Centre for Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance
Center for Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance is a collaborative project of Sewa, Labour League Foundation and Sufi Trust for creating ecologically safe and socially inclusive future.
Environment Sustainability is one of the major goals for the nations that must be met for a safer, cleaner, just and better world. This was part of the millennium development goals and remains part of Sustainable Development Goals that have been ratified by more than 186 nations around the world. Kyoto Protocol for the green house gases came in force on Feb. 16, 2005. Some nations responsible for generation of green house gases have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol emission target and they are seeking alternative routes for meeting the emission targets as they feel that ratification will cause deceleration in the economic growth, loss of jobs and strategic advantages that they have been enjoying for some years. People’s movement and citizens groups, concerned world citizens, youths and women have been protesting against the decisions that contribute in the generation of ecological imbalances across the world.
There are positive developments as well. Several bourses in Europe have started applying sustainability index for the investment decisions and for evaluating the share prices of the various corporations and businesses that are listed on the stock exchanges across the world. Environment education has been part of the curriculum in the schools and the universities. There are environment-protecting agencies and there are environment impact assessments done for the projects that sanctioned by the banks and governments. There are political parties that have taken up the cause of renewable energy-based services and utilities that are critical for the provision of basic needs such as health and education. A paradigm shift has taken place as the inclusion of ecologically sustainable, socially equitable; gender just, social inclusive and spiritually uplifting social, political, cultural and economic development policies are being considered mandatory.
A sustainable supply of energy for meeting the basic needs is a global concern and there have been responses to the same. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the president of India is well known for communicating for realizing the vision of energy secure India by 2020 and energy independent India by 2030 through research and innovation for generating plant based bio fuels, carbon nano tube (CNT) based solar energy, hydrogen based fuels and nuclear energy. There exists a new deal for nuclear energy between US and India. G-8 nations have discussed measures for energy security for all the nations while addressing the ecological impact and recognizing the need to halt the globalisation of unsustainable consumption patterns. It is indeed likely that after 50-100 years we may not have adequate supplies of non-renewable energy. It is likely that we may fail in decelerating the consumption of green house gas producing services and utilities.
Recognizing such a national and global scenario for safeguarding the future of Earth and future of children all over the world, there is a need to innovate on the tools, processes and educate on the need to transform consumption, production, decision patterns for meeting the ecological and security challenges and disseminate the learnings gained in the process so as to maximize the possibilities of success not only at the national level but also at the global level. There is a need to work with the concepts such as Sustainability Index, Ecological footprints, ecological rucksacks and ecological audit.
The concept of 'Sustainability Index' is well-established instrument for assessing the investments in the futures. The concept of 'Ecological Footprints' is for measuring the ecological impact of the consumption and production decisions. The concept of 'Ecological rucksack' is for measuring the amount of waste that is generated for the production of a finished industrial good. The concept of 'Ecological audit'2 of the consumption, production, and leisure use patterns is required for addressing the targets for green house gas emission and for protecting the ecologically sustainable livelihoods in all over the world. This is especially relevant for protecting the ecologically sustainable livelihoods of people involved with agriculture and forest-based livelihoods. This becomes critical for the protected forests and national parks where indigenous people and people living in the forests are called to leave the forests for protecting the wild species. Lot of civil unrest has been generated due to encroachment in the areas that have been populated by the indigenous groups for generations. Application of the ecological audit procedure is proposed to halt the ecological degradation of the sustainable habitats while generatingresponses across the world for rationalizing the consumption of the non-renewable resource-based services and utilities in the urban areas.
There are responses for transforming the finance sector that will eliminate financing for the ecologically hostile development projects and policies. There are responses for education globally for global adoption of ecologically sustainable lifestyles. Faith based responses are being considered and advocated for transforming the leisure use patterns that utilize non-renewable resource-based energy.
Centre for Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) was established in June 2006 for meeting the knowledge, capacity building, networking, advocacy and communication needs of the organizations involved in application of the sustainability index, measurement of ecological footprints, measurement of the ecological rucksacks and supporting the cause of the alternative definitions of the gross domestic product, growth, development that are in congruence with the demands of the eco-safety, bio-safety, ecological sustainability, social cohesion, social inclusion and interspecies justice within and across the nations.
The centre offers analytical and advisory services for the meeting the millennium development goals for environment sustainability through filling the knowledge gaps through studies, researches, seminars and colloquiums ,conducting environment assessments for the development projects at various levels, conducting ecological audits for the policy decisions at the local, state, national and global levels, supporting generation of information and the filling the data gaps for meeting the needs of the civil society movement for ecological sustainability and social equity, developing monitoring and evaluation tools and, learning forums for meeting the key demands of the ecological audit and integrating the concerns of ecological audit in the monitoring and evaluation tools of the organizations.
It conducts knowledge workshops on Ecological Audit. The features of the knowledge workshop on ecological audit include plenary sessions with the ecologically sustainable development practitioners from the rural as well as urban areas, provision of information on the global scenario on the work ensuring ecological sustainability of the development processes, assessment of the sustainability of the consumption patterns through understanding the history of the consumption patterns and productions, analysis of the consumption decisions through participatory process, generating visions for carbon neutral growth, conducting participatory process for getting a consensus on the parameters of the ecological audit , comparison with the social watch / audit processes for governance , group work for the discussing the methodology of the ecological audit.
It offers capacity building support for public sector and private sector organizations, government agencies, UN agencies and others intergovernmental agencies involved in the discourse and practice of socially equitable and ecologically sustainable development. Features of the capacity building programmes for ecological audit includes adaptability to for both ICT and non-ICT enabled venues and audiences , promotion of measures for ecological sustainability and social equity as the core value ,non-specialist orientation for imparting the lessons , generating learning in a participatory mode of interaction with total respect for the beginners, graded for different categories of professionals, executives and officials , customized for the different domains of work in simple language and locally relevant concepts and examples.
In the field of networking assistance CEASIG work includes capacity building on networking for ecological audit, sustaining peoples network on Ecological Audit, creating global and local outreach for the network, strengthening the existing networks through incorporating the work for ecological audit , interactions with the local civic bodies for conducting processes for ecological audit, networking for ecological audit and ecological sustainability and networking for creation of communities of practice.
The work for meeting the communication needs of the organizations involved in the ecological audit processes includes assistance in the assessment of the communication modules of the organizations, generating new ideas for communication for ecological audit of the consumption, decision and production processes that are part of the development projects, sharing of the best practices in the communications for ecological audit, communication packages for the promotion of ecologically sustainable lifestyle, designing communication modules for Ecological Audit.
For more information, please contact: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam, Executive Director, Center for Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG), 62-A, DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-Phase -III, Delhi, 110052, India. Email: ceasig@gmail.com, M: 7065191880, 8368616539, Skype:mukhtar.alam.2
