Birds migrate to the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve on the southern coast of Ukraine. More than 100,000 birds spend the winter here, and there are a number of rare species, including the white-tailed eagle, red-breasted merganser and black-winged stilt.
The reserve is also home to the sandy blind mole rat, the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, rare flowers, countless mollusks, and dozens of species of fish.
Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi, a deputy minister of environmental protection and natural resources in Ukraine, said in an email last month that the territory of the reserve is occupied by the Russian troops.
Military activity in the area sparked fires large enough to be seen from space, prompting concerns about the destruction of bird breeding habitats.
We are horrified for the human cost and see what is happening in Ukraine.
The world's attention has been focused on the nation's heavily shelled cities since Russian forces invaded in February. In an ecological transition zone, Ukraine is also home to wetlands and forests. More than one-third of the nation's protected natural areas have already been entered by Russian troops.
Reports from the ground and research on previous armed conflicts suggest that the ecological impact of the conflict could be profound. Wars destroy habitats, kill wildlife, generate pollution, and remake ecosystems, with consequences that go on for decades.
The environment is the silent victim of conflicts, according to the research and policy director at the Conflict and Environment Observatory.
There are exceptions. Wars can make landscapes so dangerous or inhospitable to humans, or create so many barriers to the exploitation of natural resources, that they have a rare opportunity to recover. In times of war and peace, human activity poses a threat to the natural world.
Robert Pringle, a biologist at the University of Princeton, said that humans are generally disruptive and that includes their conflicts.
The act of waging war is destruction. Studies suggest that it disproportionately affects the planet's most important ecosystems. More than 80% of the world's major armed conflicts took place in areas that are rich in native species but under threat, according to a study by Dr. Hanson and his colleagues.
Dr. Hanson said that if we were concerned about the world's biodiversity, we need to be concerned about conflicts as well.
Scientists found that armed conflict was correlated with declines in wildlife across protected areas of Africa. The researchers found that wildlife populations were stable in peacetime and decline during war.
Environmental destruction is an explicit military tactic. Defoliants were used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War to thin out the jungle. Oil and timber arelootable resources that armed forces often exploit to fund their war efforts.
War can cause deep damage even when environmental destruction is not deliberate. Soldiers dig trenches, tanks flatten vegetation, bombs scar landscapes, and explosives ignite fires. Weapons leak toxic gases and particulates into the air.
In conflict areas, that stuff doesn't get cleaned up.
There is a high-intensity shooting war in a country with a lot of industrial risks.
Chemicals, oil depots, coal mines, gas lines, and other industrial sites are located in Ukraine, which could release enormous amounts of pollution if damaged. Some have been hit.
"This could really be compared to using chemical weapons," said Oleksii Vasyliuk, a Biologist in Vasylkiv, Ukraine. The Russians didn't bring toxic substances here, but they did release them into the environment.
There is a fear of nuclear detonation. The largest of the nuclear power plants has already been the site of intense fighting. Nuclear waste storage sites can be damaged.
Scientists have learned a lot about the long-term effects of radiation on animals and the environment from studies conducted in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
According to research at the site, radiation causes deformities in animals and affects entire populations.
The Chernobyl exclusion zone may have been worsened by the Russian military activity. Fires may have released radioactive particles that had been captured in the local flora, and driving through the most contaminated areas might have kicked up clouds of radioactive dust.
Wildlife may have been threatened by military activity in the exclusion zone. Bruce Byers, an independent ecological consultant, said that large species that don't really have a home nearby in the region have started to come back.
The exclusion zone contains gray wolves, red foxes, raccoon dogs, lynx and boars, as well as Przewalski's horses, which were introduced to the area about two decades ago.
The Russian takeover of the site created an enormous noise and activity that likely pushed the animals away.
The long-term environmental impacts of war are more driven by societal upheaval, according to an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Civilians are often forced to rely on natural resources, such as wild game, to survive because of wars. Some armed forces depend on wild animals to feed their troops, or they harvest valuable animal parts, like elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns, to finance their activities. Increased demand for wildlife is accompanied by a weakened of environmental protections or enforcement.
Antipoaching patrols were suspended after civil war broke out in 1975. Franciany Braga-Pereira, a Biologist at the University of Barcelona who studied the effects of the war, said that the conflict increased access to automatic weapons. The number of buffaloes, antelopes and other target species was reduced because of a drastic increase in hunting.
Wartime hunting takes a toll on large mammals, many of which play critical roles in shaping their ecosystems.
The population densities of nine large herbivores, including elephants, zebras, Hippopotamuses and buffaloes, declined by more than 90 percent during the civil war.
A shrub spread through the landscape.
leopards and African wild dogs vanished from the park due to behavioral changes in their prey. The bushbuck began spending more time in open plains, where it feasted on new plants, suppressing the growth of native fauna.
Abundance can be threatened by food insecurity and economic instability. The population of moose, wild boars and brown bears in Russia declined after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
None of these species were even close to being vulnerable, according to Dr. Bragina, who grew up in the Soviet Union. In Russia, half of the population went down.
Dr. Bragina said that the findings suggest that wildlife could be at risk anywhere that the war in Ukraine creates food insecurity.
Mr. Vasyliuk, the Ukrainian Biologist, said that he was concerned about the animals in nature preserves but had not heard of any reports of them being killed. The Askania-Nova preserve, which is currently occupied by Russian forces, contains herds of horses and saiga antelopes. He said that many of the animals in the preserve need supplemental feeding in the winter and early spring.
Mr. Vasyliuk said that the government may not be able to safely move funds or supplies into reserves in occupied areas. He said that his group has been raising money for the reserves by paying local grain farmers to feed the animals.
Mr. Vasyliuk said that some of the staff have been evacuated. Some members of his own group became refugees because of the organization's work to provide food, water and medicine to workers in occupied areas and help displaced workers find housing.
Money and priorities shift to human survival as war has opportunity costs.
In isolated cases, human conflicts can provide a shield for nature.
Korea's Demilitarized Zone is a thin ribbon of land that serves as a buffer between North and South Korea. It is off limits to humans because of the land mines and guards. In the absence of people, it provides refuge for rare flora and fauna, including red-crowned and white-naped cranes. The larger land animals can be at risk from the mines.
War can disrupt industries. Commercial fishing in the North Sea ceased during World War II due to a number of factors. Many fish species rebounded.
The gains can be fleeting. In the early years of the civil war in Nicaragua, people fled to the Atlantic coast and the forests regenerated. Scientists found that as the war wound down, residents returned and more land was denuded than had been reforested during the early war.
The experts said that the findings speak to the need to consider the environment immediately after a conflict as nations seek to rebuild infrastructure and economies.
Mr. Vasyliuk said that after the war is over, all of the construction will be our sand, our rock, and our wood.
Policymakers can use the post-conflict period to strengthen environmental protections and even incorporate conservativism into the peacemaking process.
It is possible to restore. In Gorongosa National Park, an intensive recovery project has been going on since the 2000s. Enhancements to anti-poaching patrols, the development of a wildlife tourism industry and efforts to improve economic and food security in local communities are included.
leopards and wild dogs have been reintroduced. Dr. Pringle was on the advisory board for the project.
The collapse and ongoing restoration of the park shows how intertwined human and ecological well-being are.
Dr. Pringle said that when people are doing well, that is when you have the greatest opportunities to secure a future for biodiversity.
Ali Kinsella wrote a translation.
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