By Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD (Leading Environmental Law Scholar, Policy Advisor, Natural Resources Lawyer and Dispute Resolution Expert from Kenya), Winner of Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021, ADR Publisher of the Year 2021 and CIArb (Kenya) Lifetime Achievement Award 2021.*
The concept of environmental security is envisaged in various international legal instruments on environmental rights as well as publications by different authors. This is important considering that environmental rights and the associated elements have for long been contested as to their legitimacy within the international discourse on human rights, and while they have continually gained acceptance, the debate is yet to be settled. This is despite the global acknowledgement of the indispensable role of environment in human survival. Environmental degradation has become a worrying trend the world over, thus, prompting discussions at all levels on how best to address the same. Indeed, it has been observed that over the last several years, environmental degradation and resource scarcity have come to be perceived as threats not only to human well-being and prosperity but also to international security. This has also led to calls for reconceptualisation and re-evaluation of security as traditionally understood. This is due to the growing potential for conflict over scarce or degraded resources, in order to include environmental security as an element of human security.
A secure environment makes it possible to exercise and enjoy the right to life by ensuring that any threats to life, and extension to human beings, are neutralized. It is argued that the notion of “environmental security,” should be understood to have two dimensions. On the one hand, in placing emphasis upon the environmental dimension, security means maintaining an ecological balance, at least to the extent necessary to sustain resource supplies and life-support systems. On the other hand, in emphasizing the dimension of security in the traditional sense, the term refers to the prevention and management of conflicts precipitated by environmental decline. Environmental security has also been defined as the process of peacefully reducing human vulnerability to human-induced environmental degradation by addressing the root causes of environmental degradation and human insecurity.
This broader conception of environmental security, it has been argued, is crucial because, at least in the long term, security, even in the traditional sense, can be ensured only if security in the environmental sense is emphasized. Only where ecological balance is maintained, resources are protected, and supplies ensured, will the potential for conflict be significantly reduced. Further, focusing on common environmental interests rather than on competing strategic interests will promote international cooperation and, ultimately, security. To buttress this, it has been argued that few threats to peace and survival of the human community are greater than those posed by the prospects of cumulative and irreversible degradation of the biosphere on which human life depends. True security cannot be achieved by mounting buildup of weapons (defence in a narrow sense), but only by providing basic conditions for solving non-military problems which threaten them.
Our survival depends not only on military balance, but on global cooperation to ensure a sustainable environment. To assert the importance of environmental security as an aspect of human security, the Brundtland Commission argued that the whole notion of security as traditionally understood in terms of political and military threats to national sovereignty must be expanded to include the growing impacts of environmental stress – locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. They observed that there are no military solutions to ‘environmental insecurity’. There has been a growing linkage between environment and conflict. Environmental deficiencies supply conditions which render conflict all the more likely. They can serve to determine the source of conflict, they can act as multipliers that aggravate core causes of conflict, and they can help to shape the nature of conflict. Moreover they can not only contribute to conflict, but also stimulate the growing use of force to repress disaffection among those who suffer the consequences of environmental decline.
As a result, it is concluded that national security is no longer about fighting forces and weaponry alone, but it relates increasingly to watersheds, forests, soil cover, croplands, genetic resources, climate and other factors rarely considered by military experts and political leaders, but that taken together deserve to be viewed as equally crucial to a nation’s security as military prowess. Environmental security has been defined in different ways to fit various contexts, and despite the many attempts to define the same, the concept is understood differently by people of various professions in diverse countries. For instance, it has been argued that in developing countries, environmental security has more to do with a household’s ability to meet the demand for environmental resources in production and consumption activities.
In this regard, it is observed that for many of the four billion inhabitants in the developing countries, security is conceived at the most basic level of the struggle for individual survival. It is estimated that over eight hundred million live in absolute poverty and deprivation, five hundred million are malnourished, and many millions have no access to safe drinkingwater and do not have the income necessary to purchase food. They lack protection against the consequences of environmental degradation and natural calamities, such as floods and drought, which, particularly in Africa, have produced famine and suffering of unprecedented proportions. There are scholars who have argued that not all environmental problems lead to conflict, and not all conflicts stem from environmental problems, and that indeed it is rare for linkages to be directly and exclusively causative.
It is argued that while environmental phenomena contribute to conflicts, they can rarely be described as sole causes: there are too many other variables mixed in, such as inefficient economies, unjust social systems and repressive governments, any of which can predispose a nation to instability-and thus, in turn, make it specially susceptible to environmental problems. While this may be true, it is noteworthy that the link between the two is more pronounced in developing countries, like Kenya, where most people directly derive their livelihoods from the environment. Competition for scarce resources may lead to a ‘survival of the fittest’ situation. In such circumstances, environmental degradation poses a higher potential for conflict, as every group fights for their survival.
Even where resources are abundant, conflicts can arise when one group controls a disproportionate portion of the same (“Resource capture”). Resource capture occurs when the supply of a resource decreases due to either depletion or degradation and/or demand increases (due to population and/or economic growth). This encourages the more powerful groups in a society to exercise more control and even ownership of the scarce resource, thereby enhancing their wealth and power. For instance, land has been an emotive issue in Kenya as it is in the hands of a few people in the country, and this has often led to tribal clashes.
Environmental security is used to refer to an environmental condition that is able to fully satisfy the needs of the people living around an area, those who rely on it for their survival. Human security as an element of poverty eradication has been defined as: protection of the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfillment. Human security means protecting fundamental freedoms – freedoms that are the essence of life. It involves protecting people from critical (severe) and pervasive (widespread) threats and situations. It includes using processes that build on people’s strengths and aspirations, thus creating political, social, environmental, economic, military and cultural systems that together give people the building blocks of survival, livelihood and dignity. Environmental conditions, being central to human security and survival, must be addressed as one of the means of eradicating poverty. Human security can be threatened by various factors, including conflicts arising from scarce resources, as well as unhealthy environment. The concept of environmental security is key for realisation of human rights and the greater sustainable development agenda.
*This article is an extract from the Article “Achieving Environmental Security in Kenya,” by Dr. Kariuki Muigua, PhD, Kenya’s ADR Practitioner of the Year 2021 (Nairobi Legal Awards), ADR Publisher of the Year 2021 and ADR Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 (CIArb Kenya). Dr. Kariuki Muigua is a foremost Environmental Law and Natural Resources Lawyer and Scholar, Sustainable Development Advocate and Conflict Management Expert in Kenya. Dr. Kariuki Muigua is a Senior Lecturer of Environmental Law and Dispute resolution at the University of Nairobi School of Law and The Center for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP). He has published numerous books and articles on Environmental Law, Environmental Justice Conflict Management, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Sustainable Development. Dr. Muigua is also a Chartered Arbitrator, an Accredited Mediator, the Africa Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Managing Partner of Kariuki Muigua & Co. Advocates. Dr. Muigua is recognized among the top 5 leading lawyers and dispute resolution experts in Kenya by the Chambers Global Guide 2022.
References
Muigua, K., “Achieving Environmental Security in Kenya,” (2022) Journal of Conflict Management and Sustainable Development (JCMSD) 8(3), p. 126.
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