Tony Karbo, Ph.D, program officer for UPEACE, mentioned that changes in the environment can trigger conflict that can lead to violence. The change is an impact of the exploitation of natural resources, which in the end causes scarcity and damage of resources.
Tony Karbo said that there are several types of environmental change potential to produce conflict. Among those are climate change that is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, the diminishing supply of water, and the reduced quality of agricultural land due to land conversion. “Those changes will create tension, or even conflict, due to the scarcity of available environmental resources,†he explained on Monday (15/3) at Center for Security and Peace Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada(UGM).
He quoted Thomas F Homer Dixon, saying that the scarcity of natural resources has created massive migrations. This has impacts on the reduced economic production that weakens a region, and in the end, triggers conflict between ethnic groups or some kinds of economic violence. “Conflicts arise as people compete with each other to get the limited resources,†he added.