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Hulme, Karen --- "Environmental Protection in Armed Conflict" [2010] ELECD 615; in Fitzmaurice, Malgosia; Ong, M. David; Merkouris, Panos (eds), "Research Handbook on International Environmental Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Environmental Law

Editor(s): Fitzmaurice, Malgosia; Ong, M. David; Merkouris, Panos

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201249

Section: Chapter 27

Section Title: Environmental Protection in Armed Conflict

Author(s): Hulme, Karen

Number of pages: 19

Extract:

27 Environmental protection in armed conflict
Karen Hulme



Introduction
Just as the environment needs to be protected in peacetime, so it also needs safeguarding in
situations of armed conflict.1 Without wartime protection, the environment will undoubtedly
suffer and the actions of warring States and militia might undo the conservation efforts under-
taken in peacetime. Armed conflict inevitably involves environmental impacts, whether due
to harmful pollutants released in the bombing of a pharmaceutical factory, the destructive
effect of bomb craters or the leakage of chemicals from unexploded ordnance. Indeed, the
effect in the environment of most weapons will be similar to the environmental and health
issues linked to toxic or hazardous substances and heavy metals (see Sands, 2003: 618­74).
Among the most memorable images of war are two which centre upon environmental destruc-
tion; notably, the use of napalm on mangrove in Vietnam (Westing, 1976), and Saddam's oil
pollution of the Persian Gulf Conflict 1991 (Elmer-Dewitt, 1992: 23).
From early notions of `equitable use' of agricultural `fruits' by occupiers of territory,2 to a
prohibition on severe environmental damage (Protocol (I), 1977: Articles 35(3) and 55(1)), the
principles and rules of the laws of armed conflict have evolved into a strong body of environ-
mental protection in wartime. Similar to the core principles of environmental protection, the
core principles of the laws of armed conflict reflect the values of society, but in a wartime
context these humanitarian values are balanced with the needs of the ...