By Karishma Goswami
Today marks the 23rd observance of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. Designated in 2001 by the UN General Assembly, environmental damage remains a pressing issue in conflicts around the world from Ukraine to Sudan to Gaza.
In Ukraine alone, Russian aggression has resulted in damage to 96 percent of its Ramsar sites and nearly 1 million hectares of forest burned. As of July 2025, the Ukrainian government has already recorded nine thousand cases of environmental damage, costing an estimated 155 billion dollars. In Sudan, in just 10 months, 401 recorded incidents of damage to hazardous facilities in major industrial zones have increased residents' exposure to hazardous pollutants, and inhibited manufacturing and energy production capacities. In Gaza, 97 percent of groundwater is now unfit for drinking and 80 percent of Gaza’s trees have been lost.
Accountability is a key element of environmental peacebuilding and can serve as a tool to prevent future exploitation of the environment in armed conflict. Holding actors accountable for the environmental damage they cause can deter future actors from exploiting the environment. Recent technological and legal developments have sought to strengthen these accountability mechanisms.
Historically, accountability efforts have rarely focused on the environment, but this is beginning to change. The International Law Commission Principles on Protection of the Environment in Relation to Armed Conflicts and the International Committee for the Red Cross Guidelines on the Protection of the Natural Environment in Armed Conflict seek to define and codify environmental protections during armed conflict. There is also increasing advocacy from international actors to strengthen avenues for accountability for wartime environmental damage through the establishment of a new international crime of ecocide. An international panel of criminal and environmental lawyers, commissioned by the Stop Ecocide Foundation, define ecocide as, “unlawful acts committed with knowledge of a substantial likelihood of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment.” Ecocide is already considered a crime in 11 countries, including Russia and Ukraine, and 27 countries are considering similar laws. There are also new forums supporting compensation for wartime environmental damage. In 2023, the Council of Europe established the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine to collect claims of damage, including environmental damage, as a first step towards accountability.
When bringing environmental claims, the establishment of sufficient evidence remains a challenge, particularly in wartime environments when access to the field can be limited and dangerous. The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) heard claims for various losses directly resulting from Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait; 80 billion dollars in damages were requested in a total of 170 F4 environmental claims. The UNCC required sufficient evidence to determine that the loss fell into a category that qualified compensation and to assess what damage was caused by the invasion and occupation. Insufficiency of evidence was frequently an “insurmountable problem” to bringing environmental claims. For example, the Panel had difficulties in distinguishing the cause of oil pollution at oil platforms, terminals, and oil processing facilities.
As international law develops, so does practice. New technologies have been utilized to address this issue of establishing sufficient evidence of environmental damage caused by armed conflict. Ukraine is utilizing cutting-edge technology including remote sensing technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and digital forensics technologies to verify citizen data and to analyze damage through aerial footage Organizations, like Open-Source Intelligence Team (OSINT) for Ukraine, are using digital forensics to verify data from social media posts and reports from civil society and academia, thus enabling a reliable dependence on civilian data collection. Remote sensing technology has enabled measurement of agricultural and infrastructural damage through high-resolution satellites and low-flying drones. Digitization and AI provide assessments of the level of damage incurred. The Ecodozor platform, developed by Zoï Environment Network and supported by OSCE, UNEP, and the Reach humanitarian initiative, utilizes an amalgam of these techniques, including civilian society reports and report sensing technologies, to provide nearly real-time information on environmental impacts from the war. These varied sources of data are essential to establish baselines, to demonstrate patterns of intentional attacks on major ecosystems and natural resources, and to document long-term effects.
As widespread environmental damage continues in conflicts around the world, so must efforts to hold actors responsible, both for peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Recent legal and technical developments have sought to strengthen the capacity for assessing environmental damage and to answer key questions about the relevant law, the proper forum, and standards for evidence. These developments reflect the urgent, ongoing need to prevent armed conflict. As the UN General Assembly recognized back in 2001, damage to the environment in times of armed conflict extends “long beyond the period of conflict.”