Olya Melen-Zabramna participates in the 15th Colloquium of IUCN Academy of environmental law taking place in Cebu, Philippines. Workshop held by organizers on May, 30 was dedicated to the protection of the nature in conflicts and building peace. Participants shared their stories from the conflict zones such as Congo, Rwanda on peace building and nature protection in protected areas. Academician from Japan shared the case of deficient EIA process during the construction of air base and experience with access to justice. Professor from New Zeland developed the success story of military forces implementing sustainable energy solutions for local communitities in Afghanistan.
The application of the World Herritage Convention (WHC) to the protected areas subject to military activities was mentioned in case of Democratic Republic of Congo. Almost all protected areas affected by rebels were put in the List in Danger under WHC. Following provisions of article 22 of this convention WHC Committee facilitated wide international assistance to those protected areas, conducted missions to Congo, held numerous meetings and produced useful recommendations concerning the management of those protected areas during the ongoing conflict.
Olya mentioned the case of Ukraine where many protected areas are suffering from the ongoing military operations in the east of Ukraine. EPL publication on this topic could be found here:
http://epl.org.ua/human-posts/voienni-dii-na-skhodi-ukrainy-tsyvilizatsiini-vyklyky-liudstvu/
