Mitigating the Environmental Impacts of Explosive Ordnance and Land Release
Publisher: Mine Action Review
Author(s): Alex Frost, Stuart Maslen, and Lucy Pinches
Date: 2021
Topics: Assessment, Climate Change, Cooperation, Land, Renewable Resources, Weapons, Waste, and Pollution
The mine action sector has begun to recognise that in order to follow the humanitarian principle of “do no harm” it must be aware of and take action to mitigate the potential environmental damage that can occur during land release operations. While an affected community clearly benefits from the removal of explosive ordnance from nearby land, long-term harm may also be caused when environmental mismanagement occurs during clearance operations. Environmental impacts were first reported by the mine action sector more than thirty years ago, and in recent years the sector has begun to engage ever more meaningfully with the topic.
This brief uses the term explosive ordnance which, as per the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) Glossary of mine action terms, definition and abbreviations, encompasses mine action’s response to the following munitions: mines, cluster munitions, unexploded ordnance, abandoned ordnance, booby traps, and improvised explosive devices when their clearance is undertaken for humanitarian purposes and in areas where active hostilities have ceased.