Standard 10: Environment
Our Commitment:
We are committed to protecting the
environment through sustainable
resource management.
Clearing the ground for planting in Liberia, using the
traditional “slash and burn” method
Quality Standards Field Guide – First Edition, December 2009
Standard 10: Environment
The issues
Disasters can have a significant impact on the environment for the following
reasons:
• During a disaster the demands on the environment may be high as populations
are displaced, concentrated, and traditional environmental management is
broken down. The establishment of a refugee camp often results in
deforestation, pressure on water sources and damage to a large area of land.
For example in Darfur, massive deforestation around the camps has reduced
soil fertility and harmed other plants and animals. This also means that women
have to travel further to collect firewood, putting them at increased risk from
attack.
• Environmental resources are usually crucial to traditional coping strategies and
to developing future recovery strategies. In many cases environmental
resources are critical for livelihoods; for example the collection of fire wood,
the grazing of life stock and the farming of land. Allowing the environment to
be degraded during a crisis will undermine the recovery and make the
recurrence of disaster more likely.
• There are also important links between environment and health, particularly
where areas are crowded, pollution is high and resources are few. For
example, in a crowded IDP camp a lack of sanitation facilities may lead to the
contamination of local rivers or ground water or outbreaks of disease.
It is almost always the poorest, most vulnerable people who suffer most from
both disasters and from environmental degradation.
Biblical foundations
Men and women were made as part of a perfect creation and were given a
specific responsibility to care for it. We are stewards, not owners, of God’s earth.
As stewards, we should encourage sustainable development, providing for present
needs in a way that will ensure that the needs of future generations are met.
Scientific consensus is that humans have caused harmful climate change,
primarily through burning fossil fuels and widespread deforestation. The impact
of climate change is already evident and includes flooding, droughts, rising sea
levels and increased severity of cyclones. Climate change is already hitting the
world’s poorest, most vulnerable people the hardest. Loving our neighbour, in
this context, means using the earth’s resources responsibly and fairly and making
lifestyle choices that will reduce our impact on the environment.
Good Practice commitments
Our commitment is at a minimum to avoid negative impacts on the environment
and the depletion of environmental resources, and wherever possible to have a
positive impact on the environment.
Quality Standards Field Guide – First Edition, December 2009
Standard 10: Environment
A challenge for field workers is managing the tension between meeting short term
emergency needs while considering long term environmental issues. For example,
managing the need for timber poles for constructing temporary shelter against
long term deforestation. We need to carefully consider in our projects how we
can protect the environment through sustainable resource management and
alternative technologies.
Close links to other Quality Standards
There are close links with Disaster Risk, recognising the close connections
between disaster risk, climate change and environmental degradation; Technical
Quality, with the need to consider impact on the environment in our technical
design; and Sustainability, with the need to ensure sustainable environmental
resource management.
Where to look for further information:
• Tearfund Good Practice Guide on Environmental Sustainability:
http://tilz.tearfund.org/webdocs/Tilz/Topics/DMT/GPG%20Environmental%
20sensitivity.pdf
• Tearfund CEDRA Tool (Climate Change and Environmental Degradation Risk
and Adaptation Assessment)
• Tearfund Environmental Assessment Tool
• Tearfund ROOTS 13 Environmental Sustainability book
• Tearfund Research Report: Darfur: Relief in a Vulnerable Environment
• Adaptationlearning.net links to UNFCCC climate change risks and required
adaptation for different countries
• UNEP website database identifies other environmental risks / sensitivities:
http://www.unep.org/
Quality Standards Field Guide – First Edition, December 2009
Standard 10: Environment
Practical Steps for carrying out our Environment commitment
Identification
Step 1: Understand the
context by talking to the
community and to local
experts
Design
Step 2: Assess the likely
impacts of your programme
on the environment before
you begin
Step 3: Design the project to
decrease environmental
damage and increase
positive environmental
outcomes
Implementation
Step 4: Monitor and manage
environmental impact in
project implementation
Step 5: Reduce our own
impact on the environment
as staff
Quality Standards Field Guide – First Edition, December 2009
Standard 10: Environment
Step 1: Understand the
context by talking to the
community and to local
experts
• Facilitate community discussion
– the leaders, women’s groups,
farmers, herders, children,
disabled, and people with
livelihoods that depend on
environmental resources. Find out about their traditional environmental
management customs, coping mechanisms during times of hardship, and
vulnerable resources.
• Discuss the social implications of environmental degradation. What existing
practices deplete or pollute natural resources? Which groups in the community
will be affected? For example women collecting firewood, slum dwellers
relying on the water course downstream or groups competing over access to a
new water supply.
• Discuss the underlying environmental dynamics. Is there a long term process of
change in land use, soil quality, climate, deforestation, soil erosion, loss of
plants and animals, reduction in crop yields or rangeland carrying capacity,
pollution, etc.?
• Ask local experts – local council/government technical officers, agricultural
officers, universities, civil society and NGOs – local environment groups are
best placed to advise on local environmental issues.
• Read appropriate literature, browse the web and seek advice. Are there local
or national laws / regulations regarding the environment? Take the time to
understand the context of the country – how it is at risk from climate change
and local environmental degradation and what types of projects are necessary
to respond e.g. is food security the big problem, or floods, or soil degradation?
etc.
Quality Standards Field Guide – First Edition, December 2009
Standard 10: Environment
Step 2: Assess the likely
impacts of your programme
on the environment before
you begin
• Carry out an environmental
assessment (EA) using the
formats provided by Tearfund
(unless the donor has a
particular format – this is a
requirement of an increasing
number of donors). An EA
involves listing the different
aspects of your projects and
then analysing the impact that
these will have on the environment. Carrying out a comprehensive EA is
especially important for projects with a direct impact on the environment,
e.g. water, sanitation, food security, livelihoods, construction.
• Build on traditional knowledge and resource management practices within the
community. Involve the community in determining what the impacts are.
• Weigh up the priorities of meeting emergency needs with the long term impact
of meeting those needs that could make the community more vulnerable over
time.
• Coordinate with other NGOs.
Quality Standards Field Guide – First Edition, December 2009
Standard 10: Environment
Step 3: Design the project to
decrease environmental
damage and increase
positive environmental
outcomes
Having identified the impact your
projects could have on the
environment, you should now
look at ways in which the project
can be modified in order to
reduce this impact. Alternative options should be identified and assessed.
Modifications to the project could include:
• Introduce new technologies e.g. alternative construction technologies such as
stabilised soil blocks. Look at adjacent communities to find new technologies
where possible, as this will help to ensure that the technology is transferable
and will increase acceptance. Knowledge exchange visits taking members of
the community to see new technology working will greatly enhance
acceptance and uptake.
• Change the design – e.g. dome slabs that do not need timber supports to
reduce quantities of timber used.
• Change the materials and energy sources used – e.g. switch to solar or hydro
power.
• Incorporate messages on construction of fuel efficient stoves and sustainable
resource management into health promotion topics and any education
programmes being supported e.g. refugee schools.
Increased positive environmental outcomes could include things such as:
• Planting trees even if your project is not using any, e.g. incentivised.
• Health promotion club topic on “caring for your environment”.
• Coordinate with other NGOs so you’re not undermining each other’s efforts.
Quality Standards Field Guide – First Edition, December 2009
Standard 10: Environment
Step 4: Monitor and manage
environmental impact in
project implementation
• Work should be undertaken
periodically to capture learning
and review the effectiveness of
the environmental mitigation
measures. Where necessary,
new mitigation measures may need to be introduced. The problem of
environmental degradation needs ongoing management.
• For example, find out if it takes longer for women to find firewood than it did
6 months previously. Arrange tree planting to compensate for wood being used
for project activities, e.g. shelter, latrines, bricks.
• For water projects where there is a concern about over abstraction from the
water table, carry out groundwater monitoring.
Step 5: Reduce our own
impact on the environment
as staff
We need to reduce our own impact on the
environment however possible:
• Vehicle use: using 4 wheel drive vehicles only
when needed. Keeping engines running only
when they are in use.
• Power use: using electricity sparingly in
offices and accommodation; switching off lights and fans when rooms are not
in use. Switching to solar power.
• Flights: avoid unnecessary flights.
• Project equipment: avoid large scale use of plastic where possible, ensure safe
waste disposal.
• Minimise use of resources and production of waste e.g. water, paper, food,
gas, packaging, etc.
Quality Standards Field Guide – First Edition, December 2009
Standard 10: Environment
Project Examples:
In Liberia, where the traditional “slash and burn” form of agriculture is
contributing to the loss of rainforest, a food security project encouraged
farmers to establish swamp rice farming as a more sustainable and more
productive form of rice cultivation.
In South Sudan the use of stabilised soil blocks has been introduced for the
construction of health centres as an alternative to traditional “burnt bricks”
(fired clay bricks). Huge quantities of firewood have to be used in order to
make burnt bricks.
In Sri Lanka a project promoted the use of solar ovens in order to reduce the
use of firewood.
In Darfur, Sudan, a water project includes the monitoring of ground water
levels to measure whether water extraction is having a long term negative
impact on the availability of ground water.
Quality Standards Field Guide – First Edition, December 2009