Guidance for Recovery in Sudden Onset Emergencies

How to address environmental concerns in recovery from sudden onset emergencies

• Assess, minimize and address negative environmental impacts throughout disaster recovery and reconstruction in order to create opportunities for communities to build back safer and in a more sustainable way.
  • See here for a sector-specific overview of key environmental considerations.
• To increase sustainability and support longer-term development, recovery and reconstruction efforts should aim to:
  • Promote the sustainable use of renewable natural resources as building materials.
  • Reintroduce those traditional methods of reconstruction that are more environmentally sustainable than modern approaches.
  • Reuse or recycle disaster debris for reconstruction (see the Disaster Waste Management Guidelines for specific guidance)
  • Manage waste responsibly and support the development of disaster waste management systems to prevent future pollution and environmental issues associated with waste.
  • Conserve water and use sustainable resources only.
  • Develop governance capacity to sustainably manage natural resources.
  • Utilize technological innovations that are applicable to the local context.
• The high demand on natural resources can quickly become overwhelming as reconstruction efforts are underway.
  • During early recovery, predict which natural resources are likely to be in high demand and prepare to meet those needs in the most sustainable manner possible to ensure that these resources will be available for future demands as well.
  • Involve natural resource management experts and local environmental actors to ensure a sustainable use of natural resources.
    • The sustainable management of natural resources relies on the inclusion of a wide range of stakeholders to be effective. Environmental, humanitarian, development, national and local actors as well as communities must come together to ensure good stewardship of natural resources and improve affected people’s quality of life.
  • Prepare exit strategies for unavoidable unsustainable practices and transition as soon as possible to avoid creating new sources of vulnerability in the short and long term.
• Engage with ecosystem restoration where possible (see here for specific guidance).
  • Ecosystem-based approaches to reduce disaster risk are especially relevant in the context of disaster recovery (see IUCN’s resources for detailed guidance).
  • Restoring the functions of ecosystems helps to reduce disaster risk, ensure food security and energy efficiency, restore livelihoods, and provide clean air as well as water.
  • The prioritization of ecosystems to restore can be based on the expected benefits in terms of livelihood restoration, provision of natural resources, and the reduction of hazard risk, e.g. flood or landslide risk reduction.
• Please see http://envirodm.org/green-recovery for a wealth of information on green recovery.
  • WWF’s Green Recovery and Reconstruction Tool (GRRT) is an excellent toolkit with the practical information and strategies necessary to improve project outcomes for the affected population, build back communities that are more environmentally sustainable, and reduce risk and vulnerability to future disasters.