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Ecologically-induced genocide has been developed by Crook and Short in 2014. It has since been conceptualized as the genocide-ecocide nexus. The genocide-ecocide nexus can be observed all over the world, on every continent. Examples can be found in Europe with the Saami people and the destruction of reindeer pastures, with the Athabasca ‘tar sands’ in Canada, the eviction by force of Sengwer people in Kenya from their lands for “conservation” purposes, and many others.

Interactions between the two notions

One aspect of this is genocide-ecocide nexus is that the destruction of the environment leads to the destruction of peoples who depend on it, such as Indigenous Peoples. Ecocide can be seen as a cultural genocide when groups of people and communities rely on and have a connection with the environment. Indigenous Peoples have a profound connection with their lands and rely on them spiritually and for their livelihoods. Indigenous Peoples and their lands are, therefore, inseparable. Crook, Short, and South write that “environmental destruction has [a devastating impact] on indigenous peoples who depend on the health of their local environment not only for their own physical wellbeing but also for their spiritual and cultural vitality”. Land grabs, over-exploitation of natural resources on these lands, destruction of sites, are examples of activities jeopardizing the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and their lands, thus having at the same time ecocidal and genocidal dimensions.

George Poitras, a member of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, summarizes the issue: “If we don’t have land and we don’t have anywhere to carry out our traditional lifestyle, we lose who we are as a people. So if there’s no land, then it’s equivalent in our estimation to genocide of a people.”

Culture is at the core of genocide. The destruction of the environment on which Indigenous Peoples rely leads to the loss of their culture, livelihoods, traditions, and spiritual sites, to the disappearance or assimilation of a people. In other words, ecocide leads to genocide. Moreover, ecologically-induced genocide has been defined as “ecologically destructive interventions [that] undermine the life, existence and resistance of Indigenous populations”. These interventions can be “part of a larger extermination strategy”, thus relating to systemic colonialism. Settler colonialism has been related to predatory mechanisms related to capitalism in the exploitation of the environment. It is important to note, however, that this genocide-ecocide nexus is also relevant outside the borders of settler colonial States. Any land-based community can be a victim of this aspect of the genocide-ecocide nexus. Environmental destruction is intertwined with the destruction of other dispossessed, colonized, or marginalized groups, even if Indigenous Peoples are usually at the forefront of this issue.

Another aspect is that the scarcity in resources caused by environmental degradation leads to an increase in conflicts and in greater chances of violences based on the distribution and access to environmental resources. Capitalism, especially with industrial developments leading to the over-exploitation of the environment and the pursuit of economic growth, is the main driver of the genocide-ecocide nexus. The tendency of capitalism to boost environmental destruction has been extensively researched.

The genocide-ecocide nexus is likely to increase in the future, as the need for resources rises. An example is the search for energy sources: extraction will “grow more intense, unconventional and riskier over time as the easier to extract conventional sources are depleted”. Further environmental destruction is to be expected as the need for more raw materials increases. Indigenous Peoples’ lands are frequently the target of such industrial developments and extractive industries as States and corporations work together to exploit these territories.

Genocide is one component of these countermeasures taken by governments and corporations working together. This illustrates this second connection between ecocide and genocide, as Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the ones resisting exploitation and, therefore, the ones targeted by repressive measures. Indigenous Peoples are not passive victims of the destruction of their lands and resources, but their resistance has led to the killing of activists. Hill mentions a “licence to kill” environmental activists in Peru, and the majority of these activists are Indigenous. Lynch, Stretesky, and Long write that “repressive State responses intersect with corporate interests in the withdrawal of ecological resources and create conditions where [Indigenous and Native Peoples] environmental activists become the victims of state violence and perhaps even covert corporate violence designated to eliminate resistance to the [treadmills of production]”. In other words, the destruction of Indigenous Peoples through the destruction of the environment has been allowed by a State-corporation partnership to eradicate communities, and through State-corporation crime with the aim of appropriating natural resources.

Green Criminology and the Genocide-Ecocide Nexus

In 2016, the International Criminal Court issued a policy paper on case selection. In this policy paper, it is written that the Office of the Prosecutor will consider “Rome Statute Crimes that are committed by means of, or that result in, inter alia, the destruction of the environment, the illegal exploitation of natural resources or the illegal dispossession of the land.” So far, the Rome Statue was only addressing severe, long-lasting environmental damages committed during war times. Initiatives from NGOs have developed in the past years to support the recognition of ecocide in the Rome Statute, as well as at the European level with the Charter of Brussels for instance. This Charter aims at the creation of a Criminal Court of the Environment and Health, which would make environmental destruction a crime against humanity, thus understanding the complexity and interactions of the genocide-ecocide nexus and placing the issue within the mandate of the International Criminal Court.