A five-day training on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was held at RDRS North Bengal Institute (NBI) in Rangpur during 10-14 July as an annual customised event of Asian Zone Environment and Emergency Cooperation Network (AZEECON). A total of 22 participants from RDRS and LWF (India, Nepal and Cambodia); ACT Partners in Bangladesh and a German intern participated in the training course.

Dr Karin Strehlow, Environmental Scientist, Murdoch University, Australia, was the Moderator of the training course.

 

Major topics of the course were : Understanding EIA and SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment) and its relation; how EIA relates with AZEECON; how EIA relates with the programme cycle; different steps of EIA procedures like screening, scooping, impact identification, public participation; basic understanding of the methods used in predicting and evaluating the significance of impacts; awareness of the importance of the review process and the difficulties encountered in the EIA process, and knowledge of the EIA decision making process. Classroom training was followed by one-day field visit to a sandbar area in Kurigram District.