UNS — Commemorating the Environment Day on 5 June each year, the Undergraduate Program in Environmental Science Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (FMIPA) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta held Webinar Ecosystem Restoration. As a program that focuses on environmental issues, the webinar discusses environmental management falsification amid the Covid-19 pandemic. This topic is considered contextual according to the current environmental condition.
More than 100 participants attended the webinar from various study programs. Dr. Prabang Setyono, M.Si., the Head of Indonesian Association of Environmental Experts and the Head of Environmental Science Program UNS, delivered materials in the webinar. He opened his material with the origin of falsification terms. He explained that Karl Popper developed the term to describe the efforts in proving the truth of a theory. It means when a new theory with more robust evidence is proposed; the old theory is void.
In environmental science, falsification is vital to test a problem and its solution. Dr. Prabang emphasized that sustainable environmental development will create a truly livable environment. This sustainable development must pay attention to three dimensions, the environment, social, and economy, which support one another. “It must not focus on one dimension. Development must pay attention to all the three dimensions to maintain balance and do not damage the environment,” he stated. An example is the mining process. After the exploitation stage, the environment of a mine should be restored to its initial condition.
Further, Dr. Prabang shared the criteria in environmental management, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, equality, public participation, freedom, predictability, and procedural fairness. Efficiency refers to the level of the outcome of the environmental management with the minimum level of effort. Effectiveness refers to the ability of environmental policies to achieve their intended outcomes. Equity talks about the dispersion of the added values, and equality talk about the equal distribution of benefits.
Community participation in affecting a policy is evaluated in public involvement. Freedom refers to the assurance of freedom to live. Predictability means the policy should be predictable and procedural fairness implies the ability of people affected by the policy to maintain their life without help from others. The eight criteria must be noted in environmental management. Humas UNS
Reporter: Ida Fitriyah
Editor: Dwi Hastuti