Environmental management

This handbook illustrates concepts, methods and tools for "primary environmental care", an approach that seeks to empower communities to meet basic needs while protecting the environment. In particular, it focuses on how population size, structure, growth (or decline) and movements relate to the quality of the environment and the quality of life. Emphasis is placed on a community-led process of participatory action research in which local knowledge and skills are fully utilized.

Understanding and managing the concerns of local people is essential for the success of most, if not all, conservation initiatives. These two volumes are a resource set designed to help professionals employed in conservation initiatives to identify the social concerns that are relevant for their work, assess options for action and implement them. The first volume is a companion to a process and may be used to assist in planning, evaluating or redesigning a conservation initiative. It is expected to involve a series of meetings in field-based activities.

These proceedings document the initial results of a joint initiative by IUCN and the World Bank to address, with key stakeholders, one of the most controversial issues in environment and development today. In April 1997, IUCN and the World Bank Group jointly hosted a two-day workshop in Gland, Switzerland to discuss the findings of an internal World Bank review of 50 large dams financed by the Bank.

This training manual is designed to impart environmental impact assessment (EIA) knowledge and skills to professionals and administrators who actually conduct EIAs, screen the project to determine whether EIA is requered, review EIA reports and monitor project implementation. The main focus of the manual is on capacity-building for EIA. It also provides a basis for developing country-specific EIA training programmes