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

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.

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 may be asked to do a small amount of reading (1-2 hours) in their own time.

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.

• 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.