USAID Sector Environmental Guidelines & Resources - SEG

USAID SEG Livestock

The use of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, and other livestock offer many benefits to the growing global population and millions of farmers in the developing world. These animals are integral to rural livelihoods and local cultures, providing food (meat, eggs and other dairy products), materials (wool, hide, horns, etc.), income, and mechanical power for pulling carts, drawing water or plowing fields.

Livestock manure can serve as a source of fertilizer. Grazing can help sustain vegetation and promote biodiversity by dispersing seeds, controlling shrub growth, breaking soil crusts, stimulating grass growth and improving seed germination. Livestock may also represent savings and currency or have cultural value.

Properly managed, livestock production can enhance land and water quality, biodiversity, and social and economic well-being. However, when improperly managed, livestock production may cause significant economic, social and environmental damage. Increasing livestock production has the potential to increase environmental harm. This Livestock Sector Environmental Guideline helps identify potential adverse environmental impacts and mitigation and monitoring options to address them.

USAID SEG Integrated Pest Management

Integrated pest management (IPM) is defined as a farmer-based and knowledge-intensive management approach that encourages natural and cultural control of pest populations by anticipating pest problems and managing their numbers to reduce losses, while permitting safer pesticide uses where justified and permitted. Many indigenous, as well as newly-developed, non-chemical techniques are available for use. These include combinations of biological control, habitat manipulation, soil health management, use of resistant varieties, and modification of cultural practices (expanded upon below). IPM focuses on long-term prevention of pests and their damage and is USAID policy. Pesticides are considered curative, and generally should be used as a last resort.

USAID’s IPM Sector Environmental Guidelines are designed to encourage the use of natural and cultural pest management tactics to the extent possible while permitting the safe integration of pesticides, as needed, with farmers’ traditional cropping and pest management systems.

USAID SEG Housing

Shelter is a basic human need. Thus, providing adequate housing is a fundamental development objective but it is also highly complex. Successful housing activities can rarely be isolated from the development of associated infrastructure—e.g., water, sanitation, transport—and social services.

The Housing Sector Environmental Guideline focus on housing reconstruction after natural disasters that must be carried out in highly difficult circumstances and there are expectations to be operational very quickly. The Guideline does not address technical standards for construction of housing units, water supply and treatment, etc. Instead, its purpose is (1) to convey the full range of environmental and environmental health issues associated with housing construction, and (2) to provide a guided framework for considering these issues in the siting, design and implementation of housing projects, particularly in post-disaster reconstruction and in risk-prone areas.

Note: It is highly recommended that readers review additional Sector Environmental Guidelines in this series as much of their content has implications for housing activities: Water and Sanitation, Solid Waste, Rural Roads, and Construction.

USAID SEG Healthcare Waste

Small-scale healthcare activities, such as rural health posts, immunization posts, reproductive health posts, mobile and emergency healthcare programs, and urban clinics and small hospitals, provide important and often critical healthcare services to individuals and communities that would otherwise have little or no access to such services. The medical and health services they provide improve family planning, nurture child and adult health, prevent disease, cure debilitating illnesses, and alleviate the suffering of the dying.

Currently, little management of healthcare wastes occurs in many small-scale facilities in developing countries. Training and infrastructure are minimal. A common practice in urban areas is to dispose of healthcare waste along with the general solid waste or, in peri-urban and rural areas, to bury waste, without treatment. In some cities and towns, small hospitals may incinerate waste in dedicated on-site incinerators, but often fail to operate them properly. Unwanted pharmaceuticals and chemicals may be dumped into the local sanitation outlet, be it a sewage system, septic tank or latrine. These practices present often significant risks to health. This Healthcare Waste Sector Environmental Guideline provides information on how to mitigate these and other environmental hazards related to healthcare waste management activities.

USAID SEG Small Healthcare Facilities

Small-scale healthcare facilities play a vital role in public health and are a key part of integrated community development. The staff at rural health posts (including immunization and reproductive health posts), mobile and emergency healthcare programs, urban clinics and small hospitals are not only tasked with treating the sick. They are also responsible for disease prevention, and health communication and education and serve as the front line of defense against epidemics such as AIDS, malaria, and cholera. Health service professionals at these facilities provide family planning, nurture child and adult health, prevent disease, cure debilitating illnesses, and alleviate the suffering of the dying.

However, environmentally poor design and management of these facilities can adversely affect patient and community health countering the very benefits they are intended to deliver. This Small Healthcare Facilities Sector Environmental Guideline describe the mechanisms by which environmental and health risks arise and recommends mitigation and monitoring measures to reduce them and otherwise strengthen project outcomes. It also includes a number of checklists for environmentally sound design and management (ESDM) of small health facilities.

USAID SEG Forestry

Forestry is the science and practice of managing trees and forests to provide a diverse range of ecosystem goods and services. The Forestry Sector Environmental Guideline provides information on environmental and social impacts, mitigation measures, and environmentally sound design and management (ESDM) best practice for the types of forestry projects typically funded by USAID.

This document was prepared to help Missions comply with Section 117 of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) and Title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section 216 (22 CFR 216), which require that environmental impact assessments be conducted, and mitigations implemented, for all USAID projects. It seeks to ensure awareness of Section 118 of FAA and other relevant legislation that pertains to tropical forests.

The guideline is also intended to help USAID partners and staff design forestry activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimize the vulnerability of people, ecosystems and the project itself to climate change, all of which are important aspects of 22 CFR 216.

USAID SEG Energy

Renewable energy can have numerous benefits, such as increased energy access in developing countries, public health improvements, climate change mitigation, etc. However, for those benefits to be realized, several sustainability considerations must be addressed in the design. This guideline is intended to inform developers and implementers of small-scale energy projects about environmentally sound design (ESD).

USAID SEG Ecotourism

Ecotourism can contribute to economic development and the conservation of protected areas by generating revenues that can be used to sustainably manage protected areas, and by providing local employment and a sense of community ownership. However, without careful planning and management that balances ecological, social, and economic objectives, ecotourism can easily cause environmental damage.

The Ecotourism chapter of the EGSSAA describes how to anticipate and mitigate adverse environmental impacts so that ecotourism projects:

• increase socioeconomic benefits to communities and landowners;
• sustainably manage the environment;
• raise awareness of and support for conservation, and
• increase a community’s capacity to conserve and manage natural resources outside protected areas.

USAID SEG Crop Production

USAID seeks to facilitate inclusive and sustainable agricultural productivity growth to lift people out of extreme poverty and hunger, giving them the ability to move beyond subsistence and engage in their local, national, and/or global economies.

Best achieving these critical development objectives requires that the potential adverse environmental and social impacts of crop production and activities across the agricultural value chain be anticipated and mitigated in program design and implementation. Such potential impacts include but are not limited to land and water degradation to occupational health and safety, child labor, and social displacement.

This Crop Production Sector Environmental Guideline supports identification and mitigation of these impacts.