Conflicts

Tabe’a III addresses the status and trends in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in the Arab region during the period from 2015 to 2019. This review was conducted in the context of emerging global trends and priorities associated with the World Heritage Convention, as well as other related global natural heritage platforms and programmes.

Des zones côtières d'une grande valeur subissent les pressions de plus en plus fortes de la pollution, de la croissance démographique et du tourisme. La demande croissante de ressources côtières qui, elles, sont limitées, engendre des conflits entre des groupes d'utilisateurs concurrents.

Conflict and conservation focuses on armed conflict and nature. The theme is highly timely as armed conflicts cause great economic and social harm, as well as environmental damage around the world. Conflicts have stretched societies to their limits in terms of financial and human resources. Lives and property have been lost and disrupted, livelihoods destroyed, and people displaced.

This report details multiple legal breaches by Malaysian palm oil producer Radiant Lagoon near the UNESCO-protected Gunung Mulu National Park, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.

Cranes have coexisted with agriculture for centuries in some regions and may often benefit from cropland or grazing. However, the rapid expansion and intensification of agriculture is leading to severe loss of wetland and grassland habitats important to cranes, thus increasing the conflicts between cranes and farmers. Agriculture has been one of the main drivers behind severe population declines for 11 of 15 species of cranes in the world, and affects all species in one way or another.

The world increasingly relies on groundwater resources for drinking water and the provision of food for a growing population. The utilization of aquifer systems also extends beyond freshwater supply to include other resources such as heat extraction and the storage and disposal of substances. This volume is unique in focusing exclusively on conflicts over groundwater and aquifers.

Some two dozen countries are already classified as water-scarce, and this-as areas as diverse as Israel, southern California and even the Netherlands know - is not a problem confined to the South. Already, as this book shows, fresh-water shortages are becoming a major cause of conflict both domestically and between states. In the future, the growing world population, further spread of irrigated agriculture and industrialization will all make increasing demands on scarce water resources.