War and ecology: how other countries rebuilt the environment after disasters and what Ukraine should take into account

During the war, not only buildings are destroyed, but also ecosystems that support life: forests, rivers, soils, air. According to the Ministry of Environment, in the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion alone, Ukraine lost more than 600 thousand hectares of forest, 20% of protected areas were affected, and environmental damage amounted to more than 56 billion dollars. But we are not the first to go through a war or a catastrophe of this scale. The world has experience in restoring nature after disasters, and some cases are striking in their transformative power.

🇻🇳 Vietnam: from “apocalypse” to a forest countryAfter the war in Vietnam, 3 million hectares of degraded land remained, poisoned by Agent “O” (dioxin-containing defoliants). During the 1990s and 2000s, the country launched a large-scale reforestation program (5 Million Hectare Reforestation Programme), with a focus on agroforestry and joint management of natural resources with communities. The result: from 1990 to 2015, the country’s forest cover increased from 27% to 40% (FAO, 2015), and a new economy emerged around wood, fruit and ecotourism.
🇷🇼Rwanda: eco-rethinking after the genocide After the tragic events of 1994, Rwanda was virtually destroyed – forests destroyed, soils degraded, lack of basic infrastructure. In response, the country implemented the Vision 2020 policy, with a focus on environmental sustainability: Complete ban on plastic bags since 2008; Large-scale restoration of forests and eroded lands; Development of green urbanism in the capital, Kigali. Today, Rwanda is considered one of the cleanest countries in Africa, and its approach to ecology is studied at international universities.
🇮🇶 Iraq: Returning water to the marshes after the war. After the war in Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s regime deliberately drained the Mesopotamian marshes – one of the largest natural environments in the Middle East. This destroyed a unique ecosystem and displaced more than 200,000 people. After 2003, Iraq, with the support of the UN and UNEP, began a reflooding project: restoring water supplies and ecosystems. By 2008, about 50% of the marshes had been restored. The marshes returned to the UNESCO map as a World Heritage Site in 2016.
🇯🇵 Japan: ecological reconstruction after the 2011 tsunami. After the tsunami and the Fukushima accident, Japan did not just restore regions – it rethought ecological safety and risk resilience: Construction of protective green belts of trees and shrubs; Implementation of self-sufficient towns on solar energy; Creation of ecological monitoring centers around the exclusion zone. Now the Tohoku region is positioned as an exemplary one for “green transformation”, where the experience of the disaster became an impetus for sustainable development.

• Integrate ecology into reconstruction: each new project must take into account the condition of soils, the level of pollution, water balance and biodiversity. Restore forests and nature reserves – not only plant trees, but also support the natural restoration of phytocenoses, restore eco-corridors for wildlife.
• Create an environmental monitoring infrastructure: measure the quality of air, water, and soil in affected regions, including through community participation.
• Introduce green energy and construction—not to repeat the old mistakes of industrial urbanization.

Bring nature back to cities: parks, green roofs, rainwater harvesting systems—as tools for psychological recovery and adaptation to climate change.