Educationists and environmental experts on Thursday, called for including the subject of Environmental Impact Assessment into curricula, to educate students and raise awareness regarding this important issue. Experts from all over the country gathered at the capital to evolve a strategy for working towards improving the EIA Curriculum for universities in the countries. Inaugurating the workshop, Muhammad Javed Malik, Secretary, Planning and Development, stressed the need for educating every single person in the country, as every individual had a role to play and contribute towards the development of the country.
He said that both Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and EIA are important, as we face environmental problems that cost us billions of rupees every year. We need to improve and maintain current environmental resources, it is important that we integrate these tools into our planning and development process. He emphasized the need to bring improvement in the curricula of EIA being taught in universities, involving all stakeholders in the development of EIA curricula and getting their approval.
He said that since EIA is an essential prerequisite for all development projects, it is even more important to rally civil society and public sector institutions to bring an effective improvement in the curricula. The government in collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) had organized this one day workshop on “Improvement of EIA Curricula of Tertiary Level Academic Institutions: EIA teaching in Pakistan.”
The main objective of the workshop was to explore and identify gaps, discuss key points of a standardized “core” curriculum; and to reflect on those teaching aspects that cannot be standardized. An EIA curriculum will be deigned, based on the feedback received from the universities teaching EIA.
The workshop was conducted by Professor Dr. Thomas B. Fischer, a World renowned expert in SEA and EIA from the University of Liverpool; having an extensive experience in development of EIA Curricula in both developed and undeveloped countries. The workshop was one in a series being organized under the ongoing National Impact Assessment Program (NIAP) jointly implemented by the Government of Pakistan and IUCN. The program aims to contribute to sustainable development in the country by strengthening Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and introducing Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in the development planning process.
NIAP has four partners including Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (PEPA); Environment Wing, Ministry of Environment; Environment Section, Planning Commission and IUCN Pakistan. Technical assistance to the program is being provided by the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) while the project is being funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands (EKN).
During the workshop, Ghulam Mohyauddin Marri, Member of Infrastructure Planning and Development Commission, remarked that bringing improvement in the curricula will bring environmental sustainability to overall development planning in the country and will help bring out more professional EIA experts.
