QUESTION 9
Natural resource and its effect on economic growth and dynamics of conflicts.
1.0 Introduction.
Natural resources are raw materials extracted from the earth. They are useful in many different ways for its diversified opportunity of benefit and profit for economic development. Examples of natural resources are mineral, oil, waterways, land, timber, diamonds, coals, coltan and genetic. Majority of developing countries, distributions of natural resources vary from one geographic location to another. The variability of location has caused greed and grievances in economic development. This was attributed to more risk of conflict, weak governance, and poor economic performance.
2.0 Effect of natural resources on economic growth.
According to Collier and Hoeffer (2003), there are three major factors that depend on the primary commodity exports such as income per capita, rate of economic growth, and structure of the economy,” the higher the rate of primary commodities exports the higher the level of risk of conflict. Developing countries that are dependent on natural resources are more liable to terms of trade shocks, which leads to instability and dissatisfaction within the groups that suffer the shocks. Since natural resources are wealth and unevenly distributed causes the rebel groups ventures in various forms of extortion, exploitation, and trade of primary commodity. The best-known types of conflict are the diamond of Angola and
For instance, most of the developments in the developed countries are based on growth, that is, they are depend on natural resources like minerals, gas and oil for their economic development. Moreover, the emerging developing countries such as India, china and brazil need a lot of natural resources to develop. This means that countries which are rich in resources in Latin America have emphasized and focused on the extraction of natural resources for their development and export. Neo extractivisim has been coined to refer to policies and regulations which strengthen states role in the ownership and exploitation of natural resources, a development which has gained great momentum inmost parts of the developing nations (Burchardt, Hans-Jürgen, and Kristina, 2014). Extractivisims is a development model that has political, natural and socioeconomic influences (class structure, interaction between public and state and gender) within a country majorly in countries with abundant resources in the
Natural resources are materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile land that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain, and Arkansas is rich with natural resources.
Natural resources are used in the production of produce, harvest, transport, process, packaging, and the distribution of the product. A vast amount of water is particularly used in the growth of fruits, vegetables, cereals, and grains and to support livestock. When food is wasted the energy and resources used into producing those products are also wasted.
Congo is home to the deadliest conflict since World War Two (“Eastern Congo”). With the international wars spanning from 1996 to 1997 and 1998 to 2003, over 5 million people were dead and over 2 million were displaced. The cycle of violence continues as mineral trade is a valuable source of income for rebels. Government troops and armed groups in Congo fought to control mines and smuggling routes, as well as the murdering and raping of civilians to disrupt the structure of society (“Eastern Congo”). Rebel groups attempted to seize control of natural resources for their own benefit as well as to finance their armed groups. Money earned from the sale of conflict minerals is used for personal profit and/or for violent causes.They would use deliberate strategies such as rape to threaten and control local populations to help secure control of mines and trading routes. In order to make a profit to help fund war by smuggling and trading, armed groups in Congo “hire” miners through physical force, gun-pointing, and life threats. While working to mine minerals, they are placed in dangerous and difficult mining locations. They were also given horrible tools to use.Congo has been affected by the wars and fights for mineral resources in many ways. Although they are one of the richest countries in terms of natural resources, they remain a sone of the poorest in terms of economic
Natural resources are a vital part of communities throughout the United States. Concerns regarding energy and the alternatives to using energy. The issues concerning natural resources have been apparent for multiple decades.
The four different economic resources are land, capital, labor, and entrepreneurial ability. Land refers not only to physical land but also to the neutral resources that we use including lumber, minerals, oil, and so on. Capital refers to all of the manufactured tools and aids used to produce consumer goods. In other words, capital includes tools,
History has explained the fact that at one point in time, the earth's natural resources had no limit. Raw materials were plenty, because of the fact that there were plenty of natural resources to go around. Natural resources can be identified as the raw materials that comes from the earth and are useful. Natural resources can never be made by humans. Athough, these raw materials can be modified, or altered to benefit corporations and businesses. For example, natural resources are fossil fuels like petroleum, natural gas, and coal. Minerals like diamonds, gold, and copper are natural resources that come from the earth. Other resources are known as natural vegetation, like forests and timber. Animals are our earth's natural resources as well, like salmon, deer, whales, chickens, etc. The air we breathe, and the wind are all also natural resources. Water, like lakes, rivers and
Though Marx and Engels had similar idealistic views of revolution as Old Major did in Animal Farm, Orwell’s cynical interpretation of the power hungry pigs was a far more accurate image of a revolution than that painted by Marx and Engels. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels present an ideal situation where after leading a revolution, the revolutionary leaders step down from their positions of power. In contrast, Orwell uses the pigs in Animal Farm to show the selfishness of human nature as he expects the leaders to maintain and grow their power to dominate society. While Marx and Engels had different views of society after revolution than Orwell, they were similar in their views of the process of revolution and the ideals of communism. Although Marx and Engels had an idealistic hope for the proletariat revolution, Orwell’s interpretation of human nature provides a more accurate portrayal of revolution and its’ results.
The “resource curse” is a popular theory in the literature of civil conflict that attributes the onset of civil conflict to the presence and abundance of natural resources. In recent years, a growing number of quantitative empirical studies have attempted to investigate the link between natural resources and conflict, but researchers are still unable to make a definitive call on whether natural resources necessarily cause conflict in broad terms. In this paper, I will attempt to show that the theory of the “resource curse” lacks persuasive power due to: 1) a theoretical ambiguity on the true impact of natural resources on conflict and, 2) a lack of strong empirical support for the “resource curse”. In the process, I will also show that despite there being no general consensus on how natural resources contribute to conflict across countries as a whole, individual studies have been able to establish that some key factors, such as the extent of a country’s dependence on natural resources and the presence of certain types of primary commodities in a country, may affect the relationship between resources and conflict.
The disparity and divide among various levels of the society locally and globally are rooted in many factors. Unfortunately, growing effects of globalization appear to widen the abyss between the rich and poor, leaving no hopes that eventually the world could collectively and uniformly prosper and poverty would be completely eradicated. The natural resources are not evenly distributed on the various continents on the planet Earth. While some countries enjoy the wealth and prosperity as a result of abundant resources, such oil and natural gas reserves, others are stricken by natural disasters and persistent droughts, having no access to clean water, fertile soil, or any sustainable means of existence. Blaming eruption of violence and flourishing
The importance of this issue comes from the growing concern of society and firms about the excessive exploitation of natural resources and the consequent depletion of the same. The insanely fast economic development during the last decades led to a growth in welfare and wealth, but it has been merely based on the logic of obtaining the maximum profit, forgetting at the same time about the correct use of natural resources.
Natural Resources – the resources we use from our environment to produce products and services.
A conversation about the natural resource curse in Bolivia is especially imperative today with the recent crash of oil prices which affects Bolivia’s export revenues as natural gas prices are indexed to oil prices. This chapter seeks to explore Bolivia’s economic structure; whether the natural resource curse phenomenon is already occuring in Bolivia? What are the contributors to their susceptibility to the risks of the resource curse? What role did Bolivia’s state-managed economy play in contributing to this and how have market mechanisms affected Bolivia’s economic welfare? In order to better understand where Bolivia stands today, it would be of interest to recall a resource curse that Bolivia had already endured in the past under their
How does a state 's natural resource wealth influence its economic development? For the past fifty years, versions of this question have figured prominently in debates over dependency theory, economic dualism, a proposed New International Economic Order, East Asia’s success, and Africa’s collapse. Since the late 1980s, economists and political scientists have produced a flood of new research that bears witness to this question. There is now strong evidence that states with abundant resource wealth perform less well than their resource-poor counterparts, but there is little agreement on why this occurs.
The presence of natural resources in a country is supposed to a positive addition towards realizing development goals. Both economic and social development is supposed to benefit from approximated revenues that are to be generated from mining industries. However, the views that natural resources are a major source of economic and social growth has been scrutinized over the past decade, with the rising number of countries where resources expectations have not been met having contributed to these reviews (Collier). These reviews have led to the emergence of two major views with regards to the relationship that exist between natural resources and general national development. These views are; the conventional view and the alternative view. The conventional view holds that there still exist a positive relationship between natural resources and growth while the alternative view uses the examples of countries where growth has declined or stalled after discovery of natural resources. The alternative describes what is regarded as the resources curse (Davis). This discussion paper will discuss the relationship that exists between natural resources, governance and national growth. In doing this, North Korea will be used a case study while seeking to identify the resources that are found in the country, their status and the avenues through which the resource curse can be avoided. The cases on the OT mining in Mongolia will be