Developing economies tend to depend on their environmental resource base for a large part of their economic production and employment. If the supply of social and technical ingenuity is inadequate, therefore, scarcity constrains local economic development, affects the overall health of the economy, and causes economic hardship for marginal groups. To escape this hardship and improve their lives, large numbers of people migrate, often to urban centers. In the absence of adaptation, environmental scarcity sharpens existing distinctions among social groups. Environmental scarcity can strengthen group identities based on ethnic, class, or religious differences.
Individuals identify with one another when they perceive they share similar hardships.
In the absence of adaptation, environmental scarcity weakens states. In some poor countries, the multiple effects of environmental scarcity increase the demands on the state, stimulate predatory elite behavior, reduce social trust and useful intergroup interaction, and depress state tax revenues. These processes in turn weaken the administrative capacity and legitimacy of the state. Migrating groups can trigger ethnic conflicts when they move to new areas. Declining or stagnant economic welfare can generate deprivation conflicts, such as rural insurgencies and urban riots.