Download Exploitation

Forum: Environmental Commission 2016
Issue: Preventing the Exploitation of The Environment in War and Armed Conflict
Chair: Dana Al Nabulsi – Khalid Khalaf
Position: Co-Chair - Chair
Introduction:
When people think of tallying war casualties, only the wounded or dead civilians and
soldiers, along with the destruction of cities, are taken into consideration. The environment is
never looked at as a victim of war, despite crops being torched, soil being poisoned, animals
killed in large masses, and water wells being polluted in the process. It is war’s “silent casualty”,
as it’s damaged by all stages of war, from preparing by the production of weaponry, until the
very end when the battle is won and lost. Looting of people, decay of institution, lack of
governance, and damage caused by bombs or any other forms of destruction are all ways in
which the environment can and is being harmed during conflict. This damage being brought
upon the environment not only threatens human health, but it also has the potential to reduce
security and peacebuilding efforts. There could not possibly be peace if natural resources vital to
our livelihood are destroyed, so the United Nations is ensuring that action being taken in aid of
the environment is part of preventing conflict and peacebuilding. Six UN departments and
agencies have collaborated with the European Union to ensure that tension over natural resources
between countries are reduced, and that environmental management is utilized to prevent
conflicts from recurring. As of November 5 2001, November 6th of every year has been marked
as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed
Conflict by the United Nations General Assembly.
Definition of Key Terms:
Exploitation
Exploitation is the action of treating someone or something unfairly in order to receive
benefit or advantage from their work. In this case, the exploitation of the environment in armed
conflict would mean to use natural resources in order to gain benefit in war. Often times, if not
all the time, this would lead to the degradation of the environment or damage being brought upon
it. Examples of such degradation would be water well pollution, animal slaughter, poisoning of
soil and torching of crops.
Armed Conflict
Armed conflict is defined under International Humanitarian Law as being incompatibility
that covers government or territory where armed force is used between two parties, where at least
one would be the government of a state. If both parties are governments of a state, then it would
be considered an international armed conflict. But if only one end is a government and the other
end is non-governmental, then it would be a non-international armed conflict.
Environment
The environment is everything that is in our surroundings and aids in us living on earth,
such as the water covering Earth’s surface, the air we breathe, and the plants and animals that
surround us. There are many ways in which people impact the environment, but as of recent
years this impact has been predominantly negative. We are bringing about deforestation, acid
rain, and pollution to all aspects of the environment, and the resulting damage following these
actions are a threat to both Earth and our wellbeing. When people talk about the environment, it
is often in reference to how healthy our planet is, or its overall condition.
Background Information:
The exploitation of natural resources in any case is almost always accompanied with a
negative connotation, as it always leads to environmental degradation. Natural resources began
being exploited for the sake of economic growth during the 19th century, when raw materials
were extracted, processed, and developed, such as in machinery and mining, further than they
had ever been in pre-industrial eras.The 20th century saw a rapid increase in energy
consumption, and even today, 80% of international energy consumption is through the extraction
of fossil fuels, such as oil, gas, and coal. As the economic growth continues to occur, and
populations around the world rise, natural resources are constantly depleting unsustainably, and
this is becoming an increasing concern. During armed conflict, these resources are overexploited
in order to ensure their success within the conflict, but with the cost of degradation being brought
upon the environment. The United Nations Environment Programme has discovered that in the
last 60 years, 40% of all internal conflict is linked to natural resources, ranging from diamonds
and gold to land and water. Furthermore, conflict revolving around natural resources have been
found to be twice as likely to happen again.
Major Countries and Organizations Involved:
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP): The UNEP is a non-profit agency which
coordinates different kinds of environmental activities and assists countries with implementing
Environmental Peacebuilding. Warfare and exploitation of the environment leads to its
destruction. However, the activities of the UNEP that covers a wide variety of issues scaling
from the atmosphere to marine ecosystems and the promotion of a green economy ensure that
such destruction does not occur.
Current Status:
Currently, about 80% of the energy consumption in the world relies on and is sustained
by extracting fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal). Many issues arise due to exploitation of the
environment such as deforestation, desertification, extinction of species, forced migration, soil
erosion, oil depletion, ozone depletion, water pollution, and an exponential increase in natural
disasters. All of this is not only causing the environments to suffer, but also this excessive
demand in materials is causing competitions between different countries to intensify.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, a connection has been established between the exploitation of the environment
and how it occurs during armed conflict. Delegates are going to have to come up with solutions
that put an end to the exploitation of the environment whether it may be through the founding of
Non-Governmental Organization or the collaboration with currently existing ones such as the
UNEP. Seeing as this is the Environmental Commission, well thought out and creative solutions
must pass in order to protect the environment regardless of funding (funding can only be
discussed in the Ecosoc forum). If these serious issues are not solved it will impact human
health, absolutely destroy the biodiversity, deplete the ozone layer even more than it already has
been, and much more. The resolving of one issue will potentially solve thousands of other issues
that will arise due to ignoring current ones.
Bibliography:
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http://www.unric.org/en/latest-un-buzz/27126-international-day-for-preventing-theexploitation-of-the-environment-in-war-and-armed-conflict-6-november

http://www.un.org/en/events/environmentconflictday

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/day-preventing-environment-exploitation-inwar

https://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/article/other/armed-conflict-article170308.htm

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0775267.html

http://www.unep.org/disastersandconflicts/

http://www.unep.org/ecosystemmanagement/