Commentary
Environment is ADB priority
By Warren Evans
Manager of the Asian Development Bank's Environment Division
The state of Asia's environment is alarming.
The past 30 years have seen Asia experience rapid economic growth ö but lose nearly half its forest cover and degrade a third of its agricultural land. Fish stocks are dropping rapidly, and many unique animal and plant species are being lost. Rivers and lakes have been severely damaged, and Asia has the largest number of heavily polluted cities of any region.
For the Asian Development Bank, environmental protection and natural resources management are a top priority, for it is critical to economic and social development. Any development effort is short-lived if it does not protect and conserve the environment on which development is based.
The ADB is particularly concerned with the impact of environmental degradation and pollution on the poor. The poor suffer the most from environmental problems and are the least able to cope with them.
In cities, they live in the most polluted areas and have least access to resources such as clean water. In rural areas, the poor are relegated to lands that are most degraded and least productive. Countries that adopted a "grow now, clean up later" approach to development did not recognize that this strategy has severe long-term consequences.
The ADB believes the fundamental challenge is to help developing countries of Asia and the Pacific establish environmentally sound policy frameworks and work toward sustainable development and management of environmental resources. The ADB seeks to better integrate environmental objectives into overall development processes and support the accelerated flow of financial and technical resources needed for environmental improvement.
The first goal means integrating environment considerations into national development plans. This includes ensuring consistency in environmental policy objectives across national development efforts and strengthening the capacity to identify and implement policies that benefit the environment. This involves a timely and judicious review of programs to mitigate any negative environmental effects. The latter goal entails identifying ways to cover the costs of environmental protection efforts.
The ADB is concerned with conserving the ecological base of rural livelihoods, including biodiversity resources. One example is its $37 million soft loan for the sustainable management and biodiversity conservation of Bangladesh's Sundarbans Reserved Forest, part of the world's largest remaining mangrove area. A globally significant ecosystem, the 3,700-square-mile area provides a subsistence living to 3.5 million people, offers protection from cyclones and is rich in biodiversity. The forest is home to fish, shrimp, birds and other wildlife, including the highly endangered Bengal tiger.
The ADB also focuses on the protection of coastal and marine resources, for example in Philippines and Indonesia. In western China, the ADB aims to prevent land degradation and desertification. In cities like Calcutta and Manila, the ADB strives to reduce air, water and solid-waste pollution.
Good governance is a key element of environmental protection. Weak government capacity and the lack of an effective and independent judiciary prevent the enforcement of environmental laws. At the same time, approaches to environmental and natural resources management strongly influences governance outcomes.
For example, low economic returns from natural resource exploitation, such as logging or mining, leads to inefficient and environmentally damaging production methods. Excessive returns attract corrupt elements that use political influence to control production and profits.
The ADB closely reviews all its projects to make sure they comply with its environmental standards. It is also developing a policy to provide a firm and objective framework for incorporating environmental and natural resource considerations in all of its operations.
To this end, the ADB is engaging its stakeholders — government, civil society and nongovernment organizations, the private sector and academe — in a proactive consultation process. The objective is to gather points of view to identify shared values and concerns and to ensure these are incorporated in the new policy.
