The impacts\u00a0affect\u00a0livelihoods,\u00a0and\u00a0fuel\u00a0displacement\u00a0as well as ongoing instability.\u00a0\u00a0Moreover, they\u00a0can linger\u00a0even\u00a0after the\u00a0fighting\u00a0has\u00a0ended.<\/p>\n
In Sierra Leone, for example, \u201cwhen the guns fell silent in 2002 after a decade of conflict, our primary forests and savannahs also fell silent,\u201d deputy foreign minister Francess\u00a0Piagie\u00a0Alghali\u00a0told the UN Security Council<\/a> on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe witnessed loss of biodiversity, the forced migration of wildlife, and the abandonment of agricultural fields and swamps, all direct consequences of the armed conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n Long-term implications<\/p>\n Sierra Leone\u00a0holds the rotating\u00a0Security\u00a0Council presidency this month\u00a0and Ms.\u00a0Alghali\u00a0presided over a debate on\u00a0the environmental impact of armed conflict and climate-driven security risks.<\/p>\n It was held as more\u00a0armed\u00a0conflicts\u00a0rage\u00a0across the planet\u00a0than at any time since the end of the Second World War, and two billion people \u2013 a quarter of the global population \u2013 live in conflict-affected areas.<\/p>\n \u201cEnvironmental damage caused by conflicts continues to push people into hunger, into disease and into displacement and thereby increasing insecurity,\u201d said\u00a0Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment\u00a0Programme\u00a0(UNEP<\/a>).<\/p>\n Conflicts\u00a0lead to pollution, waste, and the destruction of critical ecosystems, with long-term implications for food security, water security, the\u00a0economy\u00a0and health, she\u00a0explained\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0climate change\u00a0\u201cexacerbates tensions\u201d and can even contribute to conflict\u00a0\u2013\u00a0over\u00a0water or land resources, for example.<\/p>\n Crop loss,\u00a0contamination\u00a0and\u00a0flooding<\/p>\n Ms. Andersen\u00a0highlighted\u00a0several examples\u00a0including\u00a0the\u00a0destruction of\u00a0Gaza, where two years of war have caused the loss of 97 per cent of tree crops, 95 per cent of\u00a0shrubland\u00a0and more than 80 per cent of annual crops.<\/p>\n \u201cFreshwater and marine ecosystems are polluted by munitions, by untreated sewage and other contaminants,\u201d she\u00a0said, while \u201cover 61 million\u00a0tonnes\u00a0of debris must now be cleared, with sensitivity to avoid further contamination.\u201d<\/p>\n In Ukraine, the June 2023 destruction of the\u00a0Kakhova\u00a0Dam \u201cled to the flooding of more than\u00a0600 km\u00b2 of land, resulting in severe loss of natural habitats, plant communities, and species, through prolonged inundation of ecosystems,\u201d\u00a0she added.<\/p>\n Legal\u00a0offensive<\/p>\n The debate took\u00a0place on the\u00a0International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict<\/a>\u00a0and amid growing\u00a0recognition of the need for\u00a0global\u00a0action.<\/p>\n \u201cSignificant efforts are being made to strengthen the international legal framework to protect the environment,\u201d said law professor Charles C. Jalloh, a member of the International Law Commission (ILC), a UN body.<\/p>\n While no single binding universal treaty yet exists, he pointed to some of the \u201cso-called soft law instruments\u201d that have made\u00a0contributions\u00a0to date, including\u00a0the ILC\u2019s set of 27 draft principles, adopted in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a0principles, rooted in the law of armed conflict, international environmental law and international human rights law, sought to strengthen the protection of the environment before, during and after armed conflict, including in situations of occupation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Strengthening links<\/p>\n Maranatha\u00a0Dinat\u00a0of the humanitarian organization World Relief delivered a message from Haiti, \u201cwhere the combined impacts of environmental degradation, climate change and socio-political instability reinforce one another, undermining peace, security and sustainable development.\u201d<\/p>\n She stressed the need to \u201cstrengthen the links between humanitarian action, climate adaptation, and peacebuilding\u201d\u00a0in order to\u00a0boost resilience, promote social cohesion and ensure lasting stability.<\/p>\n Ms. Andersen outlined how the international community can\u00a0assist\u00a0conflict-affected countries, starting with rebuilding\u00a0their\u00a0capacity for environmental management.<\/p>\n Such\u00a0support \u201cenables governments to manage natural resources for sustainable development, for economic recovery, and for climate adaptation, thus reducing poverty, hunger and aid dependency.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Climate adaptation and mitigation<\/p>\n She also called for increased\u00a0investments in climate adaptation. UNEP released its latest Emissions Gap Report\u00a0this week<\/a>,\u00a0which revealed that the world is struggling to limit global\u00a0temperature rise\u00a0to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.<\/p>\n