Environment management not only plays an instrumental role in optimally utilizing natural resources but also forms the pivot of sustainable development. To reinforce India’s efforts towards effective environment management the Environmental Information Awareness Capacity Building and Livelihood Programme (EIACP) has been envisaged. Awareness, skilling and research and development in green sector forms some of the major pre-requisites for rational management of environment. The programme draws its mandate from The Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 wherein “Environment Research and Development, Education, Training, Information and Awareness” has been allocated to Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). The EIACP uses a network of decentralized framework endowed with the agenda of integrating country-wide efforts towards environmental conservation and management. It encompasses the best functional aspects of the erstwhile ENVIS Scheme. It will serve as a one stop platform for dissemination of environmental information, informed policy formulation on various facets of environment and facilitation of alternate livelihoods through green skilling. It involves a recalibrated approach towards charting out a pathway for MoEF&CC to establish the quintessential social connect in order to enhance impact on the ground level.
The Environmental Information System (ENVIS) came into existence as a plan programme in 1983. As per the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) made on July 2018 between the Environmental Information (EI) Division of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and the Directorate of Environment & Climate Change Haryana, the ENVIS (Environmental Information System) Hub has been established in October, 2019 at Environment & Climate Change Department, Haryana. ENVIS has been subsumed within the revamped scheme of Environment Education, Awareness, Research and Skill Development in September 2022. ENVIS is renamed as EIACP (Environmental Information, Awareness, Capacity Building and Livelihood Programme). EIACP serves as a one stop platform for dissemination of environmental information, informed policy formulation on various facets of environment and facilitation of alternate livelihoods through green skilling.