Environmental Degradation from Conflict

Primary reference(s)

UNDRR, no date. Environmental degradation United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Accessed 30 May 2025.

Annotations

Key relevant UN convention / multilateral treaty

International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law, International Environmental Law, and International Human Rights Law, including provisions protecting the environment in conflicts. In 2019, the International Law Commission Drafting Committee provisionally endorsed 28 legal principles intended to mitigate environmental degradation before, during and after conflicts (International Law Commission, 2022).

The Hague Convention IV of 1907 and Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (AP I).

Drivers

Environmental degradation occurs during peace time but can be particularly exacerbated by an armed conflict.

Impacts

The impact of conflicts on the environment is three-fold: direct impact, secondary impact, and environmental governance impact and increases any other degradation for other natural hazards such as landslides due to deforestation. 

Direct impact includes intentional targeting of the environment, physical destruction, or the use of natural resources by militant groups to finance conflict, environmental contamination from bombing of industrial sites, and military debris and demolition waste from targeted infrastructure (Solomon et al., 2018; Jensen, 2019). Modern military confrontation may involve exposure to toxic substances and substances of uncertain toxicity, such as depleted uranium used in munition. Large amounts of depleted uranium may remain deposited in soil after the end of the military operations. It represents a significant hazard due to potential contamination of air, soil and water (Murray et al., 2002). Furthermore, conflict can impact the environment regionally (Hopke, 2009). 

Indirect impact results from the coping strategies used by the population to survive in conflict, such as overuse of natural resources, environmental damage due to population displacements, growth of a black market for natural resources during conflict, and implementation of large-scale humanitarian and peacekeeping operations without due consideration to environmental impact (Jensen, 2019). 

Military conflicts frequently weaken environmental governance structures, and hinder policy coordination, investment and the enforcement of the law (UNEP, 2009; Bruch, 2019; Jensen 2019). The financial resources and technical equipment usually utilised for environmental law enforcement can be redirected to war needs (Bruch, 2019). The breakdown of environmental governance is potentially the most challenging impact to address (Bruch et al., 2016; Jensen, 2019). The consequences are long-term, persistent, and affect larger territories than direct impact (Jensen, 2019). For instance, conflicts are generally known to have negative direct and secondary impacts on biodiversity (Solomon et al., 2018). However, a study at UC Berkley suggested that during armed conflicts, institutional collapse kills even more wildlife than military tactics (Gaynor et al., 2016).

Protection of the environment during a military conflict has the potential to facilitate peacebuilding (World Bank 2022), or in case of failure to respond, can hinder further peacebuilding efforts (World Bank, 2022). Assurance of implementation of international law, training of military personnel (including revision of military training manuals regarding protection of environment in conflict), integration of environmental considerations including biodiversity conservation into military, reconstructions and humanitarian programmes in conflict areas, are some of the measures than can help mitigate environmental damage from conflict.

The CEOBS (Conflict and Environment Observatory) 2024 report highlights how ecosystem collapse can lead to long-term environmental crises and exacerbate existing conflicts. Specifically, the report examines how significant environmental damage to agricultural land and other sensitive infrastructure potentially leads to further resource scarcity and conflict (CEOBS, 2024). 

Nevertheless, the impact of environmental damage in conflicts on human lives and health is still poorly documented and addressed in conflict resolution and humanitarian assistance but increasing evidence is collected and analysed (Pizzino et al., 2023; Meaza et al., 2024; CEBOS, https://ceobs.org/, no date).

Multi-hazard context

The relationship between climate change, conflict and displacement is complex and context-specific – over-simplification may lead to inappropriate or ineffective action (UNFCCC, 2022). Compounded droughts, flooding, locust plagues, environmental degradation, and poor governance are all leading to an increasingly precarious and complicated situation for tens of millions of people. For example, cascading disasters in many parts of the world, including throughout Africa, and the Arid Corridor in the Americas, are exacerbating other trends such as urbanisation and the abandonment of small farm holdings (UNFCCC, 2022). 

As an example of technological impacts on the environment from conflict, in the first Gulf War, when 700 of Kuwait’s oil fields were set ablaze, the smoke plume initially stretched for 800 miles. In addition, approximately 11 million barrels of crude oil poured into the Persian Gulf, creating a slick nine miles long. Inland, nearly 300 oil lakes formed on the surface of the desert, polluting the soils for decades. An international coalition of firefighters fought the fires for months until the last well was finally capped in November 1991. Even now, more than 30 years later, the effects of those fires are still felt, with more than 90 per cent of the contaminated soil still exposed (UNFCCC, 2022).

Risk Management

Protection of the environment during a military conflict has the potential to facilitate peacebuilding (Conca & Wallace, 2009), or in case of failure to respond, can hinder further peacebuilding efforts (Jensen & Lonergan, 2012). Assurance of implementation of international law, training of military personnel (including revision of military training manuals regarding the protection of the environment in conflict), and integration of environmental considerations including biodiversity conservation into military, reconstructions and humanitarian programmes in conflict areas, are some of the measures that can help mitigate environmental damage from conflict. 

Remedying the environmental impacts of war is complex and reparations are still a challenge (Kong et al., 2023).

Monitoring

Environmental damage identification and monitoring in conflict zones have relied on a combination of remote sensing, field reporting including more recently on crowd sourcing and citizen science and forecast modelling and simulation tools of areas at risk of environmental damage (e.g. from oil spills, radiation fallout). Furthermore, geospatial analysis tools are being developed to help identify and monitor areas where environmental, climate, and security stresses intersect with socio-economic vulnerabilities fomenting instability, (e.g. UNEP, EU-UNEP Partnership, FAO, 2025)