Environmental Review of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations for Sustainability, Kivu, DR Congo

Abstract: The environmental aspects of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping is not as popularly known to thegeneral public as its socio-economic issues. This thesis work looks at UN peacekeeping from theenvironmental perspective by carrying out an environmental review of peacekeeping in the NorthKivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo using ISO 14001 as model.Chapter one describes sustainable development as a shared responsibility and the need to ensurebalance in the social, economic and environmental issues in the pursuit of peace in host nationsduring peacekeeping.Chapter two summarizes the key issues in ISO 14001 and the requirements for conducting anenvironmental review. In chapter three, the research methodology is highlighted and chapter fourgives an overview of UN peace and security actions and the interaction among other peaceinstruments and peacekeeping. That chapter also highlights peacekeeping in Africa and in the DRCwith emphasis on the North Kivu province.The results obtained from the environmental review are presented in chapter five and the analysis ofthe result based on the ‘three party model tool for ethical risk analysis’ presented in chapter six.The research findings revealed that, the United Nations peacekeeping operations have environmentalaspects which the author identified to include emissions to air, waste, energy consumption, chemicalsusage, discharge to water, training, water consumption, exploration of resources, location/land useand fire and other uncontrolled activities. The environmental impacts and ethical risk analysis of theidentified aspects were also assessed.Conclusions and recommendations are given in Chapter seven which include the need for the UnitedNations to implement an effective environmental management system to handle its significantenvironmental aspects.