2018.28 Environmental Clearance and Handover of Mission / Field Entity / Field Entity Sites (Guidelines)

Abstract

These guidelines are an Annex of the Closure DOS’ Guide for Senior Leadership on Field entity closure (2018.08) and are specifically intended to assist United Nations management and personnel with the implementation of the environmental actions required for the successful environmental clearance and handover of Mission / Field entity sites during the closure phase of a Mission / Field entity or when for operational reasons a Mission / Field entity site is to be handed over. The guidelines provide first a succinct outline of the three phases of a United Nations Peace Operation & other operations or presences (“Mission / Field entity”) and a brief description of the environmental management mandate from Governing bodies that underpins these actions for closure. Thereafter the guideline provides details of the key steps and reporting required to conduct an Environmental Baseline Study (EBS) and an Environmental Close Out Assessment (ECOA) and highlights relevant documents from the Mission / Field entity Environmental Unit that may aid in this assessment. It then finally outlines the environmental site closure and environmental clearance procedures to appropriately handover Mission / Field entity sites. Example checklists, survey description key, a risk matrix, and environmental clearance certificates are provided as a part of these guidelines. Some of these actions are also relevant and to be undertaken by other sections/units than the Mission / Field entity’ Environmental units.