H . Improving the Environmental Impact of UN Peace Operations
( Lesson # 2643 )
Observation .
United Nations peace operations have a substantial , and at times negative , impact on local communities and ecologies , which can exacerbate local conflict . As such , in recent years , the UN has increased efforts to address the environmental impact of UN peace operations . More work is needed to sustain these efforts , as emphasized in the International Peace Institute ( IPI )' s recent April 2018 report " Greening Peacekeeping ."
Discussion .
As more large-scale operations and multidimensional missions have been deployed with increasing numbers of headquarters , bases , and facilities constructed in urban and rural settings around the world , it has become clear that UN peace operations can potentially leave a large environmental footprint in host nations . In 2016 , UN peace operations were hosted in over 170 municipalities across the continent of Africa , affecting at least a total population of 31 million people . Data from that same year showed that field missions produce over half of the entire UN system ’ s greenhouse gas emission .
Local communities are often already under stress from limited resources ; the presence of large peace operations further stresses local ecosystems . Host nations in these fragile and conflict-torn environments do not always have infrastructure that can support waste management . In these contexts , UN operations may overwhelm weak local capacity already under strain from climate change pressure and population growth . Great disparities between peacekeeper patterns of consumption and waste and those of the local population can exacerbate tensions . In Mali , for example , a peacekeeper produces approximately three times the waste than a local . This is complicated by the fact that natural resources are often a source of conflict in the regions where peacekeepers deploy .
Various UN missions have been criticized for failure to adequately address environmental concerns , which can have severe consequences for the host nation . For example , wastewater mismanagement in Haiti by the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti ( MINUSTAH ) led to a cholera epidemic in 2010 , killing 9,000 people and affecting 100,000s more . In Darfur , the demand for wood in the region by the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur ( UNAMID ) led to vast deforestation .
Despite the evident need for improvement in UN environmental practices , there are three main challenges to implementing better environmental policies in UN missions : 1 ) uneven implementation due to disparities between missions ( staff , budgets , leadership , local context ); 2 ) lack of oversight ; and , 3 ) culture and laws about equipment sourcing which are exacerbated by wasteful global commodity flows . Missions typically deploy initially only for short-term 1-year mandates , although the average UN mission stays in a host nation for 6.5 years . The rapid timeline for mission deployments influences procurement procedures that are not always designed to minimize environmental footprint . For example , the MINUSMA operational base in Mali did not source materials locally . Instead , pre-fabricated structures
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