Researchers have discovered that more than 80 percent of the world’s largest armed conflicts between 1950 and 2000 occurred in areas deemed as biodiversity hotspots by Conservation International.  These areas of natural wealth contain more than half of the world’s plant species and more than 40 percent of vertebrates. Of the 34 such hotspots around the globe, only 11 escaped armed conflict during this 50-year period.

The correlation between the richest storehouses on Earth and conflict reveals a new relationship between nature and human exploitation, pointing for a need for even greater protection of these places for their resources and the services that they provide. The same factors that protect nature in these areas, deep forests and high mountains, also provide cover for fighters.

The research finds that lasting environmental repercussions come from conflict, but that there are a few positive environmental outcomes. The demilitarized zone between North and South Korea is a prime example of conflict benefits as this more than two mile wide corridor has become a nature preserve having been uninhabited for decades.

You can read more about this research in this AFP story, or  read the full findings in Conservation Biology.

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