Illegal forestry activities and poor governance in tropical forested regions are two factors which can encourage violent conflict. Widespread violence in turn makes forestry and conservation policies in forested areas less effective.

The scope of the problem

There are currently violent conflicts in forested regions in Colombia, Côte D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Sudan, and Uganda.

In the past twenty years there have also been violent conflicts in the forested regions of Angola, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Guatemala, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Peru, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Surinam. Together these countries account for about 40 percent of the world's tropical forest and over half of all tropical forest outside Brazil.

Timber incomes have financed violent conflict in Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Liberia, Myanmar, Sierre Leone, and other countries. While Illicit drugs are widespread in the forested regions of Bolivia, Colombia, Laos, Myanmar, and Peru.

Why is violence particularly widespread in forested regions?

Many impoverished ethnic minorities live in forested areas and governments have historically neglected these regions and their people. As a result property rights are often poorly developed. Consequently local populations have limited allegiance to governments and look to other groups to perform traditional government functions.
Outside intervention, particularly when it is profit-driven, can also cause local resentment and later conflict. Governments have failed to recognize local people's claims to rights over forests. Timber, mineral, petroleum, and tree crop booms and resettlement efforts attract outside groups to forested regions. These groups often enter into conflict with the local people or with each other.

Deforestation and forest degradation often increase in post-war situations

Postwar situations can be particularly devastating for forested areas. Wars often protect forests, discouraging investors and leaving people afraid to go into the forest. But when the conflict ends, governments may try to appease former insurgents and provide patronage to demobilized governments forces by allowing them to extract timber and convert forested land for agriculture.

After conflict refugees and displaced people return to areas of forest abandoned during war, and new people enter into forested areas where it was previously too dangerous to live. It is also a fact that demobilized armed people with limited employment opportunities often become involved in illegal forestry activities, which the weak governments emerging from conflict situations have limited ability to control.

CIFOR's role

• CIFOR has for several years been developing and refining techniques that address local disputes over forest use and is now beginning to extend its research to include larger, more violent conflict.
• At the grass-roots level CIFOR's research into local forest management is providing rural communities with strategies and mechanisms for resolving forest boundary disputes. These approaches include identifying forest stakeholders and analyzing their differing interests, participatory mapping of forest resources, and analyzing the differences in class interests and power and gender relations.
• CIFOR's work on more violent conflict includes studies in Nicaragua, support for workshops and research in Colombia, and research with Global Witness on forests and violent conflict in Africa. Scientists at CIFOR have also co-edited a forthcoming Japanese collection on forests and extreme conflict and work closely with the media to enhance public awareness of this important issue.

CIFOR encourages:

• Government attention to, and investment in, forested regions.
• Improved coordination between international aid efforts focused on conservation, development, and conflict resolution.
• The recognition of local peoples rights to the forests they depend on.
• The management of the environmental impacts refugees and displaced people cause during wars and the arrival of new people into forested areas in post-war contexts.
• Addressing forest governance issues during peace negotiations.
• The use of international boycotts on conflict timber, diamonds, and similar commodities to reduce the resources available to belligerent armies.
• And finally, the development and dissemination of best practices for forestry and conservation organizations operating in conflict zones.