A Day to Prevent Environmental Causes and Results of War

NEW YORK, New York, November 8, 2004 (ENS) - "Across the developing world and the countries of the former Soviet Union, old chemical stockpiles, aging nuclear reactors, damaged and decaying factories and other assorted environmental time bombs are ticking," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme on Saturday. Marking the third annual International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflicts, Toepfer said these time bombs create instability between communities and neighboring countries.

"Many factors" underlie decisions by countries to engage in armed conflict, said Toepfer, acknowledging "opposing ideologies, ancient enmities and a scramble to plunder natural resources such as timber, minerals and oil."

But, he said, "it is the view of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), increasingly shared by others, that environmental degradation and a scarcity of healthy natural capital plays an important role too."

Cruise missiles used in the Kosovo Conflict contained three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of DU in their warheads. (Photo courtesy USNI)

A new report, produced by UNEP in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, focuses on environmental hot spots in the southern Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Environmental degradation can undermine local and international security by "reinforcing and increasing grievances within and between societies," the report says.

Eight environment and security priority areas are highlighted - the Black Sea coastal zone, South Ossetia, the Ararat and Valk valleys, the Greater Baku region and the Kura River estuary, and southern Caspian sea coast.

Joint projects to clean up sites, treaties to better share resources such as rivers and forests, and strengthening cooperation between the different countries ministries and institutions may hold the key to building trust, understanding and more stable relations.

"The work could become a blueprint for early warning for environment and security initiatives elsewhere in the world," said Toepfer.

Nongovernmental organizations from around the world used the occasion of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict to draw attention to the dangers of depleted uranium weaponry.

Petition drives, lobbying visits, symposiums, photo exhibits, and marches took placed in Belgium, England, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.

The petitioners seek an international treaty and Convention banning depleted uranium weapons.

A UNEP expert measures depleted uranium contamination with a gamma meter at Djakovica, Kosovo as part of the Post-Conflict Assessment Programme. (Photo courtesy UNEP)

Henk van der Keur of the Laka Foundation in the Netherlands said, "The numbers of innocent victims exposed is incalculable and in direct violation of the International Laws of War."

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for environmental rules to govern the conduct of modern warfare, in his speech marking the the first observance of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict on November 6, 2002.

The United Nations is now regularly invited to assess how conflict affects the environment, Annan pointed out. "Such missions have identified a wide range of environmental consequences of war, including pollution from oil and chemical leaks caused by bombing; the unregulated plunder of natural resources by armed forces; the danger to land, livelihoods and lives caused by landmines, unexploded ordnance and other war debris; and the negative impact of mass population movements on water, biodiversity and other ecosystem services."

"International conventions govern nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, but new technologies - such as depleted uranium ammunition - pose as yet unknown threats to the environment," Annan said.

A Yugoslav M-84 tank destroyed by DU fire from A-10 during the Kosovo conflict. (Photo courtesy USNI)

The NGOs say their actions and the petition campaign will continue until the realization of an international treaty banning uranium weapons. The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons will use the petitions in an appeal to the European Parliament and other international bodies such as the United Nations and will use them at forums such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty meeting in New York and the UN Disarmament Committee meeting in Geneva next spring.

"It is imperative that the U.S. and the international community explicitly address DU as unconventional weaponry, and take steps to halt its proliferation and stop its production and use," said Tara Thornton of the Military Toxics Project, a nongovernmental organization based in the United States.

To prevent environmental problems from becoming causes of war in the first place, the UNEP initiative is using novel mapping methods that link environmental problems with factors such as population movements and socio-ethnic mix in order to pinpoint key areas where tensions could turn to turmoil.

As part of UNEP's new science initiative, governments have requested more in depth studies, and Toepfer said the first of them is likely to focus on the war-torn Great Lakes region of Africa.

Located in eastern Africa, Africa's Great Lakes region includes countries surrounding Lake Kivu, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Victoria. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda have a combined population of 107 million people.

The climate and rich volcanic soils in the highlands sustain intensely cultivated croplands, encouraging the growth of human population. This increased population is competing for habitat used by endangered species such as the mountain gorilla and the forest elephant.

Toepfer expressed the hope that, "armed with more sound science, we can use the environment as a new peace policy for the 21st century so that it emerges as less the passive victim and more the active broker of a more stable and less war ridden world."

To find out more visit: http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/environment_war/index.html

The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons is found at: http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/