This looks interesting, but no chance of me getting to it-
The Geomorphological Impacts of Armed Conflict
Proposed session at 2009 International Geomorphological Congress
Call for expressions of interest
Significant immediate environmental cost is almost inevitably
associated with military activities whatever the type of environment in
which they may occur. The impacts of war, both physical and social,
include damage to natural and cultural heritage values and to the
potential for later environmentally sustainable economic development.
Understanding of direct and later environmental impacts may also be
pertinent to evaluating the legitimacy under international law of
environmental impacts inflicted during armed conflict.
Although the environmental consequences of war are typically very
great, they have received relatively little discussion in the
environmental literature. Moreover, such literature, when available,
tends to focus on biological considerations with little attention paid
to the physical environment. However, biodiversity is of course only
one
component of wider environmental diversity, and geodiversity in
particular - geology, landforms, soils and the natural processes that
form them - is an important value in its own right. Moreover,
geodiversity is also the foundation stone upon which terrestrial
biodiversity is dependent, it is fundamental to the functioning of many
natural systems, and it is the source of many critical ecosystem
services provided to humans.
Additional Protocol 1 (AP 1), adopted by the Diplomatic Conference for
the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law as
additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, provides in Article 35,
paragraph 3 that *It is prohibited to employ methods and means of
warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread,
long-term and severe damage to the natural environment*. What insights
might a better accounting of the impacts of armed conflict upon
geomorphology and soils potentially offer to evaluating compliance with
this requirement? Contemporary post-conflict environmental assessments
tend to focus on biological and chemical metrics and to ignore
geodiversity. However, landforms and soils typically develop over
geological rather than human time frames, hence damage inflicted to
them
during armed conflict is potentially far more long-term than even the
damage caused to biota, and in some cases it may also be
*widespread* and/or *severe*.
To explore the nature, degree and significance of the harm that is
caused by armed conflict to landforms and soils, and also the potential
significance of a geomorphological perspective to determining
compliance
with international laws of war, a session will be dedicated to these
issues at the forthcoming International Geomorphological Congress in
Melbourne, Australia in mid 2009.
The key focus of the session will be on the impacts on geomorphology
that are generated during the immediate conflict phase, and their
potential relevance in evaluating whether environmental war crimes may
have been committed. However, some time will also be set aside to
consider related issues, such as impacts on geomorphology during
pre-conflict phases, including harm caused to physical landscapes by
military training; impacts associated with refugee movement and poverty
both during conflicts and in their aftermath; and also ongoing physical
legacies of past conflict, such as those associated with depletion of
the natural resource base.
Other potential areas for discussion include the implications for
geomorphology of lapses in effective environmental governance during
conflicts due to competing priorities of governments. And particularly
worthy of discussion is the environmental harm that may accrue during
the so-called "post-conflict" phase when the governance vacum
facilitated by war may be filled by political corruption that impedes
sustainable environmental management and allows ongoing environmental
damage to persist for decades, to the detriment of both social and
economic recovery and to the conservation of geoheritage and other
natural and cultural heritage assets.
Because these issues are so seldom canvassed in the literature the
session convenor would like to hear from potential contributors so that
he may ascertain likely interest and potential directions, and plan
accordingly. If you are in a position to contribute a paper to this
session he would particularly like to hear from you - and especially if
you have some hard data to offer from a theatre of war. Please contact
him at the following address:
Dr Kevin Kiernan
Lecturer in Conservation Geomorphology
School of Geography and Environmental Studies
Bag 78
University of Tasmania
Tasmania 7001
Australia.
Kevin.Kiernan@utas.edu.au
Conference on the geomorphical impact of warfare
