From Battlefield to Ecological Disaster: The Environmental Cost of War

BIPSS Research Intern Naima Jinat explains in this commentary how armed conflict turns into an ecological disaster through both its intentional and unintentional impacts on natural environment. The commentary describes the direct and indirect consequences of warfare on natural resources and ecosystems. It also argues that environmental destruction is not always the backhanded and subsequent result of armed conflicts; sometimes the nature itself becomes a weapon of warfare that is deliberately used by the parties in conflict to consolidate their power positions and weaken that of their opponents. Finally, the commentary discusses the security and development implications of armed conflict from environmental aspects which illustrates that environmental destruction not only imposes short-term impacts, but also propagates consequences that affects generations that not even experienced the conflict at the first place.