1 May 2012: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a report on the environmental impacts of UN peacekeeping operations. “Greening the Blue Helmets: Environment, Natural Resources and UN Peacekeeping Operations” provides an overview of how peacekeeping operations affect and are affected by natural resources and environmental conditions. The 16 current peacekeeping missions constitute the largest environmental footprint in the UN system.

The report is the result of collaboration between UNEP, the UN Department of Field Support (DFS), and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). It shows that peacekeeping operations have significant impacts on the environment, but also that natural resources are often a key aspect of conflict resolution, livelihoods and confidence-building at the local level. It therefore calls for UN peacekeeping missions to be given a more systematic mandate to support national authorities in restoring the administration of natural resources including diamonds, gold, oil and timber, in cases where they have fuelled or financed violence, or become militarized.

The report is divided into two parts: the first reviews the environmental management of peacekeeping operations and showcases good practices, technologies and behaviors that have already been adopted; and the second examines the role that peacekeeping operations have played in stabilizing countries where violent conflicts have been financed by natural resources, such as diamonds, gold, timber and oil, or driven by grievances over their ownership, access and control. [UN Greening the Blue Press Release] [Publication: Greening Blue Helmets: Environment, Natural Resources and UN Peacekeeping Operations]