052 - Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict

052 - Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict

Latest version in this language: Version for electronic vote | Published on: 01 Sep 2020

NOTING that military conflict can contribute to destroying megafauna and their habitats, pushing species to extinction, reducing biodiversity and damaging the environment, and also generates the loss of geodiversity, geological heritage and places of geological interest that are also part of the environment;

FURTHER NOTING that conflicts over natural resources underpin and prolong many armed conflicts, and through unsustainable methods of extraction cause further environmental harm;

AWARE that the uncontrolled circulation of arms can exacerbate environmental damage in conflict situations, for instance, by driving unsustainable hunting of wildlife;

RECOGNISING the links between the illegal exploitation of natural resources, including poaching and illegal trafficking of wildlife and natural heritage (fossils, minerals, meteorites), and the proliferation and trafficking of arms as one of the major factors fuelling and exacerbating conflicts, as stressed in United Nations Security Council Resolution S/RES/2136 (2014);

CONSCIOUS that long-term peace and security depends on a productive environment able to deliver the ecosystem services needed to sustain human well-being and for the fulfilment of human rights; and

RECALLING Resolution 19.41 Armed Conflict and the Environment (Buenos Aires, 1994);

The IUCN World Conservation Congress, at its session in Marseille, France:

1. CALLS ON the Director General to strongly encourage the United Nations Security Council to address the issue of wildlife trafficking and environmental protection in mandates for UN peacekeeping operations, as appropriate;

2. CALLS ON the global community to recognise the importance of environmental protection before, during and after armed conflicts in order to protect biodiversity and to foster peace and security;

3. CALLS ON the World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL) Specialist Group on Peace, Security and Conflict to develop model legislation and/or principles in line with the work undertaken by the International Law Commission, and where appropriate to help State Members protect the environment in relation to armed conflict;

4. URGES Members to engage with the work of the International Law Commission on the protection of the environment in relation to illegal armed conflicts to ensure that the Commission’s principles adequately and appropriately address issues associated with sustaining ecosystems and preventing biodiversity loss;

5. URGES State Members to use the United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms and the Arms Trade Treaty to address the uncontrolled circulation of small arms and light weapons, and their use in poaching and wildlife crime in regions affected by armed conflicts; and

6. CALLS ON Members to conduct scientific research to improve understanding of the impacts of armed conflicts on the environment and broader socio-ecological systems.

The natural environment and armed conflicts are inextricably intertwined. An estimated 40% of internal conflicts are linked to the exploitation of natural resources (https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/environment-silent-casualty-armed-conflict), yet armed conflicts further damage the environment (http://www.fecpl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lawrence-et-al.-2015-War.pdf), leading to conditions likely to escalate conflicts. Hence, a vicious cycle emerges resulting in an increasingly degraded natural environment with catastrophic impacts on biodiversity and human well-being. Extreme climatic events, due to climate change, are expected to exacerbate local and regional conflicts, particularly in regions subject to stochastic droughts (https://bit.ly/2GgrZH0), and uncontrolled circulation of firearms further underpins conflict escalation and wildlife declines.

Increasing recognition of harmful impacts of modern warfare on the socio-ecological systems that sustain us has seen increasing calls for environmental protections during armed conflicts. Previous IUCN actions include the Resolution on Conservation and Peace in 1981 (15/2), and the Resolution on Armed Conflict and the Environment in 1994 (19/41), which further emphasised the need for international legal frameworks to reduce or mitigate environmental damage. Despite these positive developments, there has been little improvement in legal protections for the environment during war. This failure is illustrated by a 565% increase in conflicts in North Africa since 2011 with devastating impacts on people and the environment, and which has hastened wildlife population collapse (https://bit.ly/2KXpRY0).

However, 2013 saw an important development when the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) embarked on a program to develop a set of legal principles to protect the environment in relation to armed conflict (PERAC), which was finalised and adopted by the ILC in 2019 (https://bit.ly/2ZySliU). Thus, PERAC provides an unprecedented opportunity for lawyers, scientists and conservationists to work together to ensure the implementation of new legal principles to safeguard the environment before, during, and after, armed conflicts. This IUCN motion has been developed to take advantage of this opportunity (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02248-6).

Priorities are to:
- Ensure the recognition by the global community of the importance of environmental protection before, during and after armed conflicts in order to foster peace and security;
- Engage IUCN Members with PERAC to ensure that legal principles adequately address issues associated with sustaining ecosystem services and preventing biodiversity loss;
- Stimulate the IUCN-WCEL Specialist Group on Peace, Security and Conflict to develop model legislation for IUCN Member States in a manner consistent with PERAC legal principles;
- Increase scientific research to improve understanding of the impacts of armed conflicts on the environment and broader socio-ecological systems;
- Allow IUCN Member States to implement the PERAC legal principles as part of their commitments to international law;
- Stimulate IUCN Member States to work with the military industry to regulate arms transfers, such as by adopting the UN Arms Trade Treaty principles;

It is anticipated that the activities, which centre around awareness raising and policy influencing, will not incur substantial additional costs.
  • Association Marocaine pour la Protection de l`Environnement et le Climat [Morocco]
  • Environmental Law Institute [United States of America]
  • The WILD Foundation [United States of America]
  • World Wide Fund for Nature - International [Switzerland]

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