© UNEP PCDMB
IDP camp near a NP buffer zone, DRC
The environment is fundamental to humanitarian action for two reasons. First, environmental issues are
often underlying and contributing factors to humanitarian crises. For example, scarce natural resources
can lead to conflict. Second, humanitarian crises can have negative effects on the environment and
exacerbate risk and vulnerability if managed inadequately or addressed too late. Therefore, humanitarians
should minimize and mitigate the negative environmental impacts of their projects, and build back safer
and sustainably to improve affected people’s resilience and reduce the risk of disasters.
In an emergency, humanitarian actors’ priorities include saving lives, reducing suffering and jump-starting
recovery. Integrating environmental issues into humanitarian programmes and operations contributes to
these priorities by:
•
Protecting lives and livelihoods by safeguarding natural resources, such as water or wood (see case
study overleaf).
•
Improving affected people’s health and safety by reducing air and water pollution.
•
Addressing underlying environmental issues that may have contributed to the humanitarian crisis,
and thereby enhancing resilience.
•
Anticipating hazards and planning mitigation measures so as to reduce or reverse environmental
degradation. This improves community resilience, biodiversity, food security and economic
development, and thereby enhances the protection of people and their environment.
Overall, integrating environmental issues into humanitarian preparedness and response increases the
effectiveness, sustainability and accountability of humanitarian action.
Promoting the environment through partnerships
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
work with partners to promote the integration of environmental
issues across all elements of humanitarian response. They do this
through the Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit (JEU), which offers
the following services:
For practical guidance and tools
on integrating environmental
issues into humanitarian action,
visit:
www.humanitarianresponse.info/
themes/environment
Technical field-support services
The JEU provides practical advice on how to integrate environmental
considerations into humanitarian action in a country-specific context,
either through remote support or by deploying experts. An Environmental
Field Adviser can be deployed for up to six months to major emergencies
through OCHA’s Stand-by Partnership Programme. These experts work
under the guidance of the head of the OCHA country or regional office, with
technical support from the JEU. Environmental field advisers have been
deployed to the Philippines and Sudan.
The JEU can also deploy experts and trainers to strengthen the capacity of
local and national disaster management authorities and the Humanitarian
Country Team or UN Country Team. This includes supporting authorities
to outline action plans to better integrate environmental issues into
humanitarian action.
© UNEP PCDMB
Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit
Environment and Humanitarian Action
Environment and Humanitarian Action
Nigeria
The Environmental Emergencies Centre offers the Environment in Humanitarian Action
eLearning module. This free 90-minute online course teaches humanitarian actors how to
effectively integrate environmental issues into humanitarian response and early recovery
strategies. The course highlights key opportunities, misconceptions and challenges. For
more details, visit http://eecentre.org/Online-Learning.aspx/lan/en-US
© UNEP PCDMB
Training resources
Sudan
The JEU ensures environmental guidance is mainstreamed into the tools and guidance
of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and the cluster guidance available on
HumanitarianResponse.info. By incorporating environmental issues in all stages of the
humanitarian programme cycle, measures to mitigate and reduce environmental risks
are integrated into humanitarian preparedness and response.
The JEU also offers support to use the Environment Marker, which was designed by
UNEP. It helps to track a humanitarian project’s environmental effects—positive and
negative—and indicates whether recommended actions have been carried out.
© IRIN/Manoocher Deghati
The environment and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee
Uganda
The JEU chairs the Environment and Humanitarian Action (EHA) Reference Group.
This informal advocacy group identifies key issues involved in integrating environmental
concerns in humanitarian action, and prioritizes joint actions for EHA advocacy and
training. Members include humanitarian and environmental actors, such as UN agencies,
the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, NGOs and implementing partners.
© UNEP PCDMB
Networking and advocacy
Haiti
CASE STUDY
Darfur: Preserving livelihoods
© Halima Khier Adam
The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan, which began in 2004, is closely linked
with deforestation and desertification. These environmental factors directly affect lives and
livelihoods, and they are intensified by the humanitarian operations.
The humanitarian consequences of deforestation and desertification are numerous.
Protection and education are affected because women have to travel farther for firewood
and water, and they often remove their daughters from school to help with this additional
burden. The loss of fertile topsoil hampers agricultural activities and destroys livelihoods.
Less groundwater is retained and groundwater aquifers are depleted at a quicker rate,
exacerbating the already serious water-scarcity problem.
Deforestation is mainly caused in places where firewood is used as fuel for cooking stoves
and kilns (ovens used for brick production). The humanitarian crisis has exacerbated this
problem due to an exponential increase in construction needs. Brick manufacturing also
uses a significant amount of soil and water, adding to the destruction of agricultural land and
limiting water supplies further.
When these negative effects were identified, humanitarian actors looked for alternative ways
Darfur
to produce bricks. Many projects now use stabilized soil blocks made by mixing compacted
earth with a stabilizer such as cement or lime, which makes them about 30 per cent cheaper
to produce. And because they are dried in the sun, there is no need to use firewood as fuel.
Other environmentally conscious initiatives include using fuel-efficient stoves, using alternative construction materials for latrines,
such as concrete slabs instead of wood, and including tree planting in early recovery projects.
Contact
Contact
Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment
WendyUnit
Cue
OCHA Emergency Services
Chief ofBranch
Section,
Geneva,
Switzerland
Joint UNEP/OCHA
Environment
Unit
E-mail:
Office for the Coordination
of [email protected]
Humanitarian Affairs
For more information, please visit:
Office S-225, Palais des Nations
www.unocha.org/unep
CH 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
www.eecentre.org
Tel: +41 (0) 22 917 1934
www.humanitarianresponse.info/themes/
Email: [email protected]
environment