The Environmental Security Challenge

• Author: Jeremy Collymore and Elizabeth Riley
• Pages: 199-218

- 199 -

The Environmental Security Challenge

The Environmental Security

Challenge

Jeremy Collymore and Elizabeth Riley

Introduction

Environmental concerns have emerged as one of the critical non-

traditional security challenges facing the Caribbean region in this century.

These issues existed before, and continue to exist beyond the 9/11 event and

span the wide spectrum of disciplines comprising environmental studies. They

include matters related to climate change and sea level rise, natural and

technological (man-made) disasters (Table 8.1), waste management, coastal

and marine resources, freshwater resources, land resources, energy resources

and biodiversity resources.

This brief chapter cannot hope to address the full scope of environmental

security concerns facing the region. Rather, it seeks to explore some of the

key issues and challenges facing regional policy makers as they address

environmental security matters, such as trends in policy approaches and the

implications of the two main environmental security threats faced by the

region. Finally, this chapter will discuss the role played by institutional

mechanisms and human resource capacity in addressing environmental

security.

8

- 200 -

Caribbean Security in the Age of Terror

Table 8.1

Natural and Technological Hazards facing Caribbean States

Environmental Security – A Definition

To facilitate discussion on environmental security it is first necessary to

define the term and then understand its character, particularly within our

regional context. Interpreted in its widest sense, the term environment

encompasses the physical surroundings and conditions, both natural and man-

made, within which any organism, group or object exists. It is this definition

which is used within this chapter. Security refers to the secure condition of

any entity, in this case the state. The term environmental security will therefore

be defined as those environmental problems or challenges which may create

or add to instability in a geopolitical region or threaten the sovereignty of a

state. This geopolitical region may range from an individual nation to a

geopolitical grouping such as CARICOM. Bearing this general definition in

mind, it is necessary to outline four of the specific features which characterise

the Caribbean region.

First, it must be stated that environmental security is but one component

of the larger regional security challenge. It has been clearly recognised that

the character of Caribbean regional security is multi-dimensional and includes

not only environmental concerns but also military, political and socio-

economic dimensions (Griffith 1997) with each component offering its peculiar

challenge to development. Thus any attempts to address environmental

security within the region must also address these larger, already emergent

challenges: threats from both external and internal forces; limited capacity;

internal bureaucratic politics and sovereignty and its particular power

dynamics.

Natural Hazards Technological Hazards

•

Hurricanes

•

Tropical Storms

•

Storm Surge

•

Extreme rainfall events

•

Floods

•

Drought

•

Landslides

•

Earthquakes

•

Volcanic eruptions

•

Tsunamis

•

Fire

•

Oil Spills

•

Industrial accidents

•

Hazardous material

accidents

•

Aircraft accidents

•

Shipping accidents