International lawmakers should adopt a fifth Geneva
convention that recognises damage to nature alongside other war crimes,
according to an open letter by 24 prominent scientists.
The legal instrument should incorporate wildlife safeguards
in conflict regions, including protections for nature reserves, controls on the
spread of guns used for hunting and measures to hold military forces to account
for damage to the environment, say the signatories to the letter, published in
the journal Nature.
The UN international law commission is due to hold a meeting
with the aim of building on the 28 principles it has already drawn up to
protect the environment in war zones.
Prof Sarah Durant of the Zoological Society of London, one
of the signatories to the letter, said the principles were a major step forward
and should be expanded to make specific mention of biodiversity, and then
adopted across the world.
“The brutal toll of
war on the natural world is well documented, destroying the livelihoods of
vulnerable communities and driving many species, already under intense
pressure, towards extinction,” she said.
“We hope governments
around the world will enshrine these protections into international law. This
would not only help safeguard threatened species, but would also support rural
communities, both during and post-conflict, whose livelihoods are long-term
casualties of environmental destruction.”
Work in this field began in the 1990s after the Iraqi
military set fire to more than 600 oil wells during a scorched-earth retreat
from Kuwait in 1991, but the idea dates back at least to the Vietnam war, when the
US military used Agent Orange to clear millions of hectares of forest with dire
consequences for human health and wildlife.
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