Asia's Environmental Crisis?
The 'Environmental Research Network Asia' (ERNA)
By PETER HO AND TUUR MOL
Over the past decades, East Asia has witnessed an economic boom with a quadrupling of real per capita income, a ten-year increase in life expectancy, and a drop of approximately twenty per cent in the population living in absolute poverty. The rapid economic growth in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia has been accompanied by a sharp increase in environmental degradation. Moreover, the reform of centrally planned economies to market economies has triggered what was ominously referred to as the 'environmental crisis', including a range of problems from industrial pollution to the destruction of natural resources. For example, taking up one-fifth of the world population, China will have a crucial negative impact on the world's environment. The heavy dependence of the Chinese on coal to fuel their fast-growing economy has been a major concern to policy makers around the globe. At present, the People's Republic ranks second in aggregate national discharges of carbon dioxide (behind the United States). Projection models generally suggest that within the next couple of decades China is likely to surpass the United States as the leading national emitter of carbon dioxide, posing a major threat to the global climate.However, in contrast to other developing regions, East Asia has done much to tackle environmental problems. For example, energy subsidies on petrol, diesel, and electric power have gradually been phased out enhancing a more rational use of energy resources. In addition, many countries have proclaimed an impressive body of environmental laws and policies. Yet, two features set the East Asian region apart from the rest of the world: a higher population density exposing more people to environmental risks, and a rapid expansion of environmental degradation triggered off by the economic growth that co-exists with an institutional structure which is not yet up to the task confronting it.
The environmental problems in many of East Asia's 'Newly Industrializing Countries' relate to a weak legal structure, insecure property rights, and an inefficient and ineffective government apparatus. To exacerbate this, government policies are often flawed in their problem perceptions and policy concepts. Closely resembling the policies adopted in the West during the 1960s and 1970s, current environmental policy in Asia is generally predicated upon an command-and-control approach. Command-and-control policies are frequently haunted by the spectre of implementation failure because of the limited attention paid to economic efficiency and policy integration. This has led to a wide variety of problems, such as pollution displacement (e.g. bringing down water pollution easily leads to an intensification of air or soil pollution) and the emergence of conflicting procedures and requirements facing polluters. Lastly, a source of scholarly and public concern is the limited scope allowed civil society and environmental movements in some East Asian countries.
Key recommendations for environmental policy reform focus on institutional strengthening and the adoption of market-based policy measures, such as tradable emission permits, price policies, and pollution taxes. A major shortcoming in addressing these problems is the lack of expertise and education in environmental studies in East Asia. In response to requests from various Asian research institutes, the Environmental Policy Group of Wageningen University has launched and is planning various co-operative projects to bridge this gap.
One of the projects is called 'Research and Education for Industry and Environment in Vietnam' (REFINE). This project is scheduled to run from 1997 until 2001 and is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Development Co-operation. The main counterpart is Van Lang University in HoChiMinh City. The research focuses on 'Industrial Transformation' in the rural and peri-urban area ('Industrial Transformation' refers to the theoretical corpus on the reform of production and consumption chains towards ecological sustainability and economic viability).
The project activities include: Teaching aimed at an improvement in the current BSc curriculum and the development of a new MSc in environmental policy and management. Vietnamese university staff members are being trained to enable them to take over the courses initially taught by Dutch staff in the future. New text books are being developed tailored to the needs of the Vietnamese partners. In addition, twelve scholarships have been made available for an MSc in Environmental Sciences in The Netherlands. Research focusing on the management of industrial zones, on pollution control of (small-scale) agro-industries (textile, paper, and tapioca), and on industrial and household solid waste management. The research is being carried out by senior staff of Wageningen and Van Lang Universities and three Vietnamese PhD candidates. Institution building, such as the establishment of a library, funds for office equipment, the laboratory and other facilities, and for the setting up of a publication series and a national newsletter. A follow-up project for REFINE has been formulated and submitted for funding.
Over the years, the Environmental Policy Group has built up a regional network on environmental policy research in Asia with five projects initiated and planned in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. The focus of research currently encompasses issues of environmental social movements, international trade and environment (WTO/ASEAN), ecological modernization (sociological theories on the institutional changes that safeguard ecologically sustainable economic growth), and industrial ecology (the notion that production is an integrated whole in which the output and discharge of one industry can be recycled or re-used to form the input of the other). Another part of the research is devoted to rural and peri-urban society including studies on environmental policy compliance by small-scale rural industries (the China Township and Village Industrial Enterprise or TVIE project funded by the KNAW), land tenure and soil erosion (land policy and administration in China), and natural resource management (desertification and deforestation in China). In view of the scale of environmental problems in East Asia, it is the explicit intention of the Environmental Policy Group to substantiate the 'Environmental Research Network Asia' (ERNA) ensuring it is solidly established for the future. This effort will not only include research projects, but also the organization of international conferences and seminars, the provision of short-term consultancies, and the establishment of an Asia Environmental Newsletter for which future contributions will be highly welcomed. *
Please send views and comments to:
PETER HO
Lecturer at the Environmental Policy Group or
TUUR MOL
Head of the Environmental Policy Group
Department of Social Sciences
Wageningen University
Hollandseweg 1
6706 KN Wageningen
The Netherlands
Tel: +31-317-483 310
Fax: +31-317-483 990
E-mail: peter.ho@alg.swg.wau.nl or tuur.mol@alg.swg.wau.nl
Http://www.sls.wageningen-ur.nl/swg/es