Since 2018 Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and CEOBS have worked to improve environmental safeguarding within humanitarian disarmament, and we continue to collaborate closely on promoting environmental mainstreaming within the mine action sector and wider disarmament initiatives.
NPA and CEOBS longstanding partnership identifies policy, practice and tools for environmental mainstreaming in humanitarian disarmament and make them available to the wider sector. We co-chair the mine action sector’s Environmental Issues in Mine Action (EIMA) Working Group, promote and support environmentally progressive policy change within disarmament instruments, undertake original research, and identify and disseminate best practice and guidance to identify and mitigate environmental risks and reduce the environmental footprint of operations.
To help support mine action operators we co-developed the free Green Field Tool and offer training training and tools top help operators be compliant in IMAS 07.13 on the environment and climate. Learn more about our training here.
For more information on our work mainstreaming the environment in humanitarian disarmament, contact project lead Dr Anna McKean anna (at) ceobs.org.
By excluding people, minefields can reduce pressure from human activities. With governments obliged to clear mines and explosive remnants of war, understanding how their presence and removal influences biodiversity is critical. In this post, Dr Franciany Braga-Pereira describes what she and her team discovered studying minefield refugia in Angola.
Clearing landmines is critical for safe access to land and local resources but doing so should comply with good environmental practice. Linsey Cottrell explains how our new Green Field Tool can help the mine action sector minimise the environmental footprint of demining and support affected communities.
25 years since the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention entered into force, its Fifth Review Conference is taking place amidst the accelerating crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Linsey Cottrell reviews how the mine action sector is responding to the triple crisis, and what more is needed.
Mine action organisations could help protect communities from conflict pollution by integrating more environmental data collection into their activities. In this post Linsey Cottrell explores this idea, which was the focus of a recent panel event in Geneva.
In this post, Rowan Smith and Linsey Cottrell explore the risks that sea-dumped munitions pose in British waters, and find that UK management policy is falling behind that of Europe.
Bonnie Docherty of Harvard Law School introduces a new joint report with CEOBS on the principles that should guide environmental remediation as part of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
This guest commentary from UNIDIR argues that we need to explore how climate change is influencing the trade, use and legacy of conventional weapons – and how arms flows will exacerbate climate insecurity.
Kendra Dupuy and Linsey Cottrell examine the environmental consequences of harvesting unexploded and abandoned ordnance for blast fishing, and consider the support that local communities need to end the highly destructive practice.
How and why satellite data can help across disarmament programming, including for mine action, tracking the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, for monitoring the influence of climate change and in reducing risks to communities.
Environmental safeguarding is receiving increasing attention in the humanitarian mine action and disarmament sector, and in this post Linsey Cottrell and Kendra Dupuy introduce the principles of environmental impact assessments for mine action operations.
With talks on a political declaration on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas nearing completion later this year, Linsey Cottrell and Kendra Dupuy argue that it’s critical that their environmental impact is also addressed.
Women already play a critical role in mine action, with the number of women working in humanitarian demining programmes increasing. Given gender differences in perception and behaviour towards environmental protection, women already have an important role in environmental mainstreaming in the sector.
In this piece, Linsey Cottrell and Kendra Dupuy provide an overview of the relationship between humanitarian mine action and the environment, examining both how mines and mine action can impact the environment, and how environmental change can influence mine action.
Mine action operators could help to address the climate and biodiversity crises as part of releasing land back to local communities, and re-greening projects in Africa and elsewhere show how this could be done writes Linsey Cottrell.
Climate change is already influencing humanitarian mine action activities. The experience of Tajikistan is an example of how humanitarian disarmament practices and policies may need to change in response.
Clearing land mines and tackling unexploded ordnance can harm the environment. Together with Norwegian People’s Aid, we surveyed the environmental attitudes and policies of mine action operators to try and identify where their practice could be improved.
The need to improve environmental standards in mine action is particularly clear when working in areas with rich or sensitive ecosystems. Kendra Dupuy and Linsey Cottrell report from their field visit to Colombia and on the challenges mainstreaming faces there.
A recent workshop co-hosted by NPA, CEOBS and The HALO Trust demonstrated the growing interest in the need to mainstream the environment and climate change in mine action. In this blog, Linsey Cottrell and Kendra Dupuy report on the outcomes from the event in Geneva.
Clearing land mines and explosive remnants of war can also harm the environment. In a joint project, CEOBS is working with Norwegian People’s Aid to try and identify how this harm can be reduced. Kendra Dupuy and Linsey Cottrell share their thoughts as they begin the project.
CEOBS offers specialist training and consultancy to help mine action organisations meet the requirements of the updated IMAS 07.13 on Environmental Management and Climate Change.
NPA and CEOBS study examining the roll-out of the Green Field Tool across NPA mine action programmes in Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. The findings highlight both progress and challenges in integrating environmental and climate risk assessments into operations.
Side event on embedding new environmental standards in mine action programmes, our Green Field Tool and on how to respond to growing environmental and climate needs. Run in collaboration with NPA at the 22 Meeting of State Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Joint briefing outlining the pathways through which explosive weapons cause environmental harm, with recommendations for governments on how environmental considerations can be integrated into the implementation of the 2022 EWIPA Declaration.
NDM-28 side event on the new Green Field Tool, and new research findings on the long-term environmental impact of mine action.
The Green Field Tool (GFT) is an environmental screening and assessment tool that has been developed by Norwegian People’s Aid and CEOBS, and designed to support the planning and implementation of mine action field operations.
Online launch event for CEOBS and NPA’s new Green Field Tool to help minimise the environmental footprint of the mine action sector.
In a new report Norwegian People’s Aid and CEOBS highlight significant pollution, infrastructure damage, and threats to agriculture and ecosystems caused by the use of explosive weapons in Ukraine’s Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
Register for our joint webinar and report launch: “Assessing Environmental Degradation from Explosive Weapons in Southern Ukraine”, on January 16th.
This side event at the Mine Ban Treaty’s 5th Review Conference in Siem Reap Cambodia on November 27th will explore the progress that the humanitarian mine action sector is making on environmental mainstreaming.
This webinar will show how the war is influencing water quality in Ukraine and about how water needs and threats may change over time, both in respect to Ukraine’s recovery but also as a result of climate change and future regulatory alignment with the European Union.
Climate change is already affecting areas contaminated by landmines and other explosive remnants of war. Linsey Cottrell explains the key issues, and how the mine action sector should prepare and adopt newly published environmental guidance.
Joint statement on behalf of 13 organisations on food security and mine action, delivered at the 27th International Meeting of Mine Action National Directors and United Nations Advisers, Geneva.
Joint statement on the need to address the environmental dimensions of the use of EWIPA delivered at the 2024 Oslo Conference on Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas.
Summary of a joint project with NPA to assess the presence and likely extent of soil pollution and wider environmental and socio-economic harm from explosive weapons use in two areas of Ukraine.
Event at the 2023 Intersessional Meetings of the AP Mine Ban Convention that will set out a vision of the positive contribution mine action can make to environmental safeguarding and climate resilience, providing examples of measures that can be taken at each stage of humanitarian demining operations.
Joint submission to the Convention on Biological Diversity explaining how mine action can help to promote global biodiversity goals in fragile and conflict-affected areas.
In a collaboration between Airwars and CEOBS, we explore the immediate and reverberating consequences of the use explosive weapons during the 11 day conflict in Gaza in May 2021.
Using the example of Ukraine, this paper explores how remote data collection and data from mine action operations can be used to better address the environmental consequences of the use of explosive weapons.
Online side event as part of the 10th Meeting of State Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions that examines how mine action operators can meet and exceed the environmental requirements of the Lausanne Action Plan.
Facing Fallout identifies 19 principles for remediating the environment contaminated by nuclear weapons; it also includes a commentary that elaborates on the principles and provides legal and policy precedent for each.
Together with UNIDIR, NPA and the Mine Action Review we will be discussing how best to integrate environmental considerations into the response to the use of explosive weapons.
Report of a pilot study into the levels of munitions residues present at a site in Viet Nam, the methodology is designed for mine action projects.
Statement by six organisations on the environmental impact and legacy of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, delivered during negotiations on a draft declaration on EWIPA in Geneva.
Linsey Cottrell and Carlie Stowe examine the impact that our changing climate will have on humanitarian mine action and why operators need to start implementing climate risk analysis into their planning.
Mine Action Review policy brief for national authorities and their implementing partners aimed at minimising mine action’s environmental impact.
In this paper Linsey Cottrell and NPA’s Kendra Dupuy examine the environmental impact of the open burning and detonation of munitions in mine action programmes, and why the sector needs to do better.
Virtual workshop as part of #NDMUN24 to provide mine action stakeholders with guidance on how to build and use environmental assessment tools.
Webinar co-organised by NPA and CEOBS focusing on the direct and reverberating environmental impacts of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
Virtual side event on mine action and the SDGs co-hosted by Norwegian People’s Aid and CEOBS as part of the 18th Meeting of State Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty.
Event report on the launch webinar for Harvard’s International Human Rights Clinic and CEOBS’ report Confronting Conflict Pollution, which establishes a framework for victim assistance for people affected by toxic remnants of war.
NGOs encourage states and other stakeholders to do more to integrate environmental considerations into cluster munition clearance policies ahead of the Second Review Conference of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Side event on environmental mainstreaming in humanitarian mine action, co-organised by Norwegian People’s Aid, CEOBS and the HALO Trust. Feb 12th 2020, Geneva.
