Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2025
07:10
At-Risk Butterfly Captive Propagation Programs to Enhance Life History Knowledge and Effective Ex Situ Conservation Techniques
Published on: February 11, 2020
7.2K
Threats to conservation from national security interests
Katarzyna Nowak1, Dinah Bear2, Anwesha Dutta3
1Białowieża Geobotanical Station, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Białowieża, Poland.
Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
|September 28, 2023
Summary
National security declarations increasingly override environmental laws for infrastructure projects, jeopardizing protected areas and biodiversity. Leaders must balance security needs with ecological protection and international agreements.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Law
- Conservation Science
- International Relations
Background:
- Nation states increasingly use national security and emergency declarations to fast-track infrastructure projects.
- Established environmental protection laws and international agreements are often bypassed, impacting protected areas and biodiversity.
- This trend compromises critical ecosystems, climate regulation, and human health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the impact of national security justifications on environmental protection and conservation efforts.
- To examine how infrastructure projects under national security claims affect biodiversity and protected areas.
- To highlight the conflict between national security priorities and environmental governance.
Main Methods:
- Case study analysis of infrastructure projects justified by national security (e.g., border barriers, renewable energy, transportation).
- Review of environmental impact assessments and legal waivers related to these projects.
- Examination of international agreements and environmental policy stringency in relation to security spending.
Main Results:
- Border barriers and renewable energy megaprojects, built under national security pretexts, impede wildlife migration and significantly impact land.
- Environmental compliance is often minimal or waived, jeopardizing endangered species recovery programs and protected area functions.
- Increased military expenditure correlates with decreased environmental policy stringency, undermining ecological safeguards.
Conclusions:
- Prioritizing national security over environmental regulations undermines democratic principles, ecosystem services, and the human right to a healthy environment.
- Misuse of emergency powers for infrastructure projects can lead to civil unrest and marginalize environmental defenders.
- Urgent need for world leaders to uphold laws, consult experts, and respect international agreements to ensure sustainable development.
Keywords:
bordersbursatilizacióncarreterasemergency powersenergyenergíaevaluación de impacto socio-ecológicofronterasinfraestructurainfrastructuremilitarizaciónmilitarizationpoderes de emergenciaroadssecuritizationsocioecological impact assessmentMore Related Videos
14:44Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration
Published on: June 7, 2024
1.7K
16:02Demonstration of the Sequence Alignment to Predict Across Species Susceptibility Tool for Rapid Assessment of Protein Conservation
Published on: February 10, 2023
2.7K
Related Concept Videos
01:50Threats to Biodiversity
22.4K
There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species that adapted to the new conditions. In the current geological epoch, the Holocene, there is a sixth extinction event in progress. This mass extinction has been attributed to human activities and is thus provisionally called the Anthropocene. In 2019 the human population reached 7.7 billion people and is projected to comprise 10 billion by...
22.4K
01:57What is Conservation Biology?
18.5K
Conservation biology is a scientific field that focuses on the preservation of biodiversity in order to protect ecosystems while meeting the needs of the human population. Humans require properly functioning ecosystems to maintain our supply of natural resources, including food, medicines, and building materials.
18.5K
02:31Habitat Fragmentation
17.6K
Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.
17.6K
02:04Conservation of Small Populations
13.2K
Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...
13.2K
02:07Conservation of Declining Populations
9.7K
Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.
9.7K
01:39Keystone Species
21.7K
Measures of species biodiversity, such as richness (i.e., the number of species present) and evenness (i.e., their relative abundance), describe an ecological community’s structure. Many factors affect community structure, including abiotic factors (e.g., sunlight and nutrients), disturbances (e.g., fire or flood), species interactions (e.g., predation or competition), and chance events (e.g., foreign species invasion). Certain species—such as keystone species—also play a...
21.7K