Information Sources

Here are a couple organizations that study and work to ameliorate the impacts of war and conflict on the environment.

Green Cross International (GCI)

“In January 1990 during an address to the Global Forum on Environment and Development for Survival held in Moscow, President Mikhail Gorbachev brought up the idea for an organization that would apply the medical emergency response model of the International Committee of the Red Cross to ecological issues and expedite solutions to environmental problems that transcend national boundaries.

Developing this idea, delegates at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (June 1992), approached Mikhail Gorbachev (the former President of the USSR) mandating him to create and launch this organisation. At the same time Swiss National Council MP, Roland Wiederkehr founded a ‘World Green Cross' with the same objective. Both organisations merged in 1993 to form Green Cross International.

Green Cross International (GCI) was formally launched in Kyoto, on the 18th April 1993. Upon the invitation of Mikhail Gorbachev, many renowned figures joined its board of directors and its honorary board.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

“UNEP seeks to minimize environmental threats to human well-being from the environmental causes and consequences of conflicts and disasters. Since the start of the new millennium, the world has witnessed over 35 major conflicts and some 2,500 disasters. Over two billion people have been affected, and millions have lost their lives. Not only do these tragic events destroy infrastructure, cause population displacement and fundamentally undermine human security, they also compound poverty and tear apart the fabric of sustainable development.

In addition, at least 18 violent conflicts have been fuelled by the exploitation of natural resources since 1990. As the global population continues to rise, and demand for resources continues to grow, there is significant potential for conflicts over natural resources to intensify in the coming decades. The consequences of climate change for water availability, food security, prevalence of disease, coastal boundaries, and population distribution may further aggravate existing tensions and generate new conflicts.

In response to increased global awareness of the environmental dimensions of crises, and to growing demand for services that address them, UNEP has identified “disasters and conflicts” as one of six priority areas of work. Through the Disasters and Conflicts programme, UNEP provides four core services to Member States:

— Post-crisis environmental assessments

— Post-crisis environmental recovery

— Environmental cooperation for peacebuilding

— Disaster risk reduction"

And this program ended in 2001 but has left many interesting publications:

Biodiversity Support Program

"The Biodiversity Support Program (BSP) operated from 1989-2001 as a consortium of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and World Resources Institute (WRI) and was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

BSP's mission was to promote conservation of the world's biological diversity believing that a healthy and secure living resource base is essential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations.

BSP carried out its mission by supporting projects that combined conservation with social and economic development. Specifically it undertook:

• •                Analysis
• •                Neutral facilitation
• •                Capacity strengthening
• •                Technical assistance"

On Friday, I’ll share some excerpts from a BSP publication called Trampled Grass: Mitigating the Impacts of Armed Conflict on the Environment.