A Two-week Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) sponsored ‘Professional Development Programme (PDP) for Enhancing EIA effectiveness’ was conducted at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun from 25^th February to 8^th March, 2019.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a management tool used by decision-makers, regulators and stakeholders to understand the potential environmental, social and economic impacts of proposed development projects. Experience from EIA review suggest that there are some inherent gaps when it comes to incorporating biodiversity concerns in impact assessments.

This was the first course organized by WII to sensitise officials working in the field of EIA on the need to mainstream biodiversity conservation concerns in the planning and implementation of new development and to enable the reviewers to make an overall assessment of the acceptability of the proposed development taking into account the environment, ecological (forest and wildlife) and social imperatives.

In this context, the Professional Development Programme (PDP) was designed for MoEFCC officials involved in reviewing EIA reports and engaged in environmental decision-making. The aim of the programme was to significantly contribute to the professional development of these officials so that biodiversity concerns are mainstreamed in the decision making for enhancing the effectiveness of EIA as a tool against a background of rapidly declining natural heritage.

Shri N. Ravi Shanker, Former Chief Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand inaugurated the programme with a keynote address and highlighted the need to harmonize conservation concerns with developmental imperatives. Dr. V.B. Mathur, Director, WII, emphasised that capacity constraints in EIA remain one of the biggest challenges for straightforward and clear recommendations as an outcome of EIA appraisals; and explained that the outcome of the programme would help guide responsible development in consonance with conservation of natural resources.

28 officials from MoEFCC, State Forest Departments and Pollution Control Boards participated in this programme. 43 resource persons contributed to the programme which comprised topics including mainstreaming of biodiversity in EIA, mitigation hierarchy, Decision-Support Systems, Environmental Management Planning (EMP), and evaluating impacts of sectoral development viz. mining, infrastructure, river valley & hydropower and industry. The programme received an overall feedback rating of 95%.

	Course objectives and target group
	Feedback
	List of participants
	Training resource material
	Photo gallery