Guidance for Capacity and Resource Base

How to identify and close gaps between existing resources and anticipated environment related emergency response needs

• Take stock of existing personnel, equipment and financial resources to respond to, and recover from, environmental emergencies and the environmental impacts of disasters. Such a capacity assessment may be done as part of overall disaster preparedness or may have been carried out as part of disaster risk reduction efforts (see, for example CADRI). Ask the following questions:
  • Which environmental competencies are available in country (Ministries, research institutions, NGOs, local community knowledge)?
  • Do national systems / thresholds for requesting and accepting international environmental assistance exist?
    • Environmental experts in certain technical fields can be deployed (see the Environmental Emergencies Guidelines), as well as an Environmental Field Advisor to support the integration of environment in humanitarian action.
  • Which national and international funding mechanisms exist for dealing with environmental contamination of disasters (such as national oil spill funds or international support mechanisms)?
• Make use of existing capacity development programs to support the integration of environment into disaster response and recovery (see also Trainings & Exercises).
  • Humanitarian actors: Include environmental actors into disaster preparedness trainings and exercises.
  • Environmental actors: Strengthen knowledge of existing national response systems.