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p. 2 of 10 BACK | NEXT I. Policy Context A. The Impetus for an Environment Policy B. Five Major Challenges II. The Policy III. Implementing the Policy IV. Recommendation

Environment Policy : I. Policy Context

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A. The Impetus for an Environment Policy

1. During the past four decades, the environment and natural resources in the Asia and Pacific region have come under intense pressure. Rapid population increase, dramatic changes in production and consumption patterns, and massive rural-to-urban migration have transformed the way environment and natural resources are used. Environmental degradation in the region is now pervasive, accelerating, and largely unabated. This is manifested in polluted air, depleted biodiversity, degraded lands, exhausted aquifers, and polluted aquatic and marine ecosystems, as well as increasing exposure to hazardous and toxic wastes (Appendix 1). People’s health and longevity have suffered, natural resource-based livelihoods have been compromised, and ecosystem services and resources that underpin long-term economic development are at risk.

2. The Asia and Pacific region has had impressive economic growth in the recent past. This growth allowed a decrease in the incidence of absolute poverty, significant increases in per capita incomes, and notable improvements in social indicators. Unfortunately, improvements in the quality of life have been uneven across and within countries of the region. Indeed, the region is still home to almost two thirds of the world’s poor. Moreover, Asia’s economic growth has been accompanied by resource depletion and environmental degradation threatening the physical security, economic well-being, and health of many of the region’s people, especially its poorest and most vulnerable. While everyone is affected to varying degrees, the poor have tended to bear the brunt of environmental degradation. At the same time, due to their lack of access to resources and services, exacerbated by inadequate or ineffective policies and institutions, the poor are often themselves forced to deplete or degrade resources to survive.

3. Economic growth alone is no longer considered sufficient to reduce poverty. The economic, social, and environmental policies that shape the process of growth and development must also address the needs of the poor and must ensure the sustainable use of resources on which continued growth depends. These considerations led the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in 1999, to adopt its Poverty Reduction Strategy, elevating poverty reduction as the overarching goal of the institution. The strategy embodies an understanding of the inextricable relationship among the objectives of economic efficiency, social development, and environmental protection. Likewise, ADB’s long-term strategic framework (LTSF),¹ which responds to the poverty reduction challenges of the region and the Millennium Development Goals, embraces environmental sustainability as a strategic crosscutting theme.²

4. International development agencies including ADB have therefore recognized the need to better integrate environmental considerations into all operations from the earliest stage, moving upstream toward a more strategic and comprehensive approach beyond operational policies targeted only at environmental assessment of individual projects (Appendix 2). ADB has already recognized the need to commit substantial knowledge and financial resources to assist its developing member countries (DMCs) to (i) improve the quality of life through targeted environmental and natural resource management interventions that reduce poverty, (ii) improve policies and institutional frameworks to make economic development sustainable, and (iii) help address the global environmental issues that threaten the planet in the longer term. At the same time, as highlighted in Asian Environment Outlook 2001,³ powerful driving forces such as globalization, technological change including rapid advances in data processing and information communication technology, and the growing role of civil society and the private sector, are providing new opportunities and challenges for environmentally sustainable development.

1. ADB. 2000. The Long-Term Strategic Framework of the Asian Development Bank (2001-2015). Manila.
2. ADB’s strategic agenda is divided into three core areas of intervention, consonant with the poverty reduction strategy: (i) sustainable economic growth, (ii) inclusive social development, and (iii) governance for effective policies and institutions. The strategic agenda is complemented by three crosscutting themes: (i) promoting the role of the private sector in development, (ii) supporting regional cooperation and integration for regional development, and (iii) addressing environmental sustainability.
3. ADB. 2001. Asian Environment Outlook 2001. Manila.

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