ASCL Seminar: Agrarian and rural change in eastern DRC

This lecture examines agrarian change at the conservation frontier in North Kivu (DRC), where armed conflict, environmental governance and market integration intersect.
Based on recent qualitative fieldwork, it analyses how rural households navigate insecurity, land scarcity and competing territorial claims while adapting cropping systems and labour organisation.

The findings show that war does not simply disrupt rural life but becomes embedded in everyday livelihood strategies.
Conservation and development interventions aiming at stabilization and green growth may therefore unintentionally intensify local inequalities and land conflicts rather than resolve them.