Course #12.  'Development by Design' - Options for greening the transport infrastructure CANCELLED

 

 

 

 

 

Roads, railways, and other transportation modes are integral to economic growth and development, allowing efficient movement of people and goods across the world. At the same time such linear infrastructures often pose major challenges for environment, including natural landscapes, ecosystem services and key biodiversity values. Global transport needs are high and predicted to increase significantly over the next few decades, specifically in developing countries. If the transportation infrastructure is a cornerstone of economic development, conservation should be at the heart of such developments to achieve sustainability. Ensuring connectivity of landscapes and sustainability of transportation infrastructure is a critical issue for biodiversity conservation and should be a mandatory demand for financing them. In this context, this two-day course will highlight the concept 'development by design' presenting approaches and options for maintaining integrity of landscapes. The underlying focus of the course is to promote the consensus that 'green growth models' of developments must become an obvious choice for transportation planners to overcome the challenges associated with the coexistence of linear infrastructure and biodiversity and ecosystem services as a natural capital. The course would draw on the need for framing policies that can drive development by design for green economy.

 

Level: Intermediate

Prerequisites: Participants offering to take the course are required to have a basic understanding of impact assessment and ecological concepts related to biodiversity conservation, natural capital, and valuation of ecosystem services. This would help the participants in rapidly acquiring knowledge and skills required for harmonizing biodiversity conservation and green designs while planning and developing transport sector.

Language of delivery: English

Duration: 2 days (2-3 May)

Price: US$475

Instructors: Dr. Asha Rajvanshi, Former Scientist, Wildlife Institute of India, and Consultant (India); Dr. Vinod B. Mathur, Chairperson, National Biodiversity Authority (India); Josefo B. Tuyor, Lead Environmental Specialist and Regional Safeguards Coordinator—South Asia, The World Bank (USA); Neha Vyas, Senior Environmental Specialist and Country ESF Coordinator, The World Bank (India); Dr. Anupam Joshi, Senior Environmental Specialist, The World Bank (India)

 

 

 

Dr. Asha Rajvanshi

 

Dr. Rajvanshi superannuated from the position of Senior Scientist & Head, EIA Cell at the Wildlife Institute of India in 2018 and since then has been providing her professional support in her independent capacity. Asha has over three decades of professional standing as a teacher, trainer, researcher, impact assessment practitioner and the reviewer of EIAs on behalf of the Government of India. 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 being actively used as tools for professionalizing EIA practice in south Asia. Asha has been credited to promote Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Cumulative Impact Assessment; Strategies for Sustainable Smart Green Infrastructure (SGI) and mitigation of ecologically responsive transportation projects. Asha is a member of the International Association for Impact Assessment and has served as the Co-Chair of its Biodiversity Section for five years. Asha co-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), Florence (Italy), Washington D.C.(USA) and Brisbane (Australia) from 2005 to 2019.. Asha was a 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 and is currently serving as an expert member of the Task Force Unit for capacity building of IPBES. is also a member of the International Advisory Board Development Corridor Project led by UNEP-WCMC. Asha is the recipient of IAIA lifetime Achievement Award for 2019.

 

 

Dr. Vinod B. Mathur

 

Dr. Mathur holds a Masters' degree in Forestry and a doctorate in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Oxford. As a faculty member and Director of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), he has been actively involved in conducting training and research in the field of natural resource conservation for the last three decades. He superannuated from WII in August 2019 and was immediately appointed as the Chairperson of the National Biodiversity Authority of India, Govt. of India in September 2019. 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 has been a member of the Environmental Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Government of India for the Coal and Thermal Power and Mining projects and the National Board of Wildlife.

 

Dr. Mathur is the Regional Vice Chair, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)-South Asia and member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM). Dr. Mathur is an IAIA member and was actively involved in the CBBIA project of IAIA. Dr. Mathur has 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), Florence (Italy), Washington D.C. (USA) and Brisbane (Australia) from 2005 to 2019. He has been a member of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) and the Regional Vice Chair of IPBES MEP (Asia Pacific Region). He is currently the Bureau Member of UN-CBD and UN-IPBES.

 

 

Josefo B Tuyor

 

Josefo (Joe) is a Lead Environment Specialist with the World Bank's Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice. Joe has led environment sustainability initiatives in many assignments across four regions (including East Asia and Pacific and South Asia). He has a wide-ranging operational experience on environment management, risk management, ecosystem management, climate change, environmental policy and institutions, and environmental capacity building across all key sectors, including hard core infrastructure covering roads, highways, hydro sector apart from watersheds, urban infrastructure and water sector. Presently, he is Regional Safeguards Coordinator for South Asia, steering and leading a team that works on environment safeguards and Bank's new Environment and Social Framework in more than 220+ operations. Josefo is an active trainer supporting and driving capacity building within and outside the Bank. 

 

 

Neha Vyas

 

Neha is a Senior Environment Specialist with the World Bank's Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice and has worked as Bank staff since 2007. In more than 23 years of professional life, she has promoted and led sustainability initiatives towards mainstreaming environment, health and safety aspects into sectoral policies and programs. Having worked across India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Africa apart from a large number of global assignments, her operational experience covers environmental capacity building in institutions and government programs, promoting nature-based solutions, enhancing resilience, managing wildlife issues in infrastructure operations, fostering safety and advancing environment education.

 

Neha is a trained environmentalist, geographer and planner having wide experience in the fields of environmental analysis, impact assessment, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, habitat management, sustainable development, climate change, and low carbon development. Presently, she is leading operations on restoration of environmental services and livelihoods as part of Andhra Pradesh Disaster Recovery Project and PRO-GREEN work on landscape management in Sri Lanka. She is also the country coordinator for ESF and safeguards work in India and supports projects to meet the World Bank's requirements on environmental safeguards and the new Environment and Social Framework.

 

Neha's professional achievements include Bank's prestigious Green Award, multiple recognitions from Vice Presidencies and being one of the top 20 women for contribution in science in India. She represents the World Bank on many committees, including those on Environment Management and Climate Resilience and is a part of Indian Roads Congress and National Think Tank on Geo-spatial Technologies. She is also a member of the Research Council of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute that operates under Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Govt. of India.

 

 

Dr. Anupam Joshi

 

Anupam is a trained ecologist having wide experience in the fields of ecosystem analysis, biodiversity conservation, protected area management, habitat restoration, sustainable land management, climate change, impact assessments and evaluations and rural livelihoods. He received his Ph.D. from University of Delhi in 1997 and since then has worked with the Government of India (Planning Commission), Civil Society, Private Sector (as a freelance environment and management consultant) and with multilateral donor agency (since 2007 with The World Bank). Presently, as a Senior Environmental Specialist in the World Bank, Anupam works on issues relating to Natural Resources Management, Biodiversity Conservation, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Restoration, Sustainable Land Management, Climate Change and Community Livelihoods. He also supports projects to meet The World Bank's requirements on environmental safeguards and the new Environment and Social Framework. He has delivered several training and capacity building workshops on environmental impact assessment approaches and methodologies, designing mitigation frameworks and Environmental Management Plans, M&E of active EMPs and on Environment/Occupation and Community Health & Safety in sectors relating to infrastructure, agriculture, natural resources etc.