Conflict and Coffee in Burundi 89
highly political attitude, especially if expressed by a state machinery and elite
class, since it undermines the equitable and sustainable distribution and use
of natural, social and political resources, thereby stunting the life chances of
millions of citizens. This approach specifically rejects what Twose and
Fairhead call the 'greenwar' thesis." This thesis postulates a simplified and
inevitable progression from environmental degradation (including land
scarcity, land degradation and desertification, etc.) to poverty and conflict.
Twose summarises it thus:
"The cycle is repetitive and truly vicious. Environmental impoverishment,
increasing conflict over resources, marginalisation of rural people, social and
political unrest, displacement and uncontrolled migration lead to further con-
flict and the outbreak of wars within and between states. When hostilities
grow into organised warfare, the environment inevitably undergoes further
degradation. The insidious pattern comes full cycle, as a peacetime popula-
tion and government struggle to cope with a land left environmentally bank-
rupt. The seeds are sown for further tension and conflict."12
In a similar vein to the 'greenwar' thesis. Homer-DixonI3 argue that envi-
ronmental stress and competition over scarce resources may be central fac-
tors leading to the outbreak of violence. This includes where the rural poor
are competing to survive in the face of environmental scarcity and degtada-
tion, but also where more affluent and armed groups compete to capture
scarce resources. Uvin has applied this concept to Burundi, noting competi-
tion for land as a contributing factor to the violent conflict and genocide. Our
analysis does not find that this approach applies to Burundi. Where there is
violent appropriation of land, this takes place in the context of much wider
structural violence, whose main target is the state, not the land itself.
Fairhead criticises this 'greenwar' position very effectively and susests an
alternative to the focus on scarcity and environmental depletion, namely the
focus on resource value and wealth. An important element that such an
approach allows us to see is "how the relationship between environmental
degradation and conflict is linked to the international economy .... This is
important, as the major destinations for the resources which, it can be
argued, have been fuelling conflicts in Africa tend to be the industrialised
nations."I4 It is for this reason that this chapter analyses the coffee industry
to show how local agricultural production and resource exploitation is linked
to state predation and finally to the international coffee market and its high-
ly destabilising price swings.
A final and important point that we share with Fairhead is that we aim to
'put environment in its place'. The strategy taken is to focus on the many
political and economic causes [of the conflict in Burundi] and then try to see
where environmental phenomena fit in, rather than looking at environmen-
tal phenomena and trying to see how they might contribute (or not) to under-
standing [the conflict.]"15