"At the turn of the last century, high-value natural resources like diamonds and timber helped fund devastating wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Many academics and practitioners concluded that effective peacebuilding would require the reform of these sectors. In a carefully conceived study based on years of fieldwork, Michael Beevers argues that the peacebuilding community embraced, emphasized and operationalized this idea in ways that simplified a complex reality, concentrated power in the state, and marginalized alternative views and competing priorities. The ironic end result, Beevers claims, is that the tensions and disagreements that preceded the outbreak of violent conflict have, in some cases, been ignored, and, in other cases, been restored. Beevers makes a significant contribution to the evolving concept of environmental peacebuilding." (Richard Matthew, University of California, Irvine, USA)"With this meticulously researched book, Michael Beevers threads the needle to make substantial contributions to both scholarship and practice. His case analysis of post-conflict Liberia and Sierra Leone advances evolving theory around environmental peacebuilding, taking tangible steps beyond the field's early deductive days. At the same time, his explication of dominant post-conflict natural resource management approaches reveals specific shortcomings that should help shape future efforts.

" (Geoffrey Dabelko, Ohio University and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, USA) "Drawing from thorough research in Sierra Leone and Liberia, Michael Beevers offers an insightful critique of the dangerous oversimplification of 'conflict resources' and 'greed war' narratives. An important contribution to the peacebuilding literature." (Philippe Le Billon, University of British Columbia, Canada).