Conflict and Climate Change
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development, conflict resolution does not take the form of a dichotomous outcome that is either violent (bad) or peaceful (good). Peaceful resolutions are not always conducive to social development because they could be forced through by powerful stakeholders even if they adversely affect many social development objectives. Power and coercion can be exercised in a multidimensional way that might or might not include violence. Three case studies of nonviolent conflicts associated with ecological degradation illustrate some adverse social dynamics that could result from climate change and variability.
Nonviolent Conflict over Declining Fish Stocks in Brazil In Brazil, declining fish stocks have led to tensions among different occupational groups—fishermen and farmers—as well as between artisanal and commercial fishermen. Fisheries in the São Francisco River are becoming unsustainable as a result of overfishing, dam construction, pollution, and other forms of environmental degradation. In the absence of functioning institutions for resource management, the rapid depletion of the resource has spurred conflict among those with an important stake in it. Conflicts between fishermen and farmers have become more common because of the construction of more irrigation dams for agriculture, which adversely affects fish spawning; widespread water contamination by agricultural toxins and animal manure; and the closing of access points on the rivers that fishermen have traditionally used. The fishermen also increasingly clash with the understaffed government agencies managing the river. The Brazilian Agency for the Environment and Natural Resources should enforce the regulation of the fisheries and watercourses but has left this task to the military police. Fishermen have complained to the state of undue violence and disrespectful treatment by the military police and feel that they are “being punished unduly as resource predators, while the highimpact resource users, such as large-scale farmers, hydroelectric companies, and sports fishermen, manage to avoid the penalties” (Gutberlet and others 2007). Animosity has also been directed at the private hydroelectric companies and industries along the river. Dams change water flows and reduce fish populations, and polluting industries (a zinc refinery close to the river was highly unwelcome) contaminate the water, with adverse consequences for fish and humans alike. Changes in the river have also led to clashes among fishermen. Those from one municipality were forced to intrude on fishing grounds in other municipalities because dams, pollution, and overfishing had exhausted their own fishing grounds. Moreover, artisanal fishermen complained about