Applying the US Natural Resource Damage Assessment Framework to Post-Conflict Damage Assessment

The United States and the European Union have legal tools to remedy damages to the environment. However, neither the U.S. nor the EU approaches explicitly address injuries and damages caused by armed conflict. One recourse is to adopt the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) framework used in the U.S.

NRDA is the technical foundation of a legal liability framework for identifying injuries to natural resources and calculating damages resulting from unlawful releases of oil and hazardous substances. Trustee agencies acting on behalf of the public use NRDA to ensure that damages to water, land, and biota are mitigated through appropriate measures that (1) restore, rehabilitate, or provide equivalent resources and (2) compensate the public for the loss of value of resources caused by injuries. Like the EU Environmental Liability Directive (ELD), NRDA ensures the sustainability of the resource base and its support of human wellbeing, and can be adapted and applied to armed conflict. International treaties and legal instruments addressing biodiversity, marine environments, and the protection of endangered species and other natural resources are evolving to treat environmental harm as a distinct issue under international tort law, emphasizing the responsibility of liable parties to provide compensation or undertake remediation and restoration of resources. The core principles of environmental damage assessment embodied in NRDA apply to identifying injuries and calculating damages attributable to armed conflict. Resource-specific damage calculations, blending established science and economic considerations, can be leveraged to quantify biophysical damages to natural resources and determine the severity of impacts on the well-being of people and communities.