(Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)During the past 15 years, China’s demand for primary commodities has triggered a dramatic increase in natural resource extraction in the developing world. There’s a catch — the associated environmental and societal consequences have sparked social conflict across more than 50 developing nations. These rising local costs threaten to lead to a new “local resource curse,” where the negative side effects of resource production threaten to undermine the broader economic benefits of extraction. This phenomenon takes place across Latin America, Africa and South Asia — nearly three-quarters of countries have experienced riots or protests related to natural resource extraction in recent years. And this is where scholars, policymakers and the international community can collaborate to test emerging approaches to resolve the local resource curse.

Source: Washington Post April 25, 2018 09:56 UTC