The School of Environmental Science and Management-University of the Philippines Los Baños (SESAM-UPLB) completed its six-day short online course on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (CCVA) via Zoom platform last October 17, 2020. This online course was organized by SESAM’s Continuing Education and Training (CET) Division, in partnership with Isabela State University (ISU) Cabangan Campus.
“The six-day EIA-CCVA online training was a success, we received a lot of positive remarks from the participants since day one”, according to For. Sofia A. Alaira, Head of CET Division-SESAM. “They highly appreciated and commended all the resource speakers, facilitators and organizers”, she added.
Mainly, the training course aims to provide an overview of the current EIA process and its requirement. It also sought to provide knowledge about the technical aspects as well as administrative procedures of the Philippine EIS system; provide key elements of the current EIA procedures and processes, including the existing laws and policies relevant to the conduct of EIA; provide knowledge on hoe to identify and predict the impacts of proposed development projects and programs relevant to the fields of specialization of the participants; provide key aspects of EIA that would help in assessing if the project requires EIA or not; strengthen the technical capabilities of the participants in environmental management, especially in environmental compliance and monitoring; enhance the participants’ skills and knowledge on how to conduct an EIA; and allow the participants to perform risk, impact and vulnerability assessment based on their field of specialization.
Faculty and researchers of SESAM led by Dr. Decibel F. Eslava, Dean of SESAM, presented various topics related to EIA. Dr. Eslava discussed Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation; Dr. Maria Victoria O. Espaldon lectured on Health Impact assessment; Drs. Marisa J. Sobremisana and Alma Lorelei D. Abejero discussed air and climate; Dr. Loucel E. Cui lectured on water quality analysis and terrestrial aquatic ecosystems; Dr. Hildie Maria E. Nacorda discussed marine ecosystems; Dr. Patricia Ann J. Sanchez talked about water quantity analysis; Dr. Evaristo Niño T. Cando III lectured social impact assessment; Dr. Jessica D. Villanueva-Peyraube discussed Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA); Dr. Rico C. Ancog talked about environmental economics; and Retired SESAM professor Nicomedes D. Briones was also invited to teach the participants to how to prepare environmental impact statement.
Prof. Pastor L. Malabrigo, Sr., of the College of Forestry and Natural Resources (CFNR)-UPLB spoke about biodiversity for terrestrial Economics. Resource persons from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) namely Engr. Divina C. Camarao, Chief, EIA Section, DENR-Environment Management Bureau (EMB), For. Riza C. Ajona, Senior Management Specialist of DENR-EMB and Dr. Maria Lourdes Q. Moreno, Supervising Science Research Specialist, DENR-Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB) also gave overviews on EIA, its process and decision-making.
On day six, Dr. Yusof Sucol, University Researcher at SESAM delivered lectures on CCVA and he presented illustrative sample cases and workshop on CCVA summary decision areas and issues matrix and CCVA vulnerability assessment maps.
A participant from ISU, Prof. Bondee Peñaflor, said the workshop topics, resource persons, the facilitation, as well as the learning experience were excellent. “The Environmental Science Program of the College of Forestry and Environmental Management of ISU-Cabagan Campus would like to extend our deepest gratitude to UPLB-SESAM for this noteworthy learning endeavor”, Prof. Peñaflor said.
For his part, Dr. Lito S. Guzman, Program Leader and Professor, ISU-Cabagan Campus expressed his gratitude to SESAM-UPLB for partnering with their university in the conduct of this training. There were 50 participants from the academe, local government units, NGOs and other private organizations attended the first online training conducted by SESAM-CET Division.
