BIOFUND in partnership with Wildlife Conservation Society/ COMBO Project, Biotope and the Government of Mozambique represented by the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER) – National Environment Directorate, held between October and November 2018, the Training Program on Ecological Impact Assessment, Mitigation Hierarchy, Environmental Management Plans and Monitoring, aimed to build capacity of around 40 technicians from various government institutions involved in the Environmental Licensing process as well as members from Mozambican Environmental Impact Assessment Association – AMAIA.

The training was funded by USAID/Counterpart International under the BIOFUND Biodiversity Offsets Program with the main objective of training technicians on key aspects of environmental impact assessment at ecology and biodiversity levels, in order to improve capacity to implement national legislation and international best practices regarding the implementation of the mitigation hierarchy.

This training program was constituted by two Training Modules, namely Module I. Ecological Impact Assessment, Module II. Environmental Management and Monitoring Plans, and additionally Training of Trainers Session highlighting the main aspects of the legal framework of ecological impact assessment, categorization process of development projects, introduction to the mitigation hierarchy and guidelines for the creation of standardized environmental licenses following the international best practices.

Using an interactive training model, during the training the various procedures for assessing direct, indirect and cumulative impacts as well as measures for their mitigation were discussed in working groups using as an example the various development projects under way in the country.

In the scope of the Training Program, in partnership with DINAB and AMAIA, six trainers were trained in Ecological Impact Assessment, Environmental Management Plans and Monitoring. The technicians were trained and tools were provided to become the future national trainers regarding this subject.

This initiative is part of the BIOFUND effort in partnership with the COMBO project, an initiative implemented by WCS, Forest Trends and Biotope with financial support from AFD, FFEM and Mava Foundation and MITADER in developing national capacity on Ecological Impact Assessment, application of Mitigation Hierarchy and Biodiversity Offsets through training and sharing lessons learned in Africa and worldwide on best practices in Environmental Impact Assessment, No Net Loss, Mitigation Hierarchy and Biodiversity Offsets.

This training program has started in 2016 and over 200 technicians from government, civil society, private sector and academia were trained in this thematic area at national level.