In 2009 UNEP, the ICRC and the Environmental Law Institute sought to catalogue and analyse the legal framework protecting the environment in relation to armed conflict.
Provides an overview of the context, importance and use of natural resources, their conditions, trends and linkages to regional or global factors. The report also reveals how Afghanistan’s natural resources – if sustainably managed – could provide the basis for future economic growth and stability.
RAND’s research showed that environmental concerns can have far-reaching and significant impacts on the US Army, both direct and indirect, especially in terms of cost, current operations, soldier health, diplomatic relations, reconstruction activities, and the ultimate success of the operation or the broader mission. Some evidence suggests that environmental problems may have even contributed to insurgency in Iraq.
This guidebook gives operational planners the necessary tools to incorporate environmental considerations throughout the life cycle of the operation. Failure to integrate environmental considerations into operational- and tactical-level planning increases the risk to the health and safety of military personnel and civilian non-combatants.
An assessment of the capacity of Iraq’s environment ministry in 2006 found it to be in good shape but made recommendations to improve its work.
This assessment identified the need for a priority programme of site assessment and emergency intervention at contaminated sites, and follow up work by UNEP and the Ministry of Environment to address the identified toxic waste on the worst of the first five sites has commenced.
UNEP’s post-conflict environmental assessment illuminates Afghanistan’s current levels of degradation, and sets forth a path that the country can take towards sustainable development.
The aim of this desk study was to outline the state of the environment and identify major areas of environmental damage requiring urgent attention.
