The Importance of Trial and Error

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The assessment of community development projects is new and unexplored territory in environmental assessment. Mistakes will be unavoidable and should be viewed as part of a valuable learning process. Experimentation is vital for the development of EA concepts and techniques which fit the community context. Even in mainstream EA, we must remember that "imperfection does not mean irrelevance" (FEARO 1992:26). The sharing of environmental assessment experiences between community development practitioners is crucial if we are to learn from each other's successes and failures.

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