7. CARE’s capacity and experience

CARE has been closely involved in work to improve the linkage between environmental issues and humanitarian response globally. For example, CARE’s review of relief operations for Rwandan refugees in Tanzania was key to identifying a number of critical lessons learned on environmental issues for UNHCR. CARE has been working with UNHCR on a package of tools to assess and manage the impact of refugees and other displaced populations on the environment. CARE has collaborated with Benfield Hazard Research Centre, University College London, to develop a Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment in Disasters process. (Both are available at http://www.unhrc.org/). CARE also collaborated with other NGOs and the UN to develop an impact assessment tool for emergency shelter (available at http://www.unhrc.org/). Following the 2004 tsunami in South-East Asia and the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, CARE worked with environmental NGOs to highlight environmental aspects of those disasters, and incorporate environmental expertise into relief and recovery operations.

CARE Nederland is currently working on Integrated Risk Management, which means focusing on Disaster Risk Reduction (Chapter 9.4) while incorporating Climate Change Adaptation, and  Ecosystems Management.  One of the flagship programs of CARE Nederland is the Partners for Resilience programme, which runs in 6 countries. This programme has brought forward several tools and guidance documents to link disasters, environment and climate change. For further information please contact CARE Nederland via wbokdam@carenederland.org