uring his journey to Italy in 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the barbaric battle between the French and Austrian soldiers in the town of Solferino in northern Italy which resulted in thousands of casualties. Dunant was profoundly affected by the human suffering in the battle which he recounted in his memoir, A Memory of Solferino, and advocated the idea of an international treaty between states that would primarily set out protections for persons not participating in warfare and persons no longer participating in warfare.

In other words, Dunant sought to put limits on warfare itself. Years later, after the conclusion of the World War II, the Geneva Conventions were adopted on August 12, 1949, to regulate the conduct of warfare and to limit its effects.

This year, on their 73rd anniversary, the four Geneva Conventions have come to be universally ratified, making them globally accepted and applicable.

However, the past 73 years have also seen conventional warfare and its typical effects on the territory where it unfolds — which had inspired the origins of the conventions — undergo drastic change. Among these effects is environmental degradation. The environment is frequently one of the casualties of modern warfare. Being less visible, its prevention tends not to be a priority for the warring parties.

The effects of conflict on the environment may directly manifest in three contexts: firstly, attacks during conflicts on agricultural facilities, extractive mines, chemical facilities, oil installations, sanitation and waste management infrastructure and big industrial facilities cause health hazards for human populations leading to widespread and severe damage in the form of water and soil contamination, with immediate and long-term consequences for human health and eco-systems. Such attacks also force large volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Secondly, conflicts directly threaten biodiversity which, in turn, affects the well-being or, worse still, the survival of local communities. Thirdly, conflicts accelerate exploitation of natural resources in order to sustain war economies.

In addition to direct effects, conflicts also indirectly cause environmental degradation. The significant indirect effects include collapse of governance and erosion of institutional capacities in environmental management.

Further, when local populations are forced to abandon conflict areas, it leads to competition over natural resources and unsustainable exploitation of other areas, putting the environment under even greater stress. These indirect effects caused by warfare may also potentially trigger further domestic conflicts.

International Humanitarian Law—a body of international law that regulates the conduct of warfare—seeks to protect the natural environment during warfare. The concept of ‘natural environment’ is central to the IHL.

The notion of natural environment is understood in the widest sense possible and includes everything that exists or occurs naturally and is not man-made, such as the general hydrosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and atmosphere (including fauna, flora, oceans and other bodies of water, soil and rocks).

In addition, the natural environment includes natural elements that are or may not be the product of human intervention, such as foodstuff, agricultural areas, drinking water and livestock. It is of particular significance that this interpretation does not refer exclusively to organisms and inanimate objects in isolation. Rather, ‘natural environment’ also refers broadly to the system of inextricable relationships between living organisms and their inanimate environment.

On their 73rd anniversary, the Geneva Conventions — as well as the IHL in general — need to be understood and reiterated in the light of modern warfare and its consequences, especially the impacts of war on the natural environment.

The IHL prescribes two types of protection for the natural environment. The first type of protection prohibits using means and methods of warfare that are intended to or are expected to cause long-term, widespread and severe damage to the natural environment.

Under the second type of protection, which is set out in the conventions, rules that otherwise protect civilian objects also extend to the natural environment. In addition, the general principles regulating the conduct of hostilities, i.e., distinction, proportionality and precaution, are also applicable with respect to the protection of the natural environment. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – co-founded by Henry Dunant – published and disseminated its Guidelines for the Protection of the Natural Environment in Situations of Armed Conflict that have been revised recently.

The revised guidelines, which have been prepared to serve as a reference tool for participants of warfare in order to protect the natural environment, represent a selection of the existing IHL rules, including customary IHL, and contain the ICRC’s interpretation thereon.

Protection and preservation of the natural environment in today’s conflict-ridden world is not optional. Respect for the Geneva Conventions and the IHL in general is imperative in order to protect the natural environment. Failure to do so will make environmental catastrophes more likely.

The writer is a lawyer and consultant based in Karachi