Beyond Darfur

"While the tensions and conflicts in Darfur are currently in the headlines, the report warns that other parts of the Sudan could see resumptions of historical clashes driven in part by declines in environmental services.
This is particularly the case in some north-south border zones. In the Nuba mountains region in Southern Kordofan, for example, the indigenous Nuba tribe expressed concern over the damaging of trees and other vegetation due to the recent presence of the camel-herding Shanabla tribe. Like many pastoralist communities, the Shanabla have been forced to migrate south in search of adequate grazing land lost in the north to agricultural expansion and drought. Some Nuba warned of 'restarting the war' if this damage did not cease."

Read this UNEP press release of their recent Darfur assessment report.

Ozzie wisdom

"The Mad Max films demonstrated how anarchy emerges when people compete for scarce resources, but we don’t need fiction to understand how such devastation wreaks havoc—we need only consider the situation in Darfur where decades of drought helped trigger Darfur's violence as rival groups fought over scarce water and arable land.

Even steps designed to reduce human suffering are causing environmental problems in this fragile environment. International relief organisations are trying to care for about 2.5 million people in massive refugee camps. Their only sources of water are wells, but the water table is dropping and the wells are drying up. "