War loss and damage to soil resources: towards sustainable land management

ABSTRACT

Theoretical, methodological and applied aspects of assessment of loss and damage to soil resources are considered. As of 24 February 2023 the cost was of the order of $US 34.4 billion but this is provisional and dynamic. Bibliometric analysis suggests inadequate attention to the issue of assessing the impact of wars on soil and land quality and determining loss and damage. This is a first attempt to plug the gap and encourage further work on the methodology, as well as the assessment of just compensation to ensure the restoration of war-damaged soils.

KEYWORDS:

• War damage
• soil and land
• methodology
• sustainability

Acknowledgments

Some material was prepared within the framework of the scientific project Strategy and innovative technologies for the processing of organic animal waste in the context of ensuring land degradation neutrality: from linear to circular economy (state registration no. 0122U001484). This work, among other things, was carried out thanks to the named scholarship of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for young scientists – doctors of sciences for 2022.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The total land area of Ukraine is 60 million ha, including 32.4 million ha of arable (54%).

2. Ukrainian hryvnia £0.022 as of 9 Dec 2023.