The Peace Corps' Environment Programs in 2000

By Doane Perry (Uganda, 66-69)

New Peace Corps Director Mark Schneider has the most experience working in development of any agency director. When we asked the Peace Corps about environment programs today, Heidi McCallister sent us files on Environment and Agriculture. The overlap between these two sectors is extensive. It is common to have identical project structures and activities taking place in projects in either sector. Many of the issues discussed below relate directly to both.
There are 47 Environment projects worldwide, with 19 projects in the Africa region and 14 each in the Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia (EMA) and the Inter-America and the Pacific (IAP) regions. The nearly 1,200 Volunteers working in the sector represent 17 percent of total Peace Corps Volunteers. Most Volunteers are recruited from among the following assignment areas: Forestry (100), Parks and Wildlife (103), Environmental Education (104), Agriculture and Forestry Extension (117), and Non-governmental Organization (NGO) Development (145).
Agricultural projects represent one of the smallest group of sector-specific projects in Peace Corps. There are 28 Agriculture projects worldwide, with 11 projects in the Africa, one in the Europe, Mediterranean, and Asia (EMA), and 16 in the Inter-America and the Pacific (IAP) regions. Agriculture Volunteers represent assignment areas such as Parks and Wildlife (103), Applied Agricultural Science (110), Agriculture and Forestry Extension (117), Animal Husbandry (115), and Business Advising (140).

Peace Corps Environment Project Trends
A report made in 1999 by the Peace Corps Center for Field Assistance and Applied Research Environmental says Peace Corps environment projects worldwide have three main thrusts.
1. The first is environmental education and awareness, in both formal and non-formal settings, for different segments of the society from youth to adults. Environmental education takes advantage of a common skill set of Volunteers and is an area of growing concern for many developing country governments.
2. The second is the encouragement of environmentally sustainable agricultural practices for farmers, commonly agro-forestry activities. Bringing sustainable farming practices to the agricultural sector, often the largest part of a country's economy, is an opportunity for Volunteers to contribute to long term positive changes.
3. The last main area of concern is natural resource management. This is sometimes linked with sustainable farming practices but is also related to cataloging and protecting natural resources, such as soil, flora, and fauna, both in
farming zones and protected areas. In environmental projects, Volunteers are often placed in either rural areas, at the rural-urban interface, or in protected areas or buffer zones. Those located in protected areas or buffer zones may have the objective of reducing pressures on biodiversity. These Volunteers often provide an important communication link between those involved in the implementation of environmental policies in the parks and community members in the bordering communities. Volunteers in these types of placements may be involved in activities in the areas of environmental education, natural resource management, parks management, and agro-forestry all at the same time. The most common trend within the environment sector is an increasing focus on youth. This is a natural outgrowth of the growing number of environmental education activities across projects in the sector. Youth are involved in Peace Corps activities both in school settings and in informal education opportunities. For environmental education activities that focus on schools, Volunteers are not simply teaching students, but also working on curricula and
teaching skills with teachers. They are also producing materials to use and disseminate. Peace Corps Volunteers  are encouraging the involvement of adults, when working with youth outside of school, in activities such as gardening, nurseries, and environmentally focused field trips. Non-formal environmental education activities often focus on the involvement of women.
In order to attain greater sustainability, many environmental projects are beginning to focus on the potential for income generation when determining appropriate project activities. One aspect of this is the promotion of nature tourism as a component of many environmental projects, particularly in protected areas. Another trend is the encouragement of value-added activities for agricultural products, such as food transformation or handicrafts made from non-forest timber products. These types of activities seem to be generally geared for women and girls.

Issues and Considerations
A 1999 report which studied 18 environmental projects, describes three problems and solutions related to planning, evaluation and placement in environment programs.
1. Planning: Environment project counterparts are being given more of a role in project planning, particularly in terms of setting goals and objectives. Increased participation of stakeholders in project design and management requires time and resources. However, posts report that their results, in terms of project effectiveness and sustainability, make the increased efforts worthwhile.
2. Evaluation: To improve project planning and related monitoring and evaluation issues, project mangers need time
and resources in order to pull together counterparts and Volunteers, as well as other stakeholders, to establish a
relevant system of project revision.
3. Placement: Since environment projects have increased the variety of placements of Volunteers, expectations for site placements should be carefully managed when involving Trainees and Volunteers in choosing sites. Projects are looking at site placement from a logistical standpoint (i.e., clustering for skills, access to resources). Project managers are involving Trainees and Volunteers in site selection. Since there is also an increasing reliance on NGO
placements as opposed to more traditional ministry placements, NGO sites have to be chosen carefully to ensure that 1) the organization has the legal mandate to carry out the work it is attempting; and 2) the organization is substantial enough to make good use of the Volunteer. Volunteers need more training on working with NGOs.

Success Stories
Peace Corps environment projects have demonstrated substantial impact beyond project expectations. The development of a Didactic Environmental Education Guide (Guia Didactica de Educacion Ambiental) by PC/Guatemala has been instrumental in providing a basis for environmental education throughout rural Nicaragua. New Volunteers are trained to use the guide and are given 10 copies to use with counterpart teachers throughout the year. In addition, the Ministry of Education provides opportunities for the Volunteers, with their counterparts, to train other teachers in the use of the guide. Through the facilitation of PC/Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education has signed a statement of intent to use the Global Learning and Observation for the Benefits of the Environment program (GLOBE) with the U.S. National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Volunteers and counterpart ecology teachers have been trained and will be conducting local GLOBE training.  In both Ghana and Guatemala, Conservation and Management of Natural Resources projects have seen local nurseries grow into profit making enterprises and result in sustainably managed tree plantations.

Doane Perry is an innkeeper and telecom/Internet consultant in Cambridge, Massachusetts who founded the environment committee of the Boston Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and is on the board of directors of the RPCVs for Environment & Development. Reach him at doaneperry@compuserve.com