Spain
Practice Relating to Rule 45. Causing Serious Damage to the Natural Environment
Section A. Widespread, long-term and severe damage
Spain’s LOAC Manual (1996) states:
There is a serious concern today about the protection of the natural environment which is translated in the law of war in the form of three specific prohibitions to use means and methods of warfare which would cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the environment (Articles 35 and 55 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I and the 1976 ENMOD Convention).
Spain’s LOAC Manual (2007) states:
Current concern over the protection of the natural environment is reflected in the law of war in three specific prohibitions of the use of methods or means of warfare which are intended or may be expected to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment (Articles 35 and 55 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I and the 1976 ENMOD Convention).
Spain’s Penal Code (1995) provides for the punishment of:
anyone who, during armed conflict, uses methods or means of combat, or orders them to be used, which are … conceived to cause, or with good reason are expected to cause, extensive, permanent and severe damage to the natural environment, endangering the health or the survival of the population.
Spain’s Penal Code (1995), as amended in 2003, states:
Anyone who in the event of an armed conflict employs or orders the employment of prohibited means or methods of combat … that are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the environment and thereby to prejudice the health or survival of the population … shall be punished with ten to 15 years’ imprisonment, without prejudice to a penalty for the results of such acts.
Spain’s Royal Ordinances for the Armed Forces (2009) states that members of the armed forces
[m]ust not use means and methods of warfare prohibited by International Humanitarian Law … that are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment, [thus] compromising the health or survival of the population.