The involvement of academics from higher education institutions in various activities across sectors such as government, research institutions, the business and industrial world (DUDI), up to community groups, is considered one of the main performance indicators (IKU). This indicator serves as a basis for assessing the performance of a university. For this reason, academics continuously strive to actively enhance their roles outside of the university, and this remains true for IPB University itself as well.

For two consecutive days, the Department of Water Resources Management (MSP), Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK) at IPB University held a coordination meeting for the development of environmental assessment standards in the national capital (IKN). This coordination meeting was lead by the President of the MSP Department at IPB University, Prof Hefni Effendi, and attended by 21 staff members from the Center for Environmental Quality Instrument Standardization (PSIKLH) under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), led by the President of PSIKLH, Widhi Handoyo.

A total of 18 young researchers from IPB University, hailing from the Center for Environmental Research (PPLH) and the MSP Department, were in attendance. During this coordination meeting, several drafts of specific environmental assessment standards in IKN were discussed. Currently, there have been, are ongoing, and will be numerous developments of facilities and infrastructure to complete the offices and necessary amenities in IKN.

“The researches from IPB University collaborate very closely with PSIKLH staff to design a number of specific standards that will be applied not only in IKN but also implemented generically elsewhere. In this meeting, each researcher presented the drafted specific standards in the form of reference frameworks and efforts for environmental management and environmental monitoring (UKL-UPL), which are specific standards for businesses and/or activities commonly conducted in our country,” explained Prof Hefni.

These specific standards, he continued, are kept with the intention to provide guidance for the preparation of Environmental Impact Assessments (Amdal) and UKL-UPL. Furthermore, the agreed-upon specific standards will be uploaded to the amdal.net website.

“The development of these specific standards takes into consideration various aspects. Among them are the experience in environmental document preparation, literature studies, visits to the IKN site, inputs from relevant technical sectors that deal with businesses and/or activities for which specific standards are being created,” he elaborated.

Widhi Handoyo, the President of PSIKLH, added that the creation of these specific standards will be continued for many development activities carried out in Indonesia. “With the presence of these specific standards, it is hoped that environmental assessments will become more structured, simpler, and can be completed more quickly,” he emphasized

Sources: IPB News