Landscape: A Human Lens on the Environmental Cost of War

Apr 21, 2026 | Samira Siddique and Simon Watkins
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When we talk about the environmental cost of armed conflict, there is often a focus on immediate, measurable and tangible impacts such as the physical destruction wrought by munitions or the escape of flood water, the pollution of water resources, disruption to soils or biodiversity loss. However, a purely technical approach of this kind can miss the vital component that is the nature-human relationship. This is well-understood in Indigenous Knowledge frameworks concerning land, which begin with relationship, and which view environmental damage as a fundamental rupture of that relationship. Looking through a relational lens, we can begin to understand the effects of environmental damage upon the physical, social and mental wellbeing of the communities that inhabit damaged places. It may also help us to harness the power of relationship with place to support recovery and environmental peacebuilding efforts post-conflict.