Catalog

Green Framework Guides Growth
An innovative strategy promotes sustainable development while keeping the environment healthy

By Truman Becker
Consultant, GMS Unit

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is richly endowed with natural resources. But following years of unsustainable resource exploitation and lax regulation, the subregion’s environment is suffering from extensive degradation.

The GMS, unfortunately, is not alone. Environmental degradation in the entire Asia and Pacific region is pervasive—and accelerating. At risk are people’s health and livelihoods, the survival of species, and ecosystem services that are the basis for long-term development. Economic development and poverty reduction efforts are increasingly constrained by environmental concerns, including degradation of fisheries and forests, scarcity of freshwater, and poor human health as a result of air and water pollution.

“Profits from unregulated resource exploitation can be enormous for a select few but can have dire consequences for the rest of society because more than half the region’s population depends on agriculture, fisheries, and forests for its livelihood,” says Dingding Tang, Environment Specialist in the Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Division of ADB’s Mekong Department.

The rural poor are particularly vulnerable because they often depend on natural resources for their sustenance. Because environmental degradation crosses national boundaries, a combination of national and subregional efforts can most effectively address the problem.

“At the subregional level, cooperative action with neighboring countries is critical to resolve cross-border problems, such as flooding and erosion, resulting from deforestation and water diversion,” he says.

He believes cooperation is also critical in meeting common needs, such as improving environmental information systems required for monitoring and protection activities, and for more effective enforcement of regulations, such as those necessary to curb illegal wildlife trade.

Strategic Platform Guides Decisions

Several environmental initiatives have been implemented under the GMS Program. Initial projects were the Subregional Environmental Monitoring and Information System (SEMIS) and the Subregional Environmental Training and Institutional Strengthening (SETIS).

The SEMIS established a subregional environmental database and procedures for information sharing, while the SETIS focused on raising environmental awareness and capacity building in environmental management among government staff.

To ensure that subregional infrastructure projects do not adversely affect the environment, the Strategic Environmental Framework (SEF) initiative for the GMS was launched in 1998. The framework is needed because the GMS Program has stimulated a portfolio of infrastructure investment projects, including many whose impacts span national boundaries.

The SEF’s goal is to support informed decision making through a coordinated approach. It aims to help prioritize key actions to address difficult environmental challenges that cross national boundaries. The SEF’s ultimate goal is sustainable development, where economic prosperity increases and poverty is reduced, while natural resources and biodiversity are conserved.

Cofinanced by ADB and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the SEF is a combination of analytical, participatory, and policy-oriented processes that provide a strategic platform for guiding investment decisions in the GMS, which are compatible with the demands of environmental sustainability.

The outputs of the first phase of the SEF included a set of databases; general purpose software and methodologies to support decision making on infrastructure investments in the GMS; analytical methodologies, including the identification and analysis of hot spots; reviews of case studies at various stages of implementation and framing of different scenarios for development in the GMS; and a set of goals for sustainable human development in the GMS.

The SEF software and databases have been made available to participating environmental agencies in the GMS for the use of decision makers.

Based on lessons from the first phase of the SEF, its second phase will be aimed at facilitating decision-making processes by creating a data warehouse; providing a menu and guidelines of assessment and methodologies; providing concrete, detailed, and context-specific guidance on participatory tools; and establishing a framework where new knowledge will be added to the existing database.

To achieve these aims, ADB recently approved a regional technical assistance (TA) on National Performance Assessment and Subregional Strategic Environmental Framework in the GMS. The TA’s goals are to facilitate at the national and subregional levels informed decision making through better understanding of environmental conditions, trends, and impacts. It is hoped that more effective and efficient management of national environmental programs and improved public accountability will result. The TA will also support national and subregional demands for environmental information and performance assessment on issues of subregional and global importance, such as the degradation of wetlands, watersheds, and climate change.

Email this to a friend