Experience has increasingly shown that the abundance of natural resources does not necessarily produce rapid development in countries where they are found. Instead, paradoxically, they all too often produce poverty, conflict and corruption whose consequences become increasingly widespread and impact development, not only in the country in question, but more broadly in an interconnected world. The rapidly globalizing world means that these consequences transcend boundaries and threaten stability of both the developed and developing world. It is therefore common sense that a search for the reversal of this disturbing trend becomes a global collective. more