are still harmonious between all of the related disciplines.
Works Cited
World Bank Press Release, “DRC: World Bank to help reduce
greenhouse gas emissions with improved forest landscape management and
innovative investments.”
World Bank Press Release, “World Bank Program to Help
Increase Investment in Large-scale Sustainable Energy Projects in Southern
Africa.”
World Bank Press Release, “World Bank Group Supports DRC
with Technical Assistance for Preparation of Inga 3 BC Hydropower Development.”
All photographs by Marcus Bleasdale with National Geographic
Great post, Susan. The only question I have is, how do you propose companies and honest firms come to operate in the DRC, if its government has very weak oversight capability and a corrupt financial sector? Don't you think this envrionment will attract dishonest and predatory companies that are not concerned with the environment, and instead are only concerned with operations that will offer quick profits in a context where rules are barely enforced? This could perhpaps be much worse for the environment...
ReplyDeleteI definitely think your concerns are legitimate and explain the continuation of 'colonialism' in the financial sector of the DRC. That is why I think it is very important to have an outside entity, such as the UN, hold the government and organizations accountable with economic transparency and incentives. The UN and the US are both actually very active in the oversight of the DRC with contingencies such as a fair and legitimate election in 2016. One real benefit to the DRC is that their resources are extremely valuable to many large organizations that are held under agreements to keep their resource chain transparent. So pressure from the consumer to keep their products 'conflict free' are also pressuring all entities down the chain to becoming 'conflict free'. There will be demand for the cheaper rebel minerals but to a lesser and lesser degree, at least while the UN and US are directly involved in the development of the DRC.
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