Centre For Environment And Development (CED)

Introduction

YASHADA has positioned environment and development as a strategic training and research intervention at the Academy. The Centre for Environment and Development, aptly named PARIVESH, meaning holism, was established within the campus on 29 June 1996. During the previous eight years, the Centre has been facilitating training, research and administrative interventions at the district, municipal and state level with in the Government of Maharashtra.

The training and applications programme have focused on environ mental concerns with perspectives on planning in rural, urban and infrastructure sectors for officials, non-officials, university academics and non ­government organisations.

Interventions and collaboration are meant to encourage and support the State Government's departments to develop programmes for environmental protection and nature conservation, while ensuring sustainable economic development.

The premises for the Centre for Environment and Development, approved during 1999-2000 was inaugurated on 15 September 2000 by Shri A. Bongirwar, lAS, Hon. Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra and President, Board of Governors, YASHADA.

The computer-based classroom was positioned for training programmes during 2001-2003. The facility, in regular use during 2002-2003, had been made possible through the UNDP aided project on strengthening ATls by the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India.

The Classroom was dedicated to Maharashtra for the Academy by Smt. Vasundhara Raje, Hon. Minister of State, Ministry of Personnel and Grievances, Government of India, in the presence of Shri Suresh Prabhu, Hon. Minister, Ministry of Power, Government of India, Mr. O. P. Agarwal, IAS, Joint Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India and Mr. Gireesh Pradhan, IAS, Director General, YASHADA.

CED Objectives

The objectives of the Centre affirm the need for the State and National governments to enable training processes on environment management and development administration. Importantly, the Centre's objectives are central to the goals of the Academy. Essential goals of the Centre are (a) to strengthen YASHADA's training commitments, and the annual calendar of events, and (b) to provide on-the-field information and databases to integrate current case studies in future courses and workshops.

• To develop training programmes and evolve modules on environmental protection, nature conservation and development administration, with emphasis on the rural and urban sector.

• To train, on a continuous basis, successive groups of government officials, elected representatives, non-governmental organisations and university academics on issues concerning environment and development.   

• To develop research facilities, provide fellowships and resident scholarships to cadre officers and non-governmental organisations on issues concerning environment and development.

• To provide a forum for interaction for organisations and individuals to discuss and develop action plans for implementation of recommendations on environment and development.

• To develop at YASHADA, an electronic dial-in computer-based network and a geographic information database for government officials and non-officials, non-government agencies and universities, for information on environment and development administration.

• To organise workshops and seminars to focus on specific environment and development aspects and recommend interventions and / or changes in related policy issues to the Government of Maharashtra and / or local, state and national agencies

 Collaboration and Networking

The Centre, under the aegis of YASHADA, collaborates closely with various departments of the Government of Maharashtra, towards recommendations on development administration concerning environmental perspectives and nature conservation.

Various resource persons included officials from the GoM, GoI, national organisations, university academics, NGO representatives, post-graduate faculty from environmental sciences, biology and health sciences disciplines, and international bodies such as World Bank, UNDP, UNEP and USAID.

Expert non-official and official resource persons from within Maharashtra, India and abroad have participated as visiting faculty for the environment and development training programmes since 1996. The collaboration extends to research projects, development of approach and status papers and active field-level monitoring of development projects.

Training Programmes

Since 1996, the Centre has been able to complete 200 training programmes, seminars and workshops under the aegis of the Academy. Nearly 5,000 officer and non ­officer participants have attended these programmes.

Environment and development training programmes have focussed extensively on district-level perspective planning and urban environmental planning during 2002-2003. Department-specific programmes, such as for the Maharashtra State Forest Department have also utilised the district-level community participation models and have been appreciated by the officer ­participants.

During 2001-2002, senior officers of the Government of Maharashtra had reviewed the Comprehensive Development Framework of the World Bank at YASHADA and Mantralaya, Mumbai. The Centre had reviewed the Framework along with the White Paper on the Financial Status of the State of Maharashtra. The review has led to the development of a training module on district level perspective planning by the Centre for Environment and Development. This module has been utilised through 2002-2003 in the Centre's activities.

During 2004-2005, YASHADA PARIVESH will be able to conduct the environmental status report and action plan project for various municipal councils and corporations during 2004-2005. GIS based Development Plan field level workshops are also planned for municipal councils and corporations during 2004-2005. (Please see model below).

Projects and Institution Building for the Academy

During 2001-2002, the Centre for Environment and Development prepared, received

funds and coordinated the Ford Foundation sponsored projects on (a) Good Governance and (b) Functional Review of Administrative Reforms.

The Good Governance Project resulted in the establishment of the Centre for Good Governance under the aegis of the Academy at the YASHADA campus.

Among the various other initiatives of the Centre, is the coordination of the Maharashtra State Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and the development of funding proposals for urban environmental status reports through municipal corporations and municipal councils in Maharashtra.

The Government of Maharashtra will now utilise the recommendations from the Biodiversity Project to establish the State Biodiversity Board. The latter initiative will result in the development of a comprehensive State-level institution.

The Centre has also conducted training programmes on Watershed Development during 2002-2003. The Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Land Resources, Government of India, New Delhi, along with the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, provided financial support for these programmes.

Policy, Research and Analysis Matrix

Within India and as also in Maharashtra, distressing images are reflected in the reported suicides that followed the failure of the cotton crop, the malnutrition among children in hilly forest-tribal communities and the rapid loss of groundwater. The exponential growth of urban slums in a State that is already 50% urban, leading to unimaginable and disaster-ridden health risk situations is but one of the images of the new millennium. Such problem scenarios can only be met within the matrix of community participation, capacity building of local self help groups and enlarging the base of local resource based self-employment.

An important aspect of the policy, research and analysis matrix is the need to be contemporary, relevant on a worldwide basis and concurrent within the national and state policy. Apart from the previous training matrix, current imperatives have helped design the annual course calendar for the Centre for Environment and Development.

The training programmes since 2000-2001 have shifted in their emphasis towards computer-based spatial map making software, integration of large sets of district, municipal, taluka and village-level databases, seasonal calendars for local community participation and defining the municipal and village-level local self government points of agenda for statutory meetings. The participants in training programmes during 2000-2001 were encouraged to help develop a 12-month panchayat resolution-calendar, or Panchayat Paryavaran Panchaang.

The Panchayat Maasik Margadarshika document was released by the Sangli Zilla Parishad in the presence of Shri R. R. Patil, Hon. Minister for Rural Development,

Government of Maharashtra during 2000-2001.

The document was utilised extensively during training programmes by the Centre for Environment and Development in 2002-2003.

This would not have been possible but for having been able to continually develop the Policy, Research and Analysis Matrix during environment and development training programmes. It is now proposed to develop a monitoring and field-based evaluation programme in collaboration with ZiIia Parish ads during 2004-2005.

The matrix serves as an indicator of the diversity of issues that the Centre focusses upon to develop its training programmes. An important future initiative would be to invite financial support for integrating the above matrix by enabling good governance interventions in the Government of Maharashtra.

Training Module focus during 2004.2005: GIS for Environmental Planning

The Centre for Environment and Development will be focussing on use of Geospatial tools such as remote sensing, satellite photographs and computer-based analyses of maps of urban and rural areas to help in planning and monitoring initiatives in development administration. As is now well known, the analytical capabilities of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) distinguishes the superior spatial analysis functions as compared to older and very much slower development planning processes.

GIS based data analysis for development planning and administration is an important subject area for all training programmes to be conducted by the Centre for Environment and Development during 2004-2005. This is in continuation with the initiative of the Centre to focus on district and urban perspective planning to enable a comprehensive development framework as a training module during 2003-2004.

GIS-based data analyses use spatial and non-spatial attributes in any existing database, either urban or rural, to answer questions or support decisions about development planning. Multiple map layers interlinked with databases can be utiIised by development managers and provide rapid access for geographic analysis. The development manager can thus transform data into useful information to satisfy the requirements or objectives of decision-makers.

Projects at CED during 2003.2004

  Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation - Environmental Status Report and Action Plan Project

The Centre completed the initial assessment in the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC) during July 2003 and prepared the preliminary reports for discussion in the UMC General Body. YASHADA has received financial support from the UMC to conduct field studies, record and analyse municipal documentation towards developing the environmental status report for 2002­2003 and the action plan for 2003-2004.

The project has also developed a six-month action plan in close collaboration with the municipal commissioner, various department heads and elected representatives of the UMC. The action plan was placed before the UMC general body for approval and will now begin implementation. YASHADA is monitoring the implementation through the field project's activities and will present an evaluation report to the UMC.

Interlinking of urban stakeholders at Pune and Pimpri­ Chinchwad Municipal Corporations

The Centre completed the project through financial support from the Urban Management Programme of the United Nations Development Programme under the mandate provided by the need to implement the Agenda 21 in urban local bodies. The project envisages identification of perspectives for interlinking urban stakeholders in the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations.

The project enabled interaction with stakeholder groups and developed an overview for recommendations to be internalised within the Municipal Corporations. It is hoped that lessons from the project will help the Centre extend similar programmes to various municipal councils and corporations in Maharashtra during 2004­2005.

The Five Year Perspective Plan for the Centre: 2004.2009

In recognition of the integrated outlook of the Centre for Environment and Development and the appreciation received through participation by the officer-trainees during 1996 to 2004, the Board of Governors of the Academy chaired by Shri A. Nimbalkar, IAS, Hon. Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, have approved a a five-year perspective plan for the Centre.

The 2004-2009 Perspective Plan will enable the growth of the Centre for Environment and Development by sourcing financial support from diverse government departments, agencies and multinational funding agencies. The Perspective Plan will focus on capacity building, field-based research, monitoring and evaluation of implementation programmes on environment concerns for the (a) Urban, (b) Rural, (c) Agriculture, (d) Energy and (e) Fuel Sectors.

The 2004-2009 Perspective Plan will also help develop a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Cell at the Academy. The training programmes and the GIS Cell will help provide inputs to the development managers about proximity and network analyses, digital terrain models, statistical and tabular analysis, identify trends on data availability, establish new relationships from the data and view complex relationships between databases to help make better decisions.

The five-year perspective plan will also in turn be helpful to the Academy in being able to increase its training and research project profile.

Representation in Committee, Expert Groups and Other Bodies

The Centre has been recognised as being effective in interventions as required by various Committees, Expert Groups and other Bodies of the Government of Maharashtra, Government of India, Local Self Governments, Non-Governmental Organisations and Academic Departments.

Research

• Research Guide, MSc and PhD studies and Member, Syllabus Committee on Environmental Sciences, Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune.

• Research Guide, MSc studies on Botany, Department of Botany, University of Pune.

• Research Guide, MSc studies on Development Studies, Centre for Development Studies and Activities, University of Pune.

• Project Research Guide, M.Phil, Department of Humanities, Indian Institute of Technology (lIT), Powai, Mumbai.

• Research Guide and Member, Syllabus Committee,     MSc Environment Sciences. School of Environmental Sciences, University of Pune .

• Syllabus Committee, MSc Health Science. Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, University of Pune

• Member, Research Advisory Committee, Indian Institute of Public Administration, Maharashtra Chapter Mantralaya Mumbai

• Research Guide MSc Agriculture Communication, Yashwantrao Chavan Open University Nashik

Policy and Planning­

• Member, Executive Committee, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai.

• Member, State Board for Wildlife, Maharashtra State Forest Department, Government of Maharashtra

• Member, Inter-ministerial Committee on Conservation of Himalayan Watersheds, Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi

• State Coordinator, Manarashtra State Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, Ministry of environment and Forests, Government of India

• Member, Zoo Advisory Board, Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park and Research Centre, Pune Municipal Corporation

Environmental Management

•   Chairman, Environment Committee, Mumbai Pune Expressway, PWD and MSRDC, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai

• Convenor, Environment Working Group, Administrative Manual for Environmental Management, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation Pimpri

• Coordinator, Urban Forestry Master Plan 2000-2005, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation Pimpri

• Member, Steering Committee, International Conference on Sustainable Development for Action and Local Level: Interlinking Cities and Stakeholders. Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations

Initiatives during 2004-2005

Functional Review of Administrative Reforms

The Centre for Environment and Development will be conducting the functional review of the Employment and Self Employment Department and other select Departments during 2004-2005. The functional review, begun in 2003-2004, will include assessment and review workshops at the Centre and field level office and stakeholder assessment at various locations in all six revenue divisions in Maharashtra.

Environmental Impact and Quality Assessment of Infrastructure Projects

The Centre will look towards enabling field level assessment of environmental impact of proposed large infrastructure development projects in Maharashtra, similar to its continued involvement with the Mumbai Pune Expressway Project. These could include conduct of EIA studies on coastal development projects, surface and air transport projects including proposed airports and resettlement and rehabilitation programmes derived from ongoing infrastructure projects. The Centre will also look towards positioning interventions on enabling linkages between local bodies and infrastructure and environmental agencies such as municipal councils or gram panchayats with MIDC, MPCB, MJP and MSRDC.