Political Economy of War and Nature Conservation in the DRC: Strategic Approaches and Prioritization of Actions[Économie politique de guerre et conservation de la nature en RDC: approches stratégiques et priorisation d'actions]

The relationship between wars and natural resources is at the origin of research addressing issues related to natural resources, environment, looting or their curse on developing countries. More recent research attempts to establish the link between natural resources and armed conflict. However, the ravages of war on human populations and the development of the countries that suffer from it are the subject of many publications today. But despite all these siren sounds, the anchoring of nature conservation in a war political economy remains poorly theorized. Yet there is clear evidence that direct and indirect impacts of armed conflict also manifest themselves on the physical environment and, by extension, on biological diversity. The objective of our contribution is to examine, on the one hand, the effects of the modus operandi of such a political economy of war in the DRC and, on the other hand, to propose strategies and actions to reduce the harmful impacts of this economy of terror on the natural environment.