Warfare Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation

Warfare ecology examines the multifaceted interactions between armed conflict and natural systems, addressing how military activities, security dynamics and post-conflict transitions influence species, habitats and ecosystem processes. Armed conflicts can directly degrade landscapes through bombardment, land mines and infrastructure development, while indirectly accelerating drivers of biodiversity loss such as land-use change, illegal resource extraction and governance breakdown. Conversely, former military zones and training areas sometimes harbour refugia for disturbance-adapted species, owing to restricted civilian access and legacy disturbance regimes. Integrating conflict risk into conservation planning enhances the resilience of protected area networks, guiding decisions on site selection, management investments and adaptive monitoring under insecure conditions. Recent advances span from novel modelling approaches that account for incomplete data in volatile regions to frameworks that reconcile security considerations with ecological priorities. Global efforts now emphasise conflict-sensitive strategies, fine-scale risk mapping and collaborative governance to safeguard biodiversity in theatres of war and their aftermath.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have advanced methodological frameworks for conservation in conflict-affected landscapes. In the upland Amazon of Venezuela, a resource selection function model was employed to integrate camera-trap detections with opportunistic field observations, accounting for imperfect detectability and security constraints. This approach revealed species-specific responses to deforestation, fire, shifting agriculture and human settlements, demonstrating that combining on-camera and off-camera records maximises data utility under budgetary and safety limitations. In another line of inquiry, planners evaluated alternative attitudes towards armed conflict risk in protected-area design. Ignoring conflict yields the poorest conservation return, while risk-averse strategies that exclude volatile regions can leave species unprotected. By modelling fine-scale conflict probabilities and incorporating offsets for anticipated losses, this work shows that upfront investment and risk-informed site selection substantially enhance long-term biodiversity outcomes in unstable regions.

Warfare Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in warfare ecology and biodiversity conservation across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Resource selection function model: A statistical framework that relates species occurrence data (from camera traps and opportunistic sightings) to environmental covariates, adjusting for imperfect detectability to predict habitat use under varying conditions.

Armed conflict risk: The probability and intensity of hostilities in a given region, derived from spatial conflict databases, used to inform conservation site selection and management investment.

Sociopolitical conflict: A broad term encompassing civil unrest, insurgency and governmental instability that disrupts governance, hampers ecological monitoring and alters land-use patterns.

Conflict-sensitive approaches: Conservation strategies designed to align ecological objectives with local security dynamics, incorporating stakeholder mediation, flexible enforcement and adaptive planning in volatile settings.

References

1. Caught in the crossfire: biodiversity conservation paradox of sociopolitical conflict. npj Biodiversity (2024).
2. Biodiversity, peace and conflict: understanding the connections. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability (2024).
3. Leveraging limited data from wildlife monitoring in a conflict affected region in Venezuela. Scientific Reports (2024).
4. Factoring attitudes towards armed conflict risk into selection of protected areas for conservation. Nature Communications (2016).
5. Conservation Potential of Abandoned Military Areas Matches That of Established Reserves: Plants and Butterflies in the Czech Republic. PLOS ONE (2013).