Providing both a theoretical background and practical examples of natural resource conflict, this volume explores the pressures on natural resources leading to scarcity and conflict.

It is shown that the causes and driving forces behind natural resource conflicts are diverse, complex and often interlinked, including global economic growth, exploding consumption, poor governance, poverty, unequal access to resources and power. The different interpretations of nature-culture and the role of humans in the ecosystem are often at the centre of the conflict. Natural resource conflicts range from armed conflicts to conflicts of interest between stakeholders in the North as well as in the South. The varying driving forces behind such disputes at different levels and scales are critically analysed, and approaches to facilitate and enforce mediation, transformation and collaboration at these levels and scales are presented and discussed. In order to transform existing resource conflicts, as well as to decrease the risk of future conflicts, approaches that enhance and enforce collaboration for sustainable development at global, regional, national and local levels are reviewed, and sustainable pathways suggested. A range of global examples is presented including water resources, fisheries, forests, human-wildlife conflicts, urban environments and the consequences of climate change.

It will be a valuable text for advanced students of natural resource management, environment and development studies and peace and conflict management. The book will also be of interest to practitioners in the field of natural resource management.

E. Gunilla Almered Olsson is Professor in Human Ecology, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her interdisciplinary work in research and teaching is on use and management of natural resources and biodiversity involving knowledge integration in social-ecological systems in agricultural landscapes in Europe and Africa. She also worked on those issues for the Swedish government and the United Nations Environment Program. Current research is on urban resilience related to food systems and the linking of urban and rural regions within the context of sustainable development. She is a co-author to global assessments for the UN/Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Pernille Gooch is Associate Professor in the Human Ecology Division, Lund University, Sweden. Her main focus of research is the political ecology of human-environmental relations. She has done extensive fieldwork on forest conflicts in the Indian Himalayas. Other issues of interest include environmental justice, environmental history, gender, livelihood and participatory methods.