Challenges and opportunities of human conflict and environmental transformation in Ecuadorian highlands

This article critically analyzes the relationships among resource scarcity, conflict, and the transformation of the environment, positing several conceptual tools that provide a nuanced explanation for environmental transformation through human conflict and which overcome some of the limitations of the existing literature of political conflict. After proposing the idea of nonlinear cycles of violent degradation and demonstrating empirically how this has transformed landscapes and societies in the Ecuadorian highlands, the article examines the sociopolitical processes that occur at each of the nodes of the cycle. Specifically, it argues that the political incentives for cooperative environmental management can build confidence and be instrumental in the de-escalation of violence related to natural resource conflicts. When cooperative environmental management and dispute resolution fails, it is frequently the result of a gap between the short-term political incentives for decision makers to intervene and craft institutional solutions and the long-term pay-offs of these institutional measures for their constituents. The article argues that the destructive cycle is not deterministic, and that at each of the nodes of the cycle, opportunities exist to reach a stage of constructive negotiation, either by building on technical cooperation, mobilizing external allies and pressure agents, or by equalizing the gap in political time windows through conflict escalation so that decision makers find it in their interest to engage and help manage the conflict and mitigate global change. Este artículo analiza críticamente las relaciones entre la escasez de recursos naturales, los conflictos, y la transformación del medio ambiente. Propone varias herramientas conceptuales que ofrecen una explicación detallada de la transformación ambiental por medio de los conflictos humanos y que superan algunas limitaciones de la literatura sobre los conflictos políticos. Después de proponer la idea de ciclos no-lineales de degradación violenta, y demostrar empíricamente cómo se han transformado los paisajes y sociedades de la Sierra ecuatoriana, el artículo examina los procesos sociopolíticos que ocurren en cada uno de los nodos del ciclo. Específicamente, sostiene que los incentivos políticos para el manejo cooperativo del medio ambiente pueden aumentar la confianza y pueden contribuir decisivamente a la disminución de la violencia que está relacionada a conflictos de recursos naturales. Cuando el manejo cooperativo del medio ambiente y la resolución de disputas fracasan, frecuenteme