Ecocide : A crime against environmental peace

N Munal Meitei *

"We have done it with the abolition of slavery, with genocide and apartheid, and it is now time to do it with ecocide. I believe civilization is ready" said Polly Higgins, founder, Eradicating Ecocide. Ecocide means the destruction of large areas of the environment by activities such as overexploitation of resources or dumping of toxic chemicals. More precisely Ecocide may be defined as extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystems to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been or will be severely diminished.

There are two different types of ecocide: ecocide as a result of human activity and as a result of natural disasters. Ecocide can be irreversible when an ecosystem suffers beyond self healing. It is generally associated with damage caused by a living agent whether directly or indirectly. An organism might inflict ecocide directly by killing enough species in an ecosystem to disrupt its structure and function. Ecocide can also result from pollution such as the introduction of high concentrations of pesticides which destroy the local flora extensively. One of such examples of ecocide was the environmental damage during the Vietnam War in which there was prevalent use of defoliants.

When we talk of the Ecocide, we remember the Eocene/Ecocene epoch during 56 to 33.9 million years ago which was a major division of the geologic timescale. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the Grande Coupure, the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event. During Cenozoic period of Eocene i.e. 50 - 55 million years ago India began to collide with Asia forming the Tibetan plateau and Himalayas. During this period of time, little to no ice was present on the Earth with a smaller difference in temperature from the equator to the poles. But after Eocene Optimum to the Eocene-Oligocene the ice began to reappear and the Antarctic ice sheet began to expand rapidly.

As said earlier, the term ecocide is more recently used to refer to the destructive impact of humanity on its own natural environment. As a group of complex organisms we are committing ecocide through unsustainable exploitation and vitiation of the planet's resources hundred times more than what is replenished. The present geological era that we called the anthropocene, is so named because the activities of the Homo sapiens are influencing the Earth's natural state in such a way that it was never been before.

The Ecocide, anthropogenic disaster of Uttarakhand was the result of nature's fury triggered by human. We're really the culprits of Uttarakhand disaster. Now, North East India is the next region to be hit after Uttarakhand calamity. It's time for us to be ready and preparedness to meet the next disaster.

The another most notable example is that of the atmosphere which is being transformed through the relentless injection of green house gases such as CO2, SO2, NO, CH4, chlorofluorocarbons etc thereby increasing the average global temperature upto 0.76°C. The present day population explosions touching to 7.6 billion in conjunction with the economic models built on growth are fuelling again this misuse, a form of global ecocide. The ecocide we witness today is a symptom of fundamental errors in managing how much we pollute our Earth.

The concept of making Ecocide an international crime has been around for decades. From early seventies onwards there has been growing support from government, business and communities to make Ecocide as the fifth International Crime against environmental peace to stand alongside the crime of Genocide by amending the Rome Statute. It is part of an emerging body of Earth Law or Earth jurisprudence.

Ecocide is proposed in order to protect human rights, the natural environment, prevent runaway climate change and trigger the transformation to the green economy. In the recent September, 2013 visit of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohon Singh at New York, India was well in support of the Compulsory Licensing for Green Technology which consists of the wind power, solar power, water efficiency, electric vehicle, heating, ventilations and air conditioning etc. as against the U.S and EU since such licensing cost around $2 billion per annum.

In 2010 international environmental lawyer and author Polly Higgins proposed to the United Nations that ecocide be made the fifth international crime against peace. The full proposal which was submitted to the UN Law Commission is set out in chapters 5 and 6 of her book Eradicating Ecocide: Laws and Governance to Prevent the Destruction of our Planet. The idea was developed further in her Earth is our Business: Changing the Rules of the Game, published May 2012. In June 2012 the idea of making ecocide a crime was presented to legislators and judges from around the globe at the World Congress on Justice Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability held in Mangaratiba before the Rio +20 Earth Summit, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Making ecocide an international crime was voted as one of the top twenty solutions to achieve sustainable development at the World Youth Congress in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.

Ascertainable or human made ecocide is caused by humans and can be the consequence of corporate activity. Here, an individual responsible for the activity which has resulted in ecocide can be identified. Examples of ascertainable ecocide include: Large-scale land use change that causes the direct destruction of habitats – as is the case with deforestation in most tropical rainforests and including the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest.

Significant pollution whether deliberate or incidental – such as oil dumping and spills as in the Niger Delta and also open cast mining where entire landscapes are removed – as is the case with oil sands and some coal and gold mining such as the Athabasca oil sands. Opponents to make ascertainable ecocide an international crime argue that it could potentially criminalise the whole of humanity and also that it is anti development. It could potentially criminalise any business activity which environmentalists loath.

The second type of ecocide is caused by "other causes" or non ascertainable ecocide. These are catastrophic events which are referred to in law as a force majeure or an 'act of God', such as flooding or an earthquake. Such events can be termed 'non-ascertainable ecocide' as either they occur naturally or, no one perpetrator can be identified, as is the case with climate change and its effects. A law of Ecocide could potentially imposes a duty of care on all states to provide assistance to those facing naturally occurring ecocides, using Articles 73 and 75 of the United Nations Charter.

Critics argue that creating an international crime to deal with naturally occurring ecocide does not make sense as you cannot criminalise an act of god or something which occurs naturally. They also argue that there will be inevitable resistance from number important countries to making ecocide a crime, and that it could be a long and messy business to get countries to agree to its implementation.

Ten countries such as Vietnam (1990), Russian Federation (1996), Kazakhstan (1997), Kyrgyzstan (1997), Tajikistan (1998), Georgia (1999), Belarus (1999), Ukraine (2001), Republic of Moldova (2002), Republic of Armenia (2003), have made ecocide in peacetime as a crime in their country Law. Although there are laws of ecocide in place, the effectiveness of these laws depends on a number of factors including the enforcement of the law, an independent judiciary and respect for the rule of law.

In fact, ecocide constitutes a crime against the environmental peace and security of mankind; it can be taken as an explicit reference to the Draft Code of Crimes against the biodiversity. In Manipur in the recent past, peoples were found to use insecticides and pesticides in the Loktak Lake and also in some other rivers for fishing. These are some of the vivid signs of crimes against ecocide in the state.

The country has Wild life Protection Acts-1972 and under which killing/hunting of wild life in any form is prohibited. But our some of the Government authorities are issuing licenses for gun/chara to peoples for killing of these wild lives which are the most fascinating gift of the God. Such unfortunate wrong steps should immediately be stopped. Whether the crime of ecocide has been determined to be a crime of human and environment is not clear but what is clear is that ecocide is recognized as a crime which the international community is deeming to be so serious as to be included in its draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of living beings.

At this moment, India should ask for, or can reasonably expect the ecocide as the crime. It simply makes clear that there is an urgent need for India to act – in its own interest and also to mitigate climate change. There is also a social and economic opportunity in doing so, with the costs of inaction likely to outweigh the costs of action. And finally, ecocide and ultimately the climate change present a political opportunity to shape – to India's benefit – an international framework.