“Everything in nature intuitively gravitates towards what serves its growth, and that includes the human race.” (Sonia Choquette) Yet, human activities have continued moving in directions detrimental to the protection of ecosystem benefits and conserving biodiversity. Adding further to this crisis, impacts of climate are increasingly threatening to derail development and conservation gains of many years and hinder inclusive growth.

Impact assessment approaches can help identify opportunities for securing benefits of continued growth and new developments in multiple sectors in a way that reduces their impact on the environment and their contributions to global climate change, while supporting sustainable development and societal well-being-related goals. Impact assessment can help steer smart growth by identifying win-wins, synergies and strategies for adaptation, mitigation and greening of the development in all key sectors and also support governments to manage trade-offs effectively.

This course is intended to improve understanding about how nature-based approaches over 'grey' options in development practice can help achieve smart growth and improve preparedness for climate change. It will explore the merits of cumulative and strategic environmental assessment approaches for smart planning in contrast to the 'in silo' approaches of viewing impacts of individual projects.

Level:	Intermediate to advanced level course for EA professionals including trainers,  practitioners, development planners, business groups, conservation community, decision makers, donor agencies, economists and policy makers
Prerequisites:	Basic understanding of impact assessment and ecological concepts, especially those related to ecosystem services and sustainability principles
Language:	English
Duration:	2 days (2-3 April)
Price:	US$475
Min/Max:	10-30
Instructor(s):	Asha Rajvanshi, Senior Professor and Head of EIA Cell, Wildlife Institute of India (India) Vinod B. Mathur, Director, Wildlife Institute of India (India)

 

Dr. Asha Rajvanshi has a doctorate in Environmental Science. She has been a member of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) faculty for last 30 years. She heads the EIA Cell of the Institute. In her capacity as an EIA practitioner, she has led several EIA studies to assess the impacts of development projects in key sectors. As a trainer, she has been actively involved in national and global capacity building initiatives. She has effectively contributed to the development of learning resources and guidance manuals for mainstreaming biodiversity in impact assessment. These are becoming increasingly popular as tools for professionalizing EIA in south Asia. Asha’s professional experience is also being sought by the Govt. of India in the environmental appraisal of development projects. She is a member of the Environment Committee, Indian Road Congress and member of Accreditation Committee of the Quality Council of India for Accreditation of EIA consulting organizations. Asha is a member of the International Association for Impact Assessment, USA and has served as the Co-Chair of its Biodiversity Section for five years. Asha presented IAIA’s pre-conference training courses in Boston (USA), Stavanger (Norway), Seoul (Korea), Perth (Australia), Accra (Ghana), Geneva (Switzerland), Puebla (Mexico), Porto (Portugal), Calgary (Canada) and Florence (Italy) from 2005 to 2015. Asha is nominated as an expert and Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) for regional/sub-regional assessments on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Asia and Pacific region.

Dr. Vinod Mathur holds a Masters’ degree in Forestry and a doctorate in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Oxford. As a faculty member of the Wildlife Institute of India, he has been actively involved in conducting training and research in the field of natural resource conservation for the last 28 years. He has also worked as a FAO International Training and Protected Area Planning Consultant in Sri Lanka. He has been responsible for the planning, organization and conduct of training programs for various target groups. Dr. Mathur also has vast experience of conducting environmental assessments and developing mitigation plans for safeguarding critical biodiversity resources. He is also a member of the Environmental Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Government of India for the Coal and Thermal power projects. He is the Deputy Regional Vice Chair, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)-Asia and member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM). Dr. Mathur is an IAIA member and is actively involved in the CBBIA project of IAIA. As an initiative of CBBIA project of IAIA, Dr.Mathur co-presented the IAIA’s pre conference training courses jointly with Dr. Asha Rajvanshi in Boston (USA), Stavanger (Norway), Seoul (Korea), Perth (Australia), Accra (Ghana), Geneva (Switzerland), Puebla (Mexico), Porto (Portugal), Calgary (Canada) and Florence (Italy)  from 2005 to 2015. He is member of the United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (UN-IPBES) Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) and the Regional Vice Chair of IPBEs MEP (Asia Pacific Region.