ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND ARMED GROUP RECRUITMENT IN FRAGILE STATES

Abstract

Environmental degradation has increasingly emerged as a critical but underexplored driver of armed group recruitment in fragile states. This article examines how ecological stressors such as climate change, land degradation, resource depletion, and environmental pollution interact with weak governance, economic marginalization, and social fragmentation to create conditions conducive to armed mobilization. Drawing on environmental security theory and political ecology, the study argues that environmental degradation functions not merely as a background condition but as an active structural catalyst that intensifies grievances, erodes livelihoods, and undermines state legitimacy. Through a qualitative analysis of selected fragile-state contexts, including the Lake Chad Basin, the Sahel, and the Niger Delta, the article identifies key pathways linking environmental harm to recruitment dynamics, notably livelihood loss, competition over scarce resources, forced displacement, and the collapse of traditional coping mechanisms. It further demonstrates how armed groups strategically exploit environmental vulnerability by framing ecological grievances within ideological narratives, offering alternative economic opportunities, and exerting control over natural resources. The article also highlights the gendered and youth-specific dimensions of environmental insecurity, showing how young people, in particular, become susceptible to recruitment amid ecological and economic precarity. The study concludes that addressing armed group recruitment in fragile states requires moving beyond militarized responses toward integrated strategies that combine environmental protection, climate adaptation, livelihood resilience, and inclusive governance. By foregrounding the environmental roots of insecurity, this article contributes to broader debates on sustainable peacebuilding and conflict prevention in ecologically stressed societies.