Biodiversity & Conflict: the Environmental Cost of the War in Ukraine [EN & PL]
July 16, 2022 from 15:30 am to 17:00 am
Description: The need to include nature and environment in the topic of peace and security has never been more important. This session seeks to explore the impacts of military conflict on the environment – Ukraine will be just an example. International law doesn’t protect the environment in times of war and after a military conflict, but after a decade of works it could soon change at the UN level. What are the EU efforts in this domain?
Speakers:
- Nickolai Denisov, Zoï Environment Network
Nickolai Denisov is the co-founder and the deputy director of Zoï Environment Network, a non-profit international environmental organisation in Geneva, Switzerland. Nickolai holds PhD in geography / environmental studies, and has over 30 years of experience with environmental information, assessment and communication as well as water, climate change and issues on the conflict-environment interface. As a long-time collaborator of the UN, European and bilateral assistance organisations, he has developed and contributed to numerous projects in the field, in particular in CEE, the Caucasus and Central Asia and in the context of the Environment and Security initiative.
- Yevheniia Zasiadko
Yevhenia Zasiadko, Head of Climate Department in Ukrainian environmental NGO Ecoaction. For the last three years, her work has been dedicated to raising the ambition of national climate policy. M.S. in Ecology and Environmental protection. Yevheniia has eight years of working experience in related areas. After Russian full invasion, she is coordinating work regarding monitoring of potential negative environmental and climate damage, advocating for ban fossil fuels from Russia in Europe.
- Doug Weir
Doug Weir has undertaken research and advocacy on the polluting legacy of armed conflicts and military activities since 2005. After working on conflict pollution and the toxic remnants of war for many years, he established the non-profit Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS) to monitor and raise awareness of the environmental and derived humanitarian consequences of conflicts. He has contributed to a wide range of domestic, regional and international initiatives on conflict and the environment, with a current focus on the progressive development of the legal framework protecting the environment in relation to armed conflicts.
- Aleksandra Majda
Specialist in sustainable development and communication, journalist for 20 years working in the largest Polish online, television and print media. Founder and CEO of Citizens of Nature Foundation, CEO at Go Green (green PR and communication). She coordinated communication and PR of offices and units dealing with ecology and sustainable development in the Warsaw City Hall: Board of Greenery, Office of Environmental Protection and Office of Air Protection and Climate Policy. She was: director of the Warsaw Greenery Board, in the management team of the www.tvn24.pl portal, editor-in-chief of the TVN24 Magazine, head of Kontakt 24 at TVN24.pl, academic lecturer.