Developing Skills in Ecological Impact Assessment (EcIA) (England & Wales)

Summary

This training course is aimed at those practitioners who have existing experience of undertaking EcIAs and wish to develop those skills further. The course will follow the approach to EcIA set out in CIEEM’s guidelines, and will focus on the terrestrial (rather than the marine) environment.

Description

The focus will be on delivering teaching through a combination of PowerPoint presentations and breakout session workshops, with attendees working through a variety of relatively straightforward case study examples (all relating to terrestrial ecology).

This course will cover all aspects of EcIA, including the basic concepts of scoping and baseline (these areas are covered in more detail in the 'Introduction to EcIA' course). Attendees will therefore be expected to have some knowledge of the legislation and policy drivers behind EcIA, and practical experience of undertaking ecological surveys.

This course includes a brief session on how to present the outcomes of EcIAs in a report.

Attendees will be asked to do a small amount of reading (1-2 hours) in their own time, in advance of day 2 of the course.

This course will make reference to the policy and legislation that is relevant in England and Wales, and will be based on case studies from England. Anyone who undertakes the majority of their work outside of England and Wales may also attend, but we ask that they check with CIEEM before booking.

Who Should Attend?

Ecological consultants with some (limited) experience of EcIA.

Ecologists with experience of undertaking EcIAs but who want to review how their understanding of the process fits with the approach used by others.

Those who have previously attended the 'Introduction to EcIA' course or Preliminary Ecological Appraisal course and wish to recap and extend their understanding of EcIA.

Note: Those with no experience of EcIA should consider the 'Introduction to EcIA' course. Practitioners with more than 5 years’ experience of undertaking EcIAs should consider the 'Advanced EcIA' course instead. Please see course listings for dates/venues of all upcoming EcIA training.

Knowledge Level

Intermediate

Prior Knowledge

Those attending will be expected to have gained some practical experience of EcIA.

There is overlap in course material between all 3 levels of EcIA course. It is not expected that someone who has attended the 'Introduction to EcIA' course would also attend the ‘Developing Skills in EcIA’ course in the same year, but would gain some additional practical experience of EcIA before attending the ‘Developing Skills in EcIA’ course.

Learning Outcomes

• Improved understanding of what EcIA is, the main legal and policy drivers behind it, as well as the main steps/stages and how these fit with EIA.
• Improved understanding of the terms ‘scoping’, ‘Zone of Influence’ and ‘baseline’ and how these relate to the EcIA process.
• Ability to identify important ecological features following the CIEEM EcIA guidelines’ geographical scale.
• Ability to characterise impacts and determine significance of effects following the CIEEM guidelines’ approach.
• Understanding of the terms mitigation, compensation and enhancement, and where these fit in the EcIA process.
• Basic understanding of how an EcIA should be presented in a report following CIEEM’s current guidance on Ecological Report Writing.

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