From Genocide to Ecocide: Confronting Political Violence Against the Environment

Large-scale des­truction of eco­systems through re­source extrac­tion, de­forestation, and pollution rarely leads to accounta­bility. Such harm is often en­abled through different forms of politi­cal violence, in­cluding dis­placement, intimi­dation, lethal violence, and other forms of coer­cion. In this sense, ecocide is not merely an environ­mental harm but a sys­temic prac­tice that destroys the eco­logical condi­tions of collective sur­vival, paralleling the dy­namics of geno­cide. As more states debate crimi­nalizing ecocide, the central politi­cal question is how national and inter­national institu­tions should respond to environ­mental des­truction that is systemic and inter­twined with political vio­lence. This TraCe Policy Brief exa­mines how eco­cide emerged as a political and legal idea, and why it matters for policy­makers today.

Published: 11.02.2026