In spite of the legal provisions the result is that there is yet no homogeneous body or law that protects the ecosystem in time of armed conflict. Apart from a few rules specifically addressing environmental warfare, indirect protection derives from provisions that were conceived for other purposes and from the underlying principles of customary international law that traditionally regulate the conduct of military hostilities. This raises the problem of the adequacy of the existing rules to protect the natural environmental from warfare. This paper is an attempt to examine the rules available in the laws of war and will distinguish those specifically addressing the natural environment from other rules that might however apply and provide some protection.