Human conflict and ecosystem services
Finding the Environmental Price of Warfare
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4032538 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard A Francis (0000-0002-4598-0861, Senior Lecturer in Ecology at King's College London (KCL).), Robert A Francis (Senior Lecturer in Ecology at King's College London (KCL)), Krishna Krishnamurthy (Regional climate risk analyst for the World Food Programme in Asia where he is developing a series of methods to understand better the impacts of climate on food security and poverty.), P Krishna Krishnamurthy (0000-0002-0320-8523, World Food Programme) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 90 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 853-869 |
| Publication date | 2014-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-2346.12144 |
| OpenAlex | W1985278536 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
Environmental degradation resulting from warfare is a growing concern, particularly with increasing recognition of humanity's dependence on healthy ecosystems. Though environmental legislation does exist that seeks to prevent or mitigate environmental harm before, during and after conflict, it has limited scope and effectiveness. This may be one reason why the environmental laws of war are so rarely applied in attempts to bring parties responsible for environmental harm to justice. Enforcement of such legal instruments also requires appropriate quantification of environmental damage, which is particularly difficult in a warfare context. A focus on the loss of environmental resources, habitats or ecosystems is only part of the story—the real cost of environmental damage is in the loss of ecosystem services that such resources provide, both now and in the future, and which regional and global human societies depend upon. The ecosystem services framework, wherein the costs of damage to ecosystem services are quantified in economic terms, may prove a more effective way of highlighting the environmental damage resulting from warfare. Moreover, quantification along monetary lines is potentially more likely to establish a solid case for justifiable reparations than criteria relating to loss of biodiversity or ecosystem health, which are more difficult for society and governmental agencies to place specific values on. This article discusses the ecosystem services framework in the context of warfare, and highlights both the potential and the challenges that may accompany adoption of such a framework by the international community
Business · Context (archaeology) · Economics · Ecosystem · Ecosystem services · Enforcement · Environmental justice · Environmental law · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Harm · Legislation · Natural resource economics · Political science · Scope (computer science) · Computer Science · Ecology · Environmental and Biological Research in Conflict Zones · Environmental Science · Law
| Citations per year | 0.7 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Highly cited | No |