The Dictionary of Human Geography

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considerable attention by geographers (Flint,

2005). sd

Suggested reading

Flint (2005).

conflict commodities Across the global

South, the dependence upon a strategic nat-

uralresource(oil, diamonds, copper) has

been associated with a cluster of poor

human, economic and politicaldevelopment

indices, an association that has been called

the ‘resource curse’. These pathologies appear

especially robust in extractive economies;

for example, the petro-states of the Gulf of

Guinea, which are classic rentier economies

marked by deplorable corruption, poor eco-

nomic performance, authoritarian politics,

miserable social achievement and civilcon-

flict(including civilwar), against a backdrop

of enormous oil wealth. Paul Collier and his

colleagues at the World Bank (2003) devel-

oped a model of what they called the ‘econom-

ics of civil war’ in which resource-dependent

economies (especially minerals) could be

sought out and looted by rebel groups. The

ease with which resources such as diamonds

and oil could be extorted, stolen or tracked

down by groups were driven, in their view, by

greed and criminality rather than grievance.

Civil conflict always surrounded resource-

dependent economies in which the character

of the resource – point or diffuse, proximate or

remote (see Le Billon, 2005) – determined

the particular forms of violent politics (coup

d’e ́tat versus secessionist movements).

Conflict commodities refer to the association

between state dependence upon particular

commoditiesand the ease with which rebels

could plunder the resource in order to fund

their war (organized crime in the World Bank’s

account) against the state. The case of ‘blood

diamonds’ gained international attention

because of the ways in which alluvial dia-

monds and their trade could be easily

controlled by rebel groups in the extraordinar-

ily violent civil conflict in Sierra Leone. As a

result of the pressure by activist groups such

as Global Witness, the Kimberly Process

Certification Scheme was set up in January

2003 as an international governmental certifi-

cation system to prevent the trade in diamonds

that funded or sustained civil conflict (see

Global Witness, n.d.). mw

Suggested reading

Collier, Elliott, Hegre, Hoeffler, Reynal-Querol

and Sambanis (2003); Le Billon (2005). See also

Global Witness, The Kimberly process(http://

http://www.globalwitness.org/pages/en/the_kimberley_

process.html).

conservation A term that implies the keep-

ing or preservation of something for future

use and human benefit. The word can be

applied to buildings or to food, but it is mostly

used to refer to the natural environment,

naturalresources, and particularly species

and habitats. Concern for non-humannature

has a long history; for example, in classical

Mediterranean societies, and in the early

European tropical colonialempire (Grove,

1995). In its modern form, conservation

became established as a body of thought and

social action towards the end of the nineteenth

century.

Two aspects of the conservation of the

environment have been important since the

late nineteenth century. The first concerns

the rate at which resources, particularly

renewable resources (such as living species),

are consumed. The second concerns the desire

to ensure the survival of species and habitats.

The distinction between these two is com-

monly exemplified by the sharp debate in the

USA in the early years of the twentieth century

between the utilitarian view of conservation

of Theodore Roosevelt’s adviser, the forester

Gifford Pinchot, and the more romantic pre-

servationist arguments of the Sierra Club and

John Muir (Hays, 1959). However, these two

aspects of conservation are still in tension

today; for example, between those who argue

that safari hunting and a legal trade in ivory

are an appropriate and effective way of con-

serving species such as elephants inafrica,

and those who feel that such hunting and

trade can never be controlled in a way that

guarantees sustainable harvests and that does

not promote illegal killing.

The technical basis of ideas about conserva-

tion of renewable resources draws on a num-

ber of areas of natural science, particularly

the science of fisheries management. In the

late nineteenth century, fish catches began to

decline systematically in Europe and the USA

as fishing became industrialized with the

advent of steam-driven boats and other inno-

vations. The International Conference for

the Exploration of the Sea in 1899 proposed

scientific enquiries to promote rational

exploitation. By the 1930s the idea of a max-

imum sustainable yield was established, and

through the first half of the twentieth century

a series of international institutions were

established to try to regulate fishing, including

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CONSERVATION