The Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC), under the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, conducted a three-day User Training on the Environmental Clearance Services System (ECSS) from August 12-14, 2026, in Thimphu.
The ECSS is a digital platform developed by DECC to streamline and improve the processing and management of Environmental Clearance applications. The system was soft launched in Paro on June 04, 2026, coinciding with the celebration of the World Environment Day, and has since been successfully deployed in the production environment.
The training brought together environment officers and relevant officials from the Department, Dzongkhag Administrations, Thromde Administrations, and other agencies involved in the Environmental Clearance process. The training was aimed at strengthening the capacity of system users and preparing Competent Authorities for the nationwide roll-out of the ECSS.
The three-day training was designed as a predominantly hands-on programme, enabling participants to work directly with the system and familiarize themselves with its key functionalities, workflows, user roles, and administrative procedures. Participants were taken through the end-to-end processing of Environmental Clearance applications, including the relevant workflows and system functions applicable to different users.
Speaking on the importance of the training, the Department highlighted that the successful implementation of a digital service depends not only on the availability of the system but also on the readiness and capacity of its users. The training therefore serves as an important step towards ensuring that the ECSS is implemented consistently and effectively across Competent Authorities.
The ECSS is expected to make the Environmental Clearance process more efficient, transparent, and accessible by enabling the digital submission, processing, monitoring, and management of Environmental Clearance applications. It will also help improve coordination among agencies involved in the clearance process and provide greater visibility into the status of applications.
Following the completion of the user training, the DECC and the system developer will be working together to address all the technical issues and/or bugs that occurred during the user training and subsequently plan to undertake public awareness and outreach on the system use prior to the nationwide rollout of the ECSS.
The initiative forms part of the Department’s broader efforts to strengthen environmental governance and improve public service delivery through digital transformation.
