Today is International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. The environment has often remained the unpublicized victim of war. Water wells have been polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed for military advantage. Not to mention the lives of so many people who – amongst many things – manage and protect the environment.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has found that over the last 60 years, at least 40% of all internal conflicts have been linked to the exploitation of natural resources, whether high-value resources such as timber, diamonds, gold and oil, or scarce resources such as fertile land and water.
Conflicts involving natural resources have also been found to be twice as likely to relapse. The UN attaches great importance to ensuring that action on the environment is part of conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding strategies.
It’s all deeply entangled. There is no sustainable peace if the natural resources that support livelihoods and ecosystems are also destroyed.
