The Effects of War on Wildlife

Armed conflict threatens and harms wildlife. The legal framework protecting wildlife against such harm is fragmented and weak. International environmental law regulates the sustainable exploitation of wildlife, while international humanitarian law protects the environment only against excessive damage. In this lecture, I provide an overview of the rules and the interaction between these two principal regimes. Discussing the relation between armed conflict and wildlife trafficking, I highlight the securitization of IEL. Critical initiatives to improve implementation of the law and criminalization proposals will be discussed as well. Dr. Veerle Platvoet is a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. In 2025, she defended her PhD on wildlife law at the University of Helsinki and has a background in global environmental law. Her current research continues to focus on legal questions on animal protection and its interaction with different regimes in international law. Platvoet is a board member of the Dutch Association of Animal Rights Law, review editor at the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy and member of the Helsinki Animal Law Centre and the Multispecies Collective.