Protected and conserved areas in an age of ecocide

Bibliographic Data

ID19445873
AuthorsRosie Rallings, Tim Caro (0000-0001-6804-8519)
Year2025
Pages66
Publication date2025-12-09
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePARKS (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0960-233X • E-ISSN: 2411-2119
PublisherIUCN (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2305/niek5582
OpenAlexW4417148160
LanguageEN
References cited26

Ecocide, incorporating either wilful or large-scale destruction of the environment, is a well-recognised problem, although it has still to come under the jurisdiction of international law. As instances of ecocide increase in both war and peacetime, the integrity of protected and conserved areas is increasingly compromised. Here, we highlight two forms of ecocide, namely broad-sense or large-scale environmental damage and narrow-sense or large-scale damage with intent. Then we examine notable cases of both broad and narrow-sense ecocide affecting national parks. In the Supplementary Online Material, we review the historical and contemporary definitions of ecocide. There are now significant efforts to establish effective legal frameworks aimed at criminalising ecocide, but these are advancing only slowly, and the threats to protected and conserved areas remain

Causation · Jurisdiction · Environmental law and policy · War, Law, and Justice · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses

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Open DOIOpen Access