Biodiversity conservation and armed conflict: Pathways to bridging legal and ecological perspectives

In response to mounting evidence of the harmful effects of armed conflicts on biodiversity, there have been efforts to strengthen international legal frameworks for wartime environmental protection. While collaboration between international law experts and conservation science experts has been successful elsewhere, dialogue between these disciplines in the context of armed conflicts remains limited. Without such an exchange, however, legal strategies to protect the environment during wars may be ineffective. This article focuses on two specific issues to illustrate how increased exchange between legal and conservation experts could lead to better environmental protection: (a) designation of areas of environmental importance as “protected zones” and (b) monitoring and management of these areas during armed conflicts. We use these case studies to argue that the frameworks of multilateral environmental agreements could bridge gaps between legal and ecological understandings by providing fora that combine legal and scientific expertise with support for local actors, such as conservation managers. Despite the traditional reluctance of these frameworks to engage with issues of international peace and security, we argue that, given the increase in armed conflicts over recent years, these issues can no longer be ignored and should be mainstreamed into international biodiversity conservation policy and practice.