Check out the latest enews, sent 8 December
"Foundations of IA" online course available
IAIA’s 12-week Professional Development Program (PDP) “Foundations of Impact Assessment” online course will be held from 12 January through 22 April 2022. Participants start and complete the course within this period according to the schedule they arrange with their trainer. Registration is open now through 10 January 2022. Register now as seats are limited.
IAIA22 registration is open
IAIA22, “Confidence in Impact Assessment: Policies, partnerships and public involvement,” will take place 4-7 May 2022 in Vancouver, Canada, with a complementary virtual component. View the 500+ proposed presentations, and register now to take advantage of Early Bird rates. IAIA continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation worldwide and will post any updates on the IAIA22 home page.
IAIA22 sponsorship
Interested in increasing your company’s profile at IAIA22? Consider becoming a conference sponsor. Check out the updated sponsorship opportunities brochure to learn about the various opportunities available. Thank you to these IAIA22 supporters: Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, WSP Canada, CSA Group, Chiba University of Commerce, Norad, Enbridge, and Hatch.
Applications invited for Conference Inclusiveness Bursary
A limited number of bursaries are available for participation at IAIA22. The Conference Inclusiveness Bursary covers the registration fee and travel expenses for accepted applicants who identify as Indigenous persons, members of affected communities, and persons from under-represented populations or LDCs. The application deadline has been extended to 7 March 2022.
IAIA seeks to hire SEA Expert; proposals due 10 January
IAIA is seeking an IA professional who is an expert in strategic environmental assessment to work on the first phase of a project to develop guidelines for renewable energy projects. Current IAIA membership required; members, login to IAIAConnect to view the Request for Proposals with project overview, task list, and compensation details. Proposals are due 10 January.
IAIA holiday hours
IAIA will be closed for the holidays starting at noon on 23 December, with staff returning on Tuesday, 4 January. IAIA staff continue to work remotely to provide uninterrupted member service to the greatest extent possible. Please email if you need to reach us, as we are not in the office to take phone calls.
New! Resilience Best Practice Principles Available
Resilience Assessment International Best Practice Principles is the latest addition to IAIA’s resource library. This document sets out international best-practice principles for resilience assessment being undertaken within an IA of some project, plan, program, or policy (in this context, its function may be different to that of a self-standing resilience assessment). Congratulations and thank you to authors Lindsay Robertson, Bryan Jenkins, Mike Jones, Alan Bond, Angelo Jonas Imperiale, Jiri Dusik, Miltos Ladikas, and Francesca Viliani.
Check out the latest IAPA article
Organizational silos have led to individual project-specific impacts being assessed in isolation, often ignoring the systemic interactions between impacts from the same project. “Collective impacts: using systems thinking in project-level assessment” by Alan Ehrlich explores the problem, looks at addressing it through systems thinking, provides practical examples, and reflects on what this means for impact assessment. IAIA members, log in for access to the full text article. Non-members: the table of contents, archived articles, and Open Access articles are available at IAPA Journal Online.
Papua clan takes first step toward official recognition of land rights
An Indigenous clan in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has had its rights to its ancestral lands and forests recognized by the local government, a key step toward acknowledgment at the national level. To prevent their territories from being given away to concessions by the government, the Kalawilis clan members mapped their territory with the assistance from Pusaka, a process that started in 2019. The mapping process involves documenting the history of the clan as well as its customs, rituals and laws. The mapping then serves as the basis for the decree that recognizes their rights.
World’s “Greenest City” will be totally unaffordable because of climate change
Flooding in and around Vancouver even in an optimistic scenario could destroy tens of thousands of homes, harm First Nations, and drive up already wild housing prices for everyone. The city has for over a decade attempted to become one of the most ecologically sustainable places on the planet. Yet all this has taken place against a deepening affordability crisis. For years, city planners have largely treated climate risk and housing unaffordability as two separate and unrelated challenges.
Rainfall in the Arctic will soon be more common than snowfall
More rain than snow will fall in the Arctic and this transition will occur decades earlier than previously predicted, a new study led by the University of Manitoba (UM) reports. Projections from the latest models, published by an international team of researchers led by UM in the journal Nature Communications, show a steep increase in the rate and range of precipitation expected to fall in the Arctic, and that most of these future events will be rain. This shift is occurring due to rapid warming, sea ice loss, and poleward heat transport in the Arctic.
New Himalayan snake found via Instagram
Locked down at home during the pandemic last year, a postgraduate student in India’s Himalayan region photographed a snake in his backyard that experts had never before seen. Uploaded to Instagram, the picture caught the attention of a herpetologist in another part of the country, who set out to find out more about the snake. Zeeshan A. Mirzaa herpetologist from the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru says that “lately, people want to travel to remote biodiversity hotspots to find new or rare species, but if one looks at their own backyard, one may end up finding a new species right there.”
COP26 left the world with a climate to-do list: Here are 5 things to watch for in 2022
How much the world achieved at the Glasgow climate talks – and what happens now – depends in large part on where you live. Here are five key elements to watch over the coming year as countries move forward on their promises.
First Person: “Bridge the gap between Indigenous youth and the world”
Nadya Zafira, an international relations student at Indonesia’s Gadjah Mada University, won a writing competition for her letter to UN chief António Guterres, in which she addressed the inequalities laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how Indigenous communities and youth are marginalized in global conversations on climate crisis.
ICERE 2022: 8th International Conference on Environment and Renewable Energy. 25-27 February 2022. Hanoi, Vietnam.
The 6th International Conference on Green Energy and Applications. 4-6 March 2022. Singapore.
IAIA22: Confidence in Impact Assessment: Policies, partnerships and public involvement. 4-7 May 2022. Vancouver, Canada, and online.
