If the Army Cuts Trees, Why Can’t We? Resource Extraction, Hunting and the Impacts of Militaries on Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract

We systematize a large albeit scattered body of work linking the role of military to issues of environment in contexts of violen conflict. Starting with an overview of extant literature on issues around military presence and armed conflict, the impact of armed forces on environment and climate change in general, we zoom in on our empirical research carried out in conservation sites across north and northeast India. Our findings point both to habitat destruction by armed forces and related displacement of populations due to the entry of security operations in certain indigenous populations occupied area and the ways in which security forces participate in illegal resource extraction operations on the side, in connivance with local contractors and elites. We further illustrate how armies’ environmental operations like plantations, management of ecological disasters like floods, forest fires or cyclones are often glorified, pushing the negative consequences of their ecological presence to the backburner.