Abstract
Legal and policy initiatives to address the environmental dimensions of armed conflicts and their impact on people, ecosystems and sustainable development are highly dependent on the availability of environmental data from conflict-affected areas. Socio-political and security conditions in these areas often impede data collection, while traditional models of post-conflict environmental assessments are limited in scope. In response, an increasing range of actors is utilising remote sensing and open source data collection to identify and estimate health and ecological risks during and after conflicts. This paper considers the role of participatory citizen science methodologies in complementing both remote monitoring and post-conflict assessments. It examines existing models and mechanisms for environmental data collection and utilisation in conflict contexts, and the extent to which the core values and principles of citizen science are transferable. We find that ‘civilian science’ is feasible and could be well-suited to conflict conditions. In addition to addressing gaps in data collection, it may also empower communities affected by environmental degradation, enhance their environmental human rights, supplement the often limited monitoring capacity of governmental agencies and facilitate cooperation and peacebuilding. The paper concludes by proposing methodological approaches for three common forms of environmental degradation associated with armed conflicts.
Highlights
The past decade has witnessed growing interest in the environmental dimensions of armed conflicts among governments, academia, policy-makers, international organisations and civil society (UNEP 2015; UNEA 2016; Daskin and Pringle 2018)
This paper explores some of the challenges and constraints in collecting evidence on the environmental impacts of armed conflicts, before examining two innovations that may help to overcome these: the use of remote sensing technologies and, more crucially, whether peacetime approaches to participatory citizen science could inform new field assessment methodologies for data collection on environmental risks and impacts during and after armed conflicts
In considering the potential role of participatory citizen science in the context of conflict and post-conflict settings, this paper has identified a number of means through which ‘civilian science’ could serve to enhance the environmental security of conflict-affected communities
Summary
The past decade has witnessed growing interest in the environmental dimensions of armed conflicts among governments, academia, policy-makers, international organisations and civil society (UNEP 2015; UNEA 2016; Daskin and Pringle 2018). Innovations for the collation of environmental information in armed conflict situations As the political and environmental context of each conflict is unique, and the system of UN-led assessments is largely ad hoc and still under development, there is scope for innovation in environmental data collection during conflicts This need is underlined by recent trends towards deliberate damage to environmentally risky infrastructure in conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa region (Sowers et al 2017), and the fact that a number of environmentally harmful military practices, such as the targeting of oil facilities, remain commonplace (Bohm 2015)
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