Typologies of Nomad-Settler Conflict in Afghanistan
Publisher: European Union, Research for a Better Afghanistan
Author(s): Antonio Giustozzi
Date: 2018
Topics: Conflict Causes, Land, Livelihoods, Renewable Resources
Countries: Afghanistan
The AREU project on nomad/settler conflict started at the end of 2016. This is the first issue paper coming out of it.
While conflict over boundaries and migration timetables is an old feature of nomad/farmer relations in Afghanistan, this on-going AREU project found that new types of conflict have emerged. Political parties, organisations and lobbies play a much greater role in Afghanistan today than they did before the war and unsurprisingly Afghan communities have a much greater ability for collective action than before. One direct result of this development is conflict over access to pastures: only in the presence of some ability to organise for action can communities block nomad access to large areas, as has been happening in Hazarajat.
However, in terms of the overall picture, the most important (in terms of potential consequences) form of nomad/farmer conflict is now over the appropriation of state land, typically pastures. Both farmer and settled nomad communities are trying to build on pasture land or to farm it, as a result of demographic pressure and of urban development. This gives rise to conflicts between settlers and settling communities, or between settlers/settling communities and nomad communities, who want to keep taking their livestock to the pastures which are being grabbed.
Conflict over boundaries and encroachment of farming land remain an issue, contributing to motivate farming communities to block nomad access, but violent clashes rarely occur directly as a result of trespassing only.
The main policy recommendation emerging from the project at this stage is that the Afghan authorities can no longer postpone formulating a policy for allocating some pastures for urban development or farming.