Developing Skills in Ecological Impact Assessment (EcIA) Ireland

A two-day practical course aimed at those practitioners who have existing experience of undertaking EcIAs and wish to develop those skills further. Sessions have been tailored to explore legislation and case studies relevant to practitioners working in Ireland but the principles are applicable in both ROI and any UK nation. 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.

This course will cover all aspects of EcIA, including the basic concepts of scoping and baseline. 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 (this is covered in more detail in the CIEEM Report Writing course). The focus will be on delivering teaching through a combination of PowerPoint presentations and workshops, with attendees working through a variety of case study examples (all relating to terrestrial ecology).

Practitioners involved in EcIA projects in Ireland who are: Ecological consultants with some (limited) experience of EcIA Ecologists with some experience of undertaking EcIAs but want to review how their understanding of the process fits with the approach used by others.

Beginner - Intermediate

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

• 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