Wales Environmental Hub advisory mission to India

Dr Shaun Russell, Director of the Wales Environment Research Hub at Bangor University (WERH), recently returned (April 2012) from a week-long environmental advisory mission to the Government of Maharashtra State in India.

Maharashtra, with a population of 100 million, is one of the fastest-developing States in India, and its capital city Mumbai (population 20 million) is the country's main financial centre. Rapid development has led to a range of acute environmental problems in Maharashtra, and the Government of the State has therefore been looking at "cleaner and greener" ways of managing development for the future.

The Wales Environment Research Hub is a Welsh Government-funded unit hosted within the College of Natural Sciences at Bangor University. WERH recently coordinated Welsh input into the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA), the most complete national survey that has ever been conducted of the values and benefits that human society receives from nature and the environment. The results of the NEA have fed into the UK Government's recent "White Paper" on the Environment for England, and it is also informing the Welsh Government's new "Living Wales" policy, which aims to incorporate a more sustainable and inclusive "ecosystem approach" into future planning and development in Wales.

There are many Bangor University graduates in the environment and forestry sectors in India, including Dr Shivaji Chavan, Director of a leading environmental consultancy organisation in Mumbai. Dr Chavan facilitated an invitation from the Maharashtra Government for Dr Russell's team to visit India to report on the results of the UK-NEA. The team included Dr Tim Pagella, who recently completed his PhD at Bangor University on the computer-mapping of ecosystem services.

The team visited environmental pressure points in urban, woodland and mangrove habitats around Mumbai, and they then ran a workshop on ecosystem assessment for 50 representatives from government departments, the private sector and civil society organisations. The team held meetings with Heads of the Environment, Forestry and Public Health Departments and then briefed the Chief Minister of Maharashtra State - Prithviraj Chavan. Mr Chavan agreed in principle to the conduct of a State-wide ecosystem assessment for Maharashtra, and requested that further advisory input should be provided by members of the Welsh National Ecosystem Assessment team.

Bangor University has secured a European "Erasmus Mundus" Scholarship for Dr Shivaji Chavan to come to Bangor University for three months later in 2012, to make detailed plans for this joint Welsh-Indian initiative. During this period, Bangor University students will benefit directly from Dr Chavan's considerable experience in environmental management in developing countries, as he will be teaching on the University's "Sustainable Tropical Forestry" and "Sustainable Forest and Nature Management" Masters degree programmes."

Publication date: 24 April 2012