Foraging and Fighting: community perspectives on natural resources and conflict in southern Karamoja

This paper seeks to examine the perspectives and experiences of communities in the southern Karamoja region of Uganda regarding natural resources and conflict. The study set out to better understand local views on this topic - in response to the assumption in policy circles - that resource scarcity or competition drives the conflict in this pastoral and agro-pastoral area.

The paper presents the following findings:

• While sites of natural resource exploitation are often insecure, respondents did not attribute this to direct conflict over the resources themselves. Rather, violence is common in these locations because opposing groups are most likely to come into contact with each other at these sites
  
• Female-controlled resources has led to a governance gap in the management of natural resources. Male elders had clear systems to manage pastoral resources in the past, but lack the mechanisms to govern access to forests and wild foods. This governance gap in customary systems is mirrored by a gap at the official level caused by lack of capacity, funding, and political will among district authorities
  
• Access to resources was perceived as a much greater problem than availability of resources at the local level. Insecurity was the main obstacle to accessing resources, and threat of attack was as substantial a barrier as actual or reported attacks

The paper provides the following recommendations:

• Development actors promoting conflict mitigation and peace building should consider locations of interaction over resources as strategic entry points for programming and should consider women as a key target group for income generating activities (IGAs) - which provide immediate and productive alternatives to the sale of natural resources such as firewood and charcoal
  
• The Government of Uganda should move quickly to draft and adopt a Pastoralist Strategy that supports mobile animal-based livelihoods. Such a strategy should recognize the adaptive capacity of pastoral lifestyles and the appropriateness of pastoral and agro-pastoral production systems to Karamoja’s ecological and climatic conditions
  
• Customary institutions (councils of elders) should consider what protection and management strategies might be available for plant-based natural resources. They should reach these decisions through fora that include women and youth.