Abiotic natural resources

Dr. Joshka Wessels

CASES OF ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE

Oil and Energy

• Fossil fuels: what would happen if fossil fuels were no longer a critical energy resource for economic development ?

• Dominant narratives of “the problem” of oil

• Fossil fuels and the end

• The era of “Extreme Oil”

• West vs. East

• Emerging economies, China and Russia vs. US

Hubbert’s Peak and the “end of oil”

Sudan and Chad

• China and Sudan oil relationship: 30% of its crude oil from Africa

• China National Petroleum Company

• US and Chad oil relationship: Chevron

• Oilpipelines: Chad to Cameroon, South Sudan to Port Sudan

• A cold war emerged over oil in Africa

• Sudan divided into two counties

• But what about Darfur ?

Darfur as a battleground for natural resources and oil

History of Darfur

• Complex reality

• Area as big as France

• All are muslim and no part of Darfur was ever ethnically homogenous

• Muslim Sultanate from around 1650

• African sacral kingship

• Complex administrative system

History of Darfur (2)

• Dajo Dynasty: Jebel Marra 13-17th century

• Tunjur Dynasty: Jebel Marra 17th century

• Keira Dynasty: Jebel Marra and El Fasher turks defeated it in 1974

• Fur always remained resistant to domination

• Ali Dinar Sultan of Darfur 1898-1916

• Annexed by the British in 1916 (end of independence)

History of Darfur (3)

• mid-1960 entry national political arena

• Arab and non-Arab representatives

• Asserting identity

• Darfur Development Front 1966

• 1970s several military coups

• Modernization central government

• mid-1980s several droughts/famines

Divide and Rule by Khartoum

• El Fasher (North)

• El-Geneina (West)

• Nyala (South)

Darfur’s natural resources

• Jebel Marra rich in resources

• Rainfall periods – 200 – 900 mm

• Groundwater Nubian System

• Um Ruwaba Geological formation

• Groundwater potential

• After 1980 many handspump need repair

• All areas suitable for grazin except northern zone

Darfur’s natural resources

• Long history between nomads and farmers

• Sedentary grazing is ecologically destructive

• Farmers and nomads have longstanding ties

• General governance system for conflicts

• Area is suitable for rain-fed cultivation

• Millet or sorghum

• Agricultural extension is absent

Human Development data 2003

• Population

– Sudan: 31.2 million

– Darfur: 6 million

• Schooling rate

– North Sudan: 88%

– -Darfur: 31 %

Human Development data 2003

• Medical doctors/100.000 inhabitants

– Khartoum: 46

– Darfur: 1.9

• Hospital beds/100.000 inhabitants

– Khartoum:111

– Darfur: 25

Conflicting groups

• Zaghawa (Nomadic)

– Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)

– Sudan Union of the Marginalized Majority (SUMM)

• Fur (Jebel Marra)

– Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM/A)

– Sudan Federal Alliance (SFA)

2003

•http://www.ushmm.org/maps/projects/darfur/

Conflicts

After droughts mid-1980s

•Wells disputes : mediation by elders not enough

•Guns inflow from Chad and Libya

•Sadiq al Mahdi gives arms to Baqqara of S. Darfur to defend themselves against SPLA

•Turning the guns towards Fur & Masalit tribes

•Arab tribal militias called murahilin or janjaweed

Conflicts

• 1989: President Omar al-Bashir

• Islamist, racist and Arabo-centric ideology

• Northern Sudanese nationalism

• Racist dimensions in policy and governance

• Protracted war in the South

• Prior to 2003: peace negotiations between Khartoum Government and SPLA/M

Conflicts

• Non-Arab Darfurians felt left out

• Khartoum government controls population through Arab militias and the state secret police

• Attack 2003 on government outposts by SLA and JEM

• Same time peace settlement was likely between Government and SPLA in the South

• Khartoum Government campaign to keep NGOs and international media out of the region

Geopolitics

• China most important outside actor: import 5-8% of its oil from the Sudan

• Investment of 3.5 billion USD in oil production

• China, together with Russia veto any attempt in the UNSC to impose effective sanctions on Sudan

• US and Britain started war in Iraq in 2003

• No US oil companies in Sudan

• No international interest in Darfur in 2003

Who are the oil players ?

• Beijing’s China National Petroleum Company, CNPC, is Sudan’s largest foreign investor, with some $5 billion in oil field development.

• Since 1999 China has invested at least $15 billion in Sudan. It owns 50% of an oil refinery near Khartoum with the Sudan government.

• The oil fields (see graphic) are concentrated in the south, site of a long-simmering civil war

• http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Oil_in_Africa/oil_in_africa.html

Chad Oil

• Chevron is in neighboring Chad, together with the other US oil giant, ExxonMobil.

• Built a $3.7 billion oil pipeline carrying 160,000 barrels/day of oil from Doba in central Chad near Darfur Sudan, via Cameroon to Kribi on the Atlantic Ocean, destined for US refineries.

• Chad “President for life,” Idriss Deby, feeding US-supplied arms to the Darfur rebels.

• Deby joined Washington’s Pan Sahel Initiative run by the Pentagon’s US-European Command, to train his troops to fight “Islamic terrorism.”

China and Africa

• China draws an estimated 30% of its crude oil from Africa.

• China is using no-strings-attached dollar credits to gain access to Africa’s vast raw material wealth.

• No colonial legacy with African countries

China vs. US

“Chad and Darfur are but part of the vast China effort to secure “oil at the source” across Africa. Oil is also the prime factor in US Africa policy today. George W. Bush’s interest in Africa includes a new US base in Sao Tome/Principe 124 miles off the Gulf of Guinea from which it can control Gulf of Guinea oilfields from Angola in the south to Congo, Gabon, Equitorial Guinea, Cameroon and Nigeria. That just happens to be the very same areas where recent Chinese diplomatic and investment activity has focussed”.

China vs. US

“West Africa’s oil has become of national strategic interest to us,” stated US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Walter Kansteiner already back in 2002. Darfur and Chad are but an extension of the US Iraq policy “with other means” – control of oil everywhere. China is challenging that control “everywhere,” especially in Africa. It amounts to a new undeclared Cold War over oil”.

Oil pipelines

China and Sudan

• CNPC built an oil pipeline from its concession blocs 1, 2 and 4 in southern Sudan, to a new terminal at Port Sudan on the Red Sea where oil is loaded on tankers for China.

• Eight percent of China’s oil comes from southern Sudan. China takes up to 65% to 80% of Sudan’s 500,000 barrels/day of oil production.

• In 2006 Sudan was China’s fourth largest foreign oil source.

• In 2006 China passed Japan to become the world’s second largest importer of oil after the United States, importing 6.5 million barrels a day of the black gold.

Others involved in Sudan oil

• China

• Canada

• Malaysia

• Sweden

• Qatar

• Austria

Where does this leave Darfur ?

• Humanitarian disaster, hell on earth

• Apathy America, China, the UN and the AU

• Khartoum Government and SPLA their own agendas

• Displaced people paying the price of civil war and violence

• Emergency and humanitarian aid

• African Union Observers

• Genocide, large scale rape

• Bandits and rise in crime

2006

“No source of oil has been more the focus of China-US oil conflict of late than Sudan, home of Darfur”.

Darfur Genocide Campaign

“The “Darfur genocide” campaign began in 2003, the same time the Chad-Cameroon pipeline oil began to flow. The US now had a base in Chad to go after Darfur oil and, potentially, co-opt China’s new oil sources. Darfur is strategic, straddling Chad, Central African Republic, Egypt and Libya”.

Resources and Livelihoods

• Drinking water in Darfur not one of the elements causing the conflict

• Crop farming main economic activity (80%) of Darfurs population

• Livestock grazing second socioeconomic activity

• Animal Routes

Resources and Livelihoods

• Communal grazing (Talaig)

• Unattended animals’ fences (Zaribat Hawamil)

• Air Fences (Zareibat al-Hawa)

• Increased livestock, grazing and firewood cutting

• Strain on the resources, higher incidence of conflict, arms coming in from Chad

Perfect breeding ground

• The situation and tense relationships between the farmers and the nomads were a perfect breeding ground to fuel sectarian violence

• Janjaweed and Antonov Planes (Russia)

• Media war between US-Sudan; who benefits ?

• Oil Production and Hegemony

The Darfuri Trauma

• The Darfur conflict has left a major trauma on the local population, rape, displaced, burned villages, disruption

• Loss of traditional trust between people, ethnic groups, secret police, government control, military action and above all the janjaweed.

• Returning to their farms or staying in refugee camp

The Two Sudans

• Sudan has become two countries in 2011

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/sudan/index.html

Darfur out of the media Limelight

•http://savedarfur.org/pages/primer

•George Clooney (US Media): http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/09/02/george-clooney-says-darfur-involvement-greatest-failure-life/

Doha Peace Forum

June 2011 Darfur Peace Agreement (2011)

Darfuri Vice-President and the Darfur Regional Authority

The agreement was signed by the Government of Sudan and the Liberation and Justice Movement on 14 July 2011.

Rebuilding Trust, conflict transformation

• Peace agreement in 2011 means the Darfuri will start building trust in eachother.

• How to rebuild trust ? Government control, ethnic groups, neighbours, Janjaweed, militias ?

• Will the peace last ?

Bashir is still there….

• International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants: Five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes (first warrant); three counts of genocide (second warrant)

• http://www.amicc.org/icc/albashir

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3496731.stm