Growing environmental instability around the globe has the potential to contribute to the onset of violent conflict. However, there is rarely a clear, direct causal pathway between environmental change and conflict because these interactions are always mediated by institutions – social norms, governance, and policy. How the environment can be a potential trigger for conflict is a critical part of the environment-conflict nexus. This chapter explores the broad literature on the topic, drawing out where there is more and less consensus and what the implications are for understanding the environment in conflict.

This introduction presents the volume’s premise and structure. It details why it is crucial to examine and harmonize the two worlds of law and knowledge to understand and amplify Indigenous guidance and wisdom found in treaty commitments. This introduction introduces the volume’s five parts, each discussing different aspects of understanding and implementing the various international, multinational, and nation-to-nation treaties to advance sustainable development and affirm Indigenous knowledge and rights in the various legal systems that we will explore.

This chapter provides an overview of the core findings of the book. It outlines the key theoretical and methodological insights gained through a qualitative comparison of the politics of corporate regulation and liberalization in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, including the introduction of the theory of rent-conditional reforms. It further outlines the relevance of the rent-conditional reform theory to ongoing debates around the political and economic effects of natural resource wealth, particularly amid the potential global transition toward a less carbon-intensive economy.

This chapter introduces the arguments and structure of the book. It surveys how the liberalization of company creation regulations in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia across the first two decades of the twenty-first century defy the predictions of the existing resource curse literature. To explain the political constrains on economic liberalization in resource-wealthy, autocratic and hybrid regimes, the chapter introduces the rent-conditional reform theory. It also details the shortcomings of earlier quantitative studies of economic regulation and liberalization in contexts of resource wealth and outlines the methodological innovations of this book.

This book concludes with this Afterword that emphasizes the critical importance of integrating Indigenous knowledge and treaties into the framework of sustainable development. This chapter summarizes the conclusions we have brought forth throughout this volume and is centred on the wisdom and practices of Indigenous peoples that promote respect, reciprocity, and harmony with the natural world. The convergence of Indigenous knowledge with global sustainable development agendas is now widely recognized as a crucial step towards a more balanced and resilient future. As the world faces unprecedented challenges such as natural disasters, resource scarcity, and human rights violations, recognizing the strengths of diverse worldviews becomes essential. By examining case studies and comparative legal research, this book demonstrates the potential of treaties to foster sustainable futures that benefit all living beings.

This chapter examines the financing of ISIS and how the United States and the international community were able to thwart ISIS’s access to finance through a combination of methods, including the use of sanctions, the prosecutions of foreign terrorist fighters, and an aggressive bombing campaign.

Chapter 6 presents the first of three case studies which road-test the theory and practice of environmental rights that was presented in Chapter 5. This first case study examines two forms of unconventional natural resource extraction: hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) and deep seabed mining. The chapter outlines the environmental risks associated with each of these practices. In particular, it outlines the many uncertainties surrounding the environmental impacts of deep seabed mining, given that we still have so much to learn about deep sea ecosystems. The chapter translates these environmental impacts into human rights terms, identifying many ways in which human rights may be impacted into the future. It then considers how the approach proposed in Chapter 5 could be used to litigate potential violations of future generations’ rights. It highlights the issue of balancing current generations’ interests in securing economic benefits and natural resources, including those necessary for the transition to renewable energy.

This book analyzes the role of different political economic sectors that drive deforestation and clearcutting, including mining, ranching, export-oriented plantation agriculture, and forestry. The book examines the key actors, systems, and technologies behind the worsening climate/biodiversity crises that are aggravated by deforestation. The book is theoretically innovative, uniting political economic, sociological, political ecologic, and transdisciplinary theories on the politics of extraction. The research relies on the author’s multi-sited political ethnography, including field research, interviews, and other approaches, across multiple frontiers of deforestation, focusing on Brazil, Peru, and Finland. Why do key global extractivist sectors continue to expand via deforestation and what are the differences between sectors and regions? The hypothesis is that regionally and sometimes nationally dominant politically powerful economic sectors are major explanatory factors for if, how, and where deforestation occurs. To address the deepening global crises, it is essential to understand these power relations within different types of deforesting extractivisms.

This chapter charts how, from the early eighteenth century, imperial elites projected visions of improvement and abundance onto Russia’s wetlands, reimagining them as fuel deposits. The prospect of substituting peat for timber motivated state officials, landowners, scientists, and later the directors of industrial companies to explore ways to convert peat into heat energy. The chapter argues that the appropriation of wetlands for fuel generation was, by and large, an elite project that imposed the developmentalist visions of the imperial state and industrial elites on peatlands and the people living with them. While most peasants continued valuing peatlands for what they offered above ground, elite groups conceptualized peat as a substance on its own rather than a component of a larger web of relationships co-created by living organisms, water, abiotic matter, and the climate. This reductive understanding of peatlands would underpin the history of peat extraction in central Russia until the end of the Soviet period.

Chapter 1 explains how economics plays a crucial role in sustainable development, affecting the well-being of current and future generations. Economics explores how scarce resources are allocated and distributed and analyzes the trade-offs in decision-making. The stock of capital assets, or economic wealth, in an economy determines economic opportunities and individuals’ standard of living and prosperity. Economics recognizes that the economy is embedded in nature and that natural capital contributes to economic welfare in three ways: natural resources provide inputs to production, the environment assimilates waste and pollution, and ecosystems provide essential goods and services. A pessimistic view is that environmental scarcity will limit economic growth, leading to economic collapse. An optimistic perspective is that human creativity, innovation, and technological advancements can avert environmental scarcity, allowing economies to prosper. Economics can help guide society toward a more optimistic development path by creating incentives and safeguards for sustainable use of the environment.

Nearly fifty years have passed since the federal government adopted its policy of tribal self-determination, and tribes remain subject to extensive federal regulations. For example, the United States still holds land in trust for tribes. The federal government holds title to trust land, so tribes and Indians cannot engage in activities on trust land without prior federal approval. Obtaining the requisite federal approval can take more than a year. Apart from the bureaucracy, trust land is inalienable, making it difficult to use for collateral. Indian trader laws are another uniquely Indian country regulation. The laws were originally enacted in 1790 on the theory Indians were too incompetent to trade with whites. To this day, the laws forbid “white persons” from trading with an Indian without first obtaining federal permission. The federal regulations extend to virtually all economic activity in Indian country, from natural resource development to Indian gaming.

The starting point of this chapter is the observation that would-be dictators are abundant around the globe, but some succeed in setting up and sustaining a rebel army while others do not. As argued in this chapter, a key ingredient for rebel success and conflict longevity is funding. One source of financing is the stolen spoils of nature. Think, for example, of blood diamonds. Beyond this particular example, we also discuss in this chapter systematic evidence on how access to mineral rents triggers an escalation of fighting activities of armed groups. In addition to resource rents, it is foreign funding that results in prolonged conflict, and may lead to proxy wars between fighting factions supported by rival foreign powers. The destructive potential of these sources of funding is examined by drawing on examples and empirical evidence from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India.