Abstracts
Theme: WTO and Governance
Panel: Natural Resource Management and Access Benefit Sharing (ABS)
Session II:
 Share of Native Balochs in Balochistan’s Natural Resources and Prosperity
Nizamuddin Nizamani*
Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan, covering 2,22,000 square kilometers, i.e. 47.9 per cent of the total area of Pakistan. Balochistan is conflict-ridden, rich in natural resource, and geographically a very important territory of Pakistan. Contrary to its vast area, its population is only 6.5 million according to provisional census of 1998, which constitutes just 5 per cent of Pakistan’s total population.
The natural resources and minerals such as Gold, Coal, Iron ore, Marble, Natural Gas, Chromate, Sulfur, Copper, Zinc and Black Pearls abound in the province and have already been located and extracted. Uranium and other resources have also been spotted out but due to local resistance they are yet to be exploited.
Balochistan happens to be the driest province of Pakistan with very little irrigation and farming. In terms of infrastructure it is also the poorest. Balochistan is the most impoverished province of Pakistan having the lowest per capita income compared with the other three provinces. This disparity in income and distribution of resources has caused time and again upheavals and insurgencies in the province for the last six decades of Pakistan’s history.
This paper will highlight the lacunae in Natural Resource Management (NRM), access and distribution of resources, the various provincial and federal agreements, and their implementation. It also recommends to the Federal Government and other stakeholders to ensure that Baloch people get their rightful and legal share of natural resources, and take various steps on a short-term and long-term basis in this regard.
* Nizamuddin Nizamani is a trainer, writer and social researcher. He has been engaged with voluntary social services since 1990. He has worked with the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and the NBP Staff College Karachi.
The Effect of Natural Resource Availability on Women’s Time Allocation Decisions In Rural India
Shreekant Gupta, Neetu Chopra, Urvashi Narain and Klaas van ’t Veld*
One of the greatest challenges facing India today is improving the economic well being of 30% of its rural people who live in abject poverty, particularly women. At the same time these people live in economies that are largely biomass-based subsistence economies. Thus, if resource degradation forces rural households especially women to spend more time in collection of natural resources such as water and firewood--essential commodities for these households--they will have less time for income-generating activities. This paper examines time allocation decisions of rural women in response to variation in three natural resource stocks, namely, groundwater, fodder and forests. We also examine how variation in these stocks affects household coping strategies for different income strata and landholding classes. Using purpose collected primary data from 550 households across 60 villages in Jhabua district of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, we specifically address the following questions: (a) do women change their time allocation decisions in response to natural resource scarcity? For instance, do women spend more time in natural resource collection when they are scarce? and (b) how do rural households cope with natural resource scarcity: in addition to changing time allocation do they also buy these resources/reduce consumption/invest in private sources or opt for alternatives? Our preliminary results indicate significant time impacts of natural resource scarcity. For instance, scarcity of water significantly increases water collection time for women and children. These findings have important implications for natural resource management initiatives such as community forestry and watershed development programs.
* Dr. Shreekant Gupta is Reader at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. Neetu Chopra is associated with the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi, India. Urvashi Narain is working for the Resources for the Future, Washington DC, USA, and Klaas van ’t Veld is affiliated with the University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA.
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