A Political Economy of Environmental Impact Assessment in the Mekong Region

Environmental impact assessments
Infrastructure

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a central process in sustainable development to reduce and mitigate anticipated impacts of development projects. Every national government in the region has or is in the process of developing specific legislation on EIA and related environmental governance issues. Yet despite the fact that significant environmental impacts may occur across borders, no regional EIA agreements have yet been passed and implemented. Why is this so? Explanations offered to date for the ineffectiveness of regional cooperation centre around a perceived "lack of political will" and "local pressures and issues" (Baird, 2014: 30-31). This finding provides an excellent starting point for analysis from a political economy perspective. Rather than falling back on a black-box explanation of "political will" (Green, 2009), a political economy approach seeks to understand what factors are driving or blocking proposed reforms, and what can be done to affect the situation.

CC-BY-SA-3.0-IGO

Resources

PDF	A Political Economy of Environmental Impact Assessment in the Mekong Region The analysis is based on a collaborative research process carried out under the auspices of the Mekong Partnership for the Environment, a USAID-funded program implemented by Pact that aims to advance regional cooperation on environmental governance. We find that at present, EIA implementation is limited by numerous political economy constraints, some general across the Mekong region, others specific to one or more country contexts.	Download

PDF

A Political Economy of Environmental Impact Assessment in the Mekong Region

The analysis is based on a collaborative research process carried out under the auspices of the Mekong Partnership for the Environment, a USAID-funded program implemented by Pact that aims to advance regional cooperation on environmental governance. We find that at present, EIA implementation is limited by numerous political economy constraints, some general across the Mekong region, others specific to one or more country contexts.

Download

Metadata

Document type	Reports, journal articles, and research papers (including theses and dissertations)
Publication date	2016.0
Publisher	Water Alternatives
Copyright	No
License	CC-BY-SA-3.0-IGO
Co-author (individual)	Andrew Wells-Dang, Kyaw Nyi Soe, Lamphay Inthakoun, Prom Tola, Penh Socheat, Thi Thanh Van Nguyen, Areerat Chabada, Worachanok Youttananukorn
Language	English
Date modified	17 Oct 2021

Ask Question
Report Problem
Share Idea
Send Feedback
Submit Resources

Do you have questions on the content published by Open Development Laos? We will gladly help you.

Have you found a technical problem or issue on the Open Development Laos website?

Tell us how we're doing.

Do you have resources that could help expand the Open Development Laos website? We will review any map data, laws, articles, and documents that we do not yet have and see if we can implement them into our site. Please make sure the resources are in the public domain or fall under a Creative Commons license.

View | Delete

File was deleted

ERROR!

Please add the code:

* The idea box couldn't be blank! * The email address is not valid! Something's gone wrong, Please Resubmit the form! Please add the code correctly first.

A Political Economy of Environmental Impact Assessment in the Mekong Region

Resources

A Political Economy of Environmental Impact Assessment in the Mekong Region

Metadata

Leaflet on Environmental Impact Assessment Procedures

USAID GREENING PREY LANG Impact Assessment on Conservation Wellbeing Impacts in the Prey Lang Extended Landscape

Stimson: Mekong Infrastructure Tracker

Lao PDR Country Report

Circular No. 08 on preventing the demolition and destruction of heritage buildings

Prakas No. 230 on procedures and implementation of guidelines for the verification table in the preparation of the initial environmental and social impact assessment report on small and medium factory projects

Prakas No. 229 on procedures and implementation of guidelines for the verification table in the preparation of the initial environmental and social impact assessment report on petrol station and joint petrol and gas stations projects

Prakas No. 228 on procedures and implementation of guidelines for the verification table in the preparation of the initial environmental and social impact assessment report on all types of building projects

Contact us

Thank you for taking the time to get in contact!