hernick ag and environment for uvm (30 march 2015)

Integrating Environment into Agricultural Development

Charles HernickPresentation to University of Vermont

PSS 195-Agriculture, Environment, and Development in Latin America

31 March 2015

Overview

• “Impact assessment” is a means for integrating environmental considerations into projects

• Managing environmental risk (i.e., due diligence) requires information, time, and money

– Case study: Coffee and horticulture in Guatemala

• Climate change poses new challenges, and new opportunities

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About Cadmus

• Employee-owned company

• Staff have worked in over 100 countries including conflict, post-conflict, and transitional economies

• Employs over 400 full-time professional staff

• Leading provider of environmental compliance services to United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

34/2/2015

USAID’s Mission

• “We partner to end extreme poverty and to promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity”

Impact assessment helps assure project success

IAIA defines Environmental Impact Assessment as “the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made”

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Impact Assessment:

Putting Together Parts of the Puzzle

• Inform Design

– Current state

– Evaluate impacts

– Avoid significant impacts

• Better decisions

• Better projects

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Sometimes it’s easy and risks are clear …

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Aswan High Dam

daños a los

cultivos de sal

monumentos

dañados de sal

Sometimes environmental risks are difficult to

anticipate …

USAID’s EIA process• Must be applied to all activities before implementation• May result in environmental management conditions to mitigate

negative impacts• Requires monitoring over project life• Result:

– Avoid environmental failures– Maximize environmental benefits

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Social Impacts

• Affected people, compensation

• At risk populations

• Cultural heritage and resources

Ecosystem Services

Provisioning Regulating Cultural

Food Air Quality Regulation Spiritual and Religious Values

Crops Climate Regulation Aesthetic Values

Livestock Global Recreation and Ecotourism

Capture Fisheries Regional and Local

Aquaculture Water Regulation

Wild Foods Erosion Regulation

FiberWater Purification and Waste Treatment

Timber Disease Regulation

Cotton, Hemp, Silk Pest Regulation

Wood Fuel Pollination

Genetic Resources Natural Hazard Regulation

Biochemicals, Natural Medicines, Pharmaceuticals

Freshwater

Source: MEA 2005

Guatemala Environmental Audit for the Rural Value Chain

Fall 2014

Photo credit: Kathleen Hurley 2014

Environmental compliance audit

• Confirm environmental considerations in projects design

• Confirm that considerations are applied, monitored, and documented

• Generate recommendations


Rural Value Chains

• Coffee

• Horticulture

• Handicrafts

Challenges

• Two implementing partners with different styles of management

• Representative sample

• Rainy season, poor infrastructure

• Language barriers with farmers (indigenous lang. vs. Spanish)


Principal Themes of the Audit

• Waste management

• Pesticide and fertilizer use

• Water management

• Soil management


Observations

A spectrum of soil and cultivation techniques – from abandoned eroded coffee terraces to shade-grown coffee with effective soil conservation techniques


Waste Management


Compost Piles


Coffee Processing


Examples of “bio-bed” pesticide

preparation and washing stations


How do we better integrate

environment into agriculture projects?

Climate Smart Agriculture

24Photo credit: http://eecampaign.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/1685_elguabo_transport.jpg


• 3 Wins

– Improve productivity, nutrition, and incomes (equity)

– Adapt and build resilience to climate change

– Reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions, where appropriate to reduce impacts on ecosystems and support conservation goals

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• Not a single specific agricultural technology or practice (or combination of both) that can be universally applied

• Not single endpoint or objective: continuous process

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• Country-specific contexts (i.e., site specific)

• Identifies barriers

• Aligns policies and financial investments, and identifies strategies for leveraging financing

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Environmental Considerations

in Decision-making

Adaptation

Mitigation

Disaster Risk

Reduction

Improved Agricultural Productivity & Incomes

CSA and impact assessment have complimentary Goals

4/2/2015 29

Charles HernickSenior Associate, International Group

+1 703 247 6193

[email protected]

@CharlesHernick

hernick ag and environment for uvm (30 march 2015)

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