Communities and Governance of Natural Resources: Natural Justice Works in Turkana

Turkana County, Kenya has been considered amongst the poorest in the country. However, recent oil and water discoveries as well as planned infrastructural developments have brought hope to the citizens of a better life but have also raised a number of critical social, economic and environmental concerns. These were discussed during a Friends of Lake Turkana hosted conference titled 'Towards a Governance Agenda: Harnessing Natural Resources, Communities and Development, which was held in Lodwar, Turkana from the 21-24th of October 2014.

The conference sought to strengthen multi stakeholder participation and engagement in order to ensure local participation in natural resource and infrastructural development. Participants at the meeting included representatives of county and national governments, oil companies, civil society and community representatives. Further information on the conference can be found on the Friends of Lake Turkana website.

Natural Justice is partnering with Friends of Lake Turkana to ensure that legislation and policy positively represent the needs of the citizens of Turkana, in particular its pastoralist communities, so that they are involved in decisions related to their lands, resource and knowledge.

New Paper on Resource Conflict Prevention References Community Protocols

A new paper by the Quaker United Nations Office entitled "Building peace around water, land and food: Policy and practice for preventing conflict" highlights the fundamental importance of securing natural resources on which our survival and well-being depend in the face of climate change and increasing conflict and competition over resources. It also focuses on the need to strengthen peace-building skills among actors at all levels (including effective communication and engagement with decision-making processes and constructive dispute prevention and resolution) and cites relevant international instruments that can help prevent conflict through inclusive natural resource governance and management.

One of the case studies explored the development and use of a biocultural community protocol to negotiate community resource rights in the Potato Park in Peru. The paper also references Natural Justice's Biocultural Community Protocols: A toolkit for community facilitators and the 2012 special edition of the Participatory Learning and Action Journal on community protocols, rights and consent, which was co-edited by Natural Justice, among others (also available in Spanish). Please download and share this new paper here.