Last month, the team at Geckoella were treated to an insightful presentation webinar by Quality Lead Helen Lancaster as part of their lunchtime enrichment sessions. Geckoella believes it is important to keep up to date whenever possible, so new team member Helen was only too delighted to lead this session. Artist-in-Residence Alison Jacobs joined in too and captured the moment and endeavoured to improve her knowledge on EIA’s too. So what did we learn…
Ecological Impact Assessment is the process ecologists go through when they are assessing the impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems from projects, particularly development. Ecologists collect information on the existing situation (the baseline) within and then assess the potential impacts of a project on ecology using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. We follow the guidance produced by the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management to make sure that we are taking a systematic approach which is supported by evidence at each stage of the process. It helps us take a consistent approach in line with legislation and policy to identify the importance attached to particular ecological features and the significance of the impacts on species populations and habitats. Once that is understood then we can propose measures to mitigate those effects and sometimes go further and identify measures which would enhance ecological value.
There was a considerable amount of detail in this presentation and questions from the team inspiring lively debate. Big thanks to Helen for leading this and making for a very enjoyable lunch-time.