282 Scarcity and Surfeitstockowners invested in commercial farming and ranching ventures, are
attempting to 'capture' pockets of valuable natural resources from traditional
users, including pastoralists, who have little or no means of protecting their
land and resource rights beyond armed resistance.
There is little question that conflict in the Awash River Basin is about
access to and control of land and natural resources, which trigger an assort-
ment of other factors significant to a comprehensive explanation of conflict
in the basin. Conflict increases during periods of ecological stress, such as
droughts, when key natural resources necessary to sustain both subsistence
and commercial production become scarce. Some suggest that if all local con-
flicts (particularly in pastoral areas) were geographically mapped, they would
overlap water ~upp1ies.l~~ Conflict involving competition to access and con-
trol natural resources gradually are 'ethnicised', as competing groups tend to
protect claims for their own clans or lineages. As Davies suggests, "in times
of scarcity the rules change."149
Although land and natural resources can be seen as the 'triggering factor'
of conflict, the historical, social, economic and political contexts in which
natural resource competition occurs is absolutely crucial to a full under-
standing of the wider conflict. It is within this context that the real sources
of conflict are identifiable, such as inappropriate land policies, political
motives, and prioritising commercial or conservation interests above the
interests and needs of local communities. The sources of conflict have been
aggravated in recent years as social and political formations evolve and the
role traditional authorities in preventing and managing conflict declines. As
Dejene Aredo and Abdurahman Ame confirm, "the increased conflict over
scarce pastoral resources is the result of the deterioration in their livelihood
triggered by cyclical drought and escalated by ineffective social and political
organi~ation."~~~
Additionally, the nature of land and natural resource competition is chang-
ing from access and use, such as to pastures and water points, to permanent
claims to own land and exclusive control of critical natural resources. In pas-
toral areas, as a result of increasing pressure to protect resource access, com-
bined with the influence of farmers, government bodies and the develop-
mental activities of non-governmental organisations, there is a trend toward
private ownership of land and away from sharing common property, land and
natural resources.
The mobility of pastoralists has declined, sedenterisation of formerly
mobile groups is increasing and additional fences and barriers are further
obstructing customary patterns of resource use in the dry lands of the
Awash River Basin. Today, access to certain resources, such as water,
involves money, assuming that money is available to do so, which it fre-
quently is not in traditional pastoral livestock economies. At the same time,
attitudes have shifted: individual ownership is favoured over reciprocity