Resentment and economic hardship related to land scarcity in Rwanda are often cited as contributing factors to the 1994 genocide. It can be influenced by demographic shifts and factors such as climate change and can be either national or local. This scarcity can result from generally very high person/land ratios but can also be distributional, where one group has appropriated most land, leaving land a scarce good for most others. Due to legal constraints on access, skewed distribution among users, or an absolute shortage of land in relation to demand, scarcity can leave many with little or no land and create intense competition for land. Violence radically affects government’s capacity to deal effectively with land conflict it negatively affects the abilities of international organizations and donors who support efforts to limit land-related conflict. Assisting governments in identifying and implementing strategies to better manage conflict is, therefore, a vital task. When land disputes escalate to the level of governments, often they will only be able to “manage” the conflict, responding in constructive ways that keep the conflict from slipping over the boundary into violence. While local and traditional institutions like village councils, religious and traditional leaders, and other local bodies can often resolve local land conflicts, at a certain stage the state must intervene. Land conflicts can be persistent, and this suggests caution in talking about conflict “resolution.” Particular disputes over specific lands, which may be expressions of a larger conflict, can be resolved, and this can ease tensions. War, with its major displacements of civilian populations, can give rise to new conflict over the land to which the displaced have resorted for refuge and sustenance, or when displaced persons try to return to lands they fled and find them occupied by others. The violence may at the same time have transformed the conflict, so that the role land plays-and even the players-change. In such cases, the competition over land may be repressed during the post- conflict period, only to erupt later. The objective may be achieved, but more often it is not. Resolving land injustices may be a stated objective of a war or civil violence. Weak governance leads to weak tenure systems, often depriving individuals and communities of essential rights and access to land and other natural assets and contributing to poor land and resource management practices, which further degrades the limited resource base. When land lacks adequate legal, institutional, and traditional/customary protection it becomes a commodity easily subject to manipulation and abuse. Some conflicts grow directly out of competition for land, but land is often not the sole cause of conflict other factors, such as ethnic or religious tensions or political marginalization contribute to conflict (Baranyi and Weitzner, 2001). When that competition involves groups of people, rather than individuals, the risk of larger-scale violence increases. Competition can occur between any number and type of identity groups, whether based on ethnicity, religion, class, gender, or generation. Competition over land and its resources is at the center of the nexus between land and conflict. Land is the object of competition in a number of potentially overlapping ways: as an economic asset, as a connection with identity and social legitimacy, and as political territory. Failure to address these bedrock issues may increase the likelihood of conflict and perpetuate poverty. Understanding the role land plays in the conflicts of so many nations can help policymakers develop strategies to ease tensions among groups, limit conflict, and potentially avoid violence and the poverty trap that comes from cyclical violence (Collier et al., 2003). Disputes over access to land and valuable mineral resources drove wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the nearly 25-year war in Sri Lanka was fought over geographic claims to an ethnic homeland for the country’s minority population. Ongoing communal violence in Nigeria and Sudan is tied to competition over scarce fertile land and poor resource governance. Land-related issues figure into many violent disputes around the world. Land so pervasively underpins human activity that it usually plays some role during war and civil violence.
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