IHL DATABASE Customary IHL
all IHL databases
Related Rule
Italy
Practice Relating to Rule 45. Causing Serious Damage to the Natural Environment
Section A. Widespread, long-term and severe damage
III. Military Manuals
Italy’s IHL Manual (1991) states: “It is prohibited to use means and methods of warfare, which may cause … widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment.” 
Italy, Manuale di diritto umanitario, Introduzione e Volume I, Usi e convenzioni di Guerra, SMD-G-014, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, I Reparto, Ufficio Addestramento e Regolamenti, Rome, 1991, Vol. I, § 7.
VI. Other National Practice
At the CDDH, while expressing its readiness to join in a consensus on the adoption of Article 48 bis of the draft Additional Protocol I (now Article 55), Italy stated that this article “marked a big step forward in the protection of the natural environment in the event of international armed conflict”. 
Italy, Statement at the CDDH, Official Records, Vol. VI, CDDH/SR.42, 27 May 1977, p. 208, § 20.