Natural Resources
The exploitation of natural resources is well known to affect the peace and security dynamics through exacerbating existing grievances, motivating greed, and ultimately financing and driving conflict. This exploitation, in addition, is often highly degrading for the surrounding environment and tends to be linked to negative socioeconomic dynamics such as poor benefit sharing practices, exclusion of vulnerable groups, unemployment and lack of livelihood options. Against these problematics, frontier technologies offer significant tools to address them through, for example, the use of Earth Observation for monitoring of exploitation to ensure sustainability and environmental protection, or employing blockchain to ensure benefit-sharing arrangements that contribute to local well-being and development.
Resources
Sudan: Drones Hammer Sudan’s Gold and Oil Zone – the Pivotal New Front Line
International
Intensified drone attacks on the new front line of Sudan’s civil war have led to mass civilian casualties in recent weeks and are increasingly shaping…
Liberia: Digital Mapping Key to Urbanization
International
Geospatial experts in Liberia are urging the government to prioritize digital mapping as a key tool for urban development, saying the technology could transform city…
Monitoring Sudan’s Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining from Space
Blog
Gold is helping fuel the war in Sudan, and its extraction is causing environmental degradation and chemical pollution that threatens human health.
The Blockchain Solution for the World’s Most Problematic Minerals
Blog
Minerals change hands many times as they move from mine to smelter to manufacturer. By the time they reach the company that makes auto parts,…
Fishers' Rights Matter: Mapping Small-Scale Fisheries Landing and Smoking Sites in Liberia to Assess Environmental and Legal Risks to Their Tenure Rights
Library
Liberia’s small-scale fisheries are the backbone of coastal livelihoods, but they face mounting threats from coastal erosion, mangrove destruction, and insecure land rights. Fishing communities’…
Myanmar: Satellite Data Show Burst of Deforestation in Myanmar Rare Earth Mining Hotspots
International
Myanmar’s Kachin state, near the border with China, is a global hub for rare earth minerals. But the dearth of regulations over mining these resources…
Resource Curse in the Age of Critical Minerals: Geopolitical Forces and Market Maturity
Library
The global demand for critical minerals—such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements—essential to renewable energy and technology, raises concerns about a modern resurgence of…
Revisiting the Environmental Legacies of the Vietnam War
Library
The 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War provides an opportunity to reflect on the conflict’s enduring scars, from severe ecological damages to…
Africa’s Ascent: Forging a Sovereign AI Future from Mineral Wealth and Human Capital
Library
Africa stands at the confluence of two global megatrends: the digital transformation driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the escalating demand for the critical minerals…
How Weather Stations Are Empowering Farmers and Building Peace in Northwest Nigeria
Blog
For generations, farmers in Nigeria have relied on traditional agricultural practices, their wisdom passed down through time and rooted in cultural traditional knowledge. These methods…
Food Security: FAO Launches the Risk Monitor: A New Early Warning System to Tackle Food Security Risks
International
On the sidelines of the 44th Session of the FAO Conference, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) officially launched the first Food…
Colombia: Ripple and Mercy Corps Launch Blockchain Pilot for Colombian Farmers
International
Ripple Impact has launched its second pilot of the year in partnership with Mercy Corps Ventures and WËIA. This new initiative is being carried out…
DRC: Inside the Mines Fuelling Congo’s Brutal War — and the World’s Tech
International
This is the Rubaya mine in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, an area ravaged by conflict stemming back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide and…
Egypt/Ethiopia/Sudan: How Science Could Resolve Africa’s Largest Water Dispute
International
A new study proposes a science-based policy for operating the Nile River’s mega-dams during prolonged droughts, aiming to balance Ethiopia’s need for hydropower with Egypt’s…
Conflict Minerals: In Data: Mining Disputes Rising amid Rush for Critical Minerals
International
There is growing opposition to the exploitation of critical minerals like cobalt and lithium, according to research by the Institute of Development Studies, a research…
Global Biodiversity at a Crossroads: The Need for Data in Conservation and Peacebuilding
Blog
The World Bank’s study highlights the urgent need for reliable biodiversity data to drive conservation efforts, especially in conflict zones and transboundary ecosystems. It argues…
Liberia: EPA, Partners Launch Geospatial Training to Boost Forest Monitoring
International
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberia, in collaboration with Novasphere, has launched a one-week geospatial training program aimed at enhancing forest monitoring capabilities. Hosted…
DRC: The Impact of Conflict Minerals on Technology: A Closer Look at Tantalum from DR Congo
International
Currently, the DRC is experiencing ongoing conflict, with significant implications for tantalum extraction. Recent military actions by the M23 rebel group have drawn international attention,…
Liberia: FDA Okays Export of over 250 Illegal Logs
International
The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) permitted a company to export round logs mid-last year. However, the regulator ignored its computerized system—known as LiberTrace—red-flagged over 60 percent…
Afghanistan: How Data Analysis, Community Engagement, and GIS Delivered a Reliable Water Source to an Afghan Community
International
In early 2024, the Afghanistan Value Chains Program (AVCP), funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), launched an initiative in northern Afghanistan aimed…
Afghanistan: Geospatial Analysis Conveys Current Conditions under the Taliban
Blog
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, one of its first policies was to ban poppy cultivation. The halt in a trade…
Liberia: Foresters Trained to Identify Timber Using Technology amid Smuggling Rise
International
The United States Forest Service (USFS) has sponsored the training of seven Liberian foresters in identifying timber species using science-based technology through smartphones as part of the…
Detecting Yemen’s Informal Dumpsites from Space
Blog
The war in Yemen has profoundly affected solid waste management, increasing open dumping and with it risks to the environment and public health. In this…
War and Climate Change Intensify Global Water-Related Conflicts
Blog
The Pacific Institute recently updated its Water Conflict Chronology—a database of water-conflict events that began to take form in the 1980s. The recent updates include…
Colombia: Renewable Energy in Colombia Boosted with a Line of Financing
International
Any local government authority in Colombia will be able to access, from today on, a new line of financing for the development of generation projects…
Will Critical Minerals Be Another Poisoned Chalice for Africa?
Blog
The world's journey to a decarbonised energy future requires a shift towards the development of low-carbon technologies. The development of these low-carbon technologies in the…
Low-Income Countries Host 75% of EJAtlas' Environmental Conflicts
Blog
The Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas), created by researchers at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), has documented…
DRC: Blockchain Ensures Conflict-Free Gold from DRC: Society Artisanal and Minespider Partnership
International
Society Artisanal, an organization dedicated to exporting conflict-free artisanal gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has announced a collaboration with Minespider, a technology…
Women and Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia Resist Dispossession of Resource-Rich Lands
International
There is a natural relationship between women and their attachment to the land, the natural environment, clean water, and uncontaminated food, agreed the women interviewed…
DRC: Society Artisanal Partners with Minespider to Track Conflict-Free Gold from the DRC
International
Society Artisanal, an organisation that aims to export conflict-free artisanal gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has announced its partnership with Minespider, a…