The Troubling Resource Curse…

In Human Geography, there is a whole subject area that examines natural resources and armed conflict. In March, I wrote a paper for my Environment and Development class titled “is internal conflict an inevitable consequence of the resource curse?” looking at the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. After researching this region for a couple of months, I came to discover many troubling facts. The resource curse has exacerbated conflict and political turmoil, formed an even more rapacious central government and has led to abject poverty.

The resource curse is a highly significant concept in Environmental Resource Studies. We learn that managing resources is a critical part of the political economy. Canada, despite its challenges with the staples trap, has progressively got better with its resource management albeit no where near perfect.

Countries with an abundant amount of natural resources have a lot of natural capital available to them. This is usually advantageous for international trade and energy self-sufficiency. But the dark side of this is what we call the resource curse or the paradox of the plenty which is when counrties with a lot of natural resources tend to have slower economic growth and worse development (and more corruption) than countries with fewer natural resources. Nigeria in particular has become completely reliant on oil for its major export- profitable in the short-term, economically and socially devastating in the long run.

To paint a picture for you, the resource curse has damaged virtually all sectors in the Niger Delta with the exception of the booming oil industry. Manufacturing and agriculture have become less appealing for workers because there is more money available to them in the extraction of oil. At least, that is what they are told.

With the curse in play, the government can surreptitiously create pools of oil wealth from its exports and not actually report how much money they have. This skews the picture and allows the government to be mendacious to its workers who are not paid the true cost of their labour. Not all of this money is passed down to the workers of the Delta and then inequality and oppression ensue. It’s totally disastrous. According to Collier and other West African scholars, the resource curse has created a whole underground economy in the Delta.

Weapons are being purchased along with drugs, and insurrections are coming about-all products of the resource curse and hence internal conflict. This is a serious environment and development issue of our time, natural resources are all well and good, but they are highly dangerous as well.

Key message: Anyone interested in this topic, I would recommend you read Philippe Le Billon and Paul Collier.