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Driving capital into linear infrastructure networks of road, railways and power is one of the world’s greatest priorities to secure a safe future for people and wildlife. However, with fast paced developments Linear Infrastructure (LI) networks, land area available for conservation and restoration is not enough to prevent, reverse and halt the biodiversity loss. Poorly planned linear infrastructure can induce wildlife mortality and impede movement; fragment natural habitats; deplete natural resource and reduce benefits from ecosystem services. While policy to promotes connectivity of habitat in transportation corridors is advancing, development of nature-based solutions and nature-sensitive infrastructure designs to maintain ecological connectivity have a relatively recent origin. Nature-Based Solutions that integrate the principles of ‘connectivity conservation’ and ‘reconciliation ecology’ can maximize the conservation outcomes and societal gains from new Green Infrastructures (GI) developments and mitigate those that exist and cannot be relocated.
The underlying focus of the course is to promote the positive contributions of green infrastructure by sharing Nature-Based Solutions and addressing challenges created by the lack of awareness, technical knowledge, ecological requirements for GI.
This course is designed for anyone with an interest in green infrastructure management at any level, from local to transnational.
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: English
Duration: 2 days (29-30 April)
Min/Max: 10-25
Price: US $480
Instructors:
Dr. Asha Rajvanshi, Independent Environmental Expert (India)
Dr. Vinod.B. Mathur, Affiliate Faculty with Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University (India)
Dr. Asha Rajvanshi
Dr. Asha 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, and 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. Vinod 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.