Environmental health risks and vulnerability in post-conflict regions

Abstract

The importance of environmental factors during and after conflict has often not received adequate attention, and is of particular importance when assessing those groups most vulnerable to changing conditions. Post-war reconstruction and aid policies must take note of which groups are most susceptible to environmental health risks, and how the conflict itself often created new vulnerabilities through deliberate destruction of the natural and built environments. The environmental security and public health fields have a good deal to offer in understanding these dynamics, and must work more closely together in the future to identify potential vulnerabilities in advance of conflicts and disasters.

Keywords:

• environment
• fragility
• health risk
• resilience targeting
• vulnerability
• war and conflict

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the support of Lehigh and Columbia Universities, the Institute for Environmental Security, the German-American Fulbright Commission, and the Fulbright Academy of Science and Technology. Inspiration for much of this research was provided by the Global Health Studies Program at the University of Iowa, at its 2006 conference ‘Health Services as an Instrument of International Politics: Responding to Pandemics, Disasters, and Violent Conflict.’