SUMMARY: MAPPING PATHWAYS - Towards a Holistic Model for Inclusive and Resilient Linear Infra

MAPPING PATHWAYS

Towards a Holistic Model for the Planning, Design, Approval, and Construction of Inclusive and Resilient Linear Infrastructure

While linear infrastructure development is a vital component of economic and social development, it presents significant risks to the environment and to local communities. Linear infrastructure in Asia is usually designed to follow the shortest, least-cost route, without a holistic understanding of the risks, downstream costs, or the distribution of benefits.1 Efforts to promote environmentally sustainable linear infrastructure have emphasized low-carbon approaches that minimize environmental and social impacts but do not fully consider resilient and inclusive infrastructure, including the role that nature-based solutions can play in supporting resilience and maintaining ecosystem service provisions. 2

OVERVIEW CONCEPTS: LINEAR INFRASTRUCTURE, RESILIENCE, AND INCLUSIVITY

For this study, linear infrastructure includes roads, railway lines, canals, power transmission and distribution lines, and pipelines. The study focuses on large-scale linear infrastructure that could have significant intrusions into key biodiversity areas (KBAs), have negative impacts on ecosystems, be vulnerable to natural disaster risks, and affect multiple communities.

Linear infrastructure is vulnerable to a range of natural hazards—including cyclones, floods, landslides, storm surges, earthquakes, and tsunamis—many of which are becoming more frequent and intense because of climate change. Because linear infrastructure is often critical infrastructure, defined by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) as “physical structures, facilities, networks and other assets which provide services that are essential to the social and economic functioning of a community or society,”4 small disruptions can have a

Ensuring that strong, inclusive, strategic planning underpins all linear infrastructure development in the ASEAN region will minimize environmental and social risks, reduce downstream costs, disaster risk potential, and community conflict, and maximize the positive social benefits of individual projects. Domestic regulations that provide certainty for all stakeholders and that ensure coordination across a holistic model at all stages of the linear infrastructure project lifecycle need to be established in all ASEAN member states.3

This study proposes a holistic model for planning, designing, and constructing resilient and inclusive linear infrastructure in ASEAN.

significant impact. A recent World Bank assessment reviewed the cost of infrastructure disruptions in low- and middle-income countries5 and found that power, water and sanitation, transport, and telecommunications systems “are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards because they are organized in complex networks through which even small local shocks can propagate quickly.” The assessment concluded that making these systems more resilient “is critical, not only to avoid costly damage but also to minimize the effects of natural disasters on the livelihoods and well-being of people.”6

Inclusivity in linear infrastructure development means that infrastructure is designed, constructed, and operated in ways that can meet the needs of communities affected by the infrastructure. This includes ensuring that potentially affected people can meaningfully participate in key decisions at all stages of linear infrastructure development.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Lifelines/XRytDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=doi%3A10.1596%2F978-1-4648-1430-3&pg=PT13&printsec=frontcover

1. Bartlett, R. (2019) Visioning Futures: Improving infrastructure planning to harness nature’s benefits in a warming world, WWF, p. 3. 2. Bartlett, p. 1.

3. https://asean.org/member-states/ (© 2020 ASEAN Secretariat).

4. UNDRR (n.d.) Terminology – Critical infrastructure, https://www.undrr.org/terminology/critical-infrastructure (last accessed 17 February 2022).

5. Hallegatte, S. et al (2019) Lifelines: The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity, Sustainable Infrastructure Series, World Bank, doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1430-3, p. xiii.

6. Hallegatte, S. et al (2019), p. 2.

Cover photo by Tom Fisk for Pexels

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimated that $26 trillion needs to be invested in infrastructure from 2016 to 2030 to maintain economic momentum in Asia, including $14.7 trillion for power and $8.4 trillion for transport.7 The Linear Infrastructure Safeguards in Asia (LISA) project, launched in 2020 and funded by USAID, identified extensive overlap between planned linear infrastructure routes and areas of high biodiversity value in Asia. 8

One of the key drivers of linear infrastructure investment in Asia is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which involves the development of overland trading routes to “assist mainland China and participating countries to hedge against the inherent geopolitical risks of single trade routes.”9 Since 2013, nearly half of the investment from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the BRI has been directed to ASEAN member states.10 The value of investment by PRC companies in ASEAN member states has increased by 85 percent since the BRI began.11

In 2017, the government of the PRC produced guidance to align BRI projects more closely with the vision of “ecological civilization” advanced by President Xi Jinping.12

The new guidance requires that BRI investors and proponents comply fully with national environmental impact assessment (EIA) law and policies, as well as with transboundary EIAs and strategic environmental assessments (SEAs). Although the BRI guidance is considered voluntary for ASEAN countries, it has created a broad framework for recommendations and regulations in ASEAN to promote greener development and highlights risks that linear infrastructure development poses to biodiversity, wildlife, and habitat.

The ASEAN Charter provides a legal framework and shows a political commitment to addressing common challenges through information sharing, regional integration, and multilateral agreements. The ASEAN Community Vision 2025 commits the ASEAN member states to realize “a rules-based, people-centered ASEAN Community, where people enjoy human rights and fundamental freedoms, higher quality of life, and community building benefits.”13 However, the guidelines need further clarity and specific mechanisms to ensure that they are effectively implemented.

IMPACTS OF LINEAR INFRASTRUCTURE: BIODIVERSITY, CLIMATE, AND COMMUNITIES

The impacts that linear infrastructure can have on biodiversity, climate resilience, and communities are intertwined. For instance, the LISA project found that linear infrastructure development created direct threats to biodiversity such as barriers to movement, roadkill,

electrocution, habitat fragmentation, and habitat loss, as well as indirect threats from increased human access that enables poaching, illegal logging, unplanned development, and the introduction of invasive species.14 Many of these impacts are cumulative, and most severe at the landscape level.

7. ADB (2017) Meeting Asia’s Infrastructure Needs, cited in USAID (2021) Building a Foundation for Linear Infrastructure Safeguards in Asia, p. 14.

8. USAID (2021), p. 39.

9. Tritto, A. et al (2020) The Belt and Road Initiative in ASEAN: Overview, United Overseas Bank and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Institute for Emerging Market Studies, p. 3.

10. Tritto, A. et al. (2020) p. 4.

11. Tritto, A. et al. (2020) p. 11.

12. These are described in Baird and Thomas, Greening the BRI in ASEAN, CJEL 4 (2020) p. 217-234.

13. ASEAN Community Vision 2025, https://www.asean.org/wp-content/uploads/images/2015/November/aec-page/ASEAN-Community-Vision-2025.pdf (paragraph 4)

14. USAID (2021) Building a Foundation for Linear Infrastructure Safeguards in Asia, p. 2.

Linear infrastructure development can accelerate climate change by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting deforestation. At the same time, climate change exacerbates the impacts of linear infrastructure, including degrading ecological health and reducing the resilience provided by ecosystem services. The long lifespan of linear infrastructure projects means that future climate scenarios also need to be considered in the design and planning of projects. Infrastructure may be developed on an assumption that ecosystem services will provide resilience to natural hazards—such as mangroves protecting against storm surges—but climate change can erode such resilience, exposing infrastructure assets to unforeseen risks. Changes to the natural environment that result from climate change can impact the long-term financial viability of assets15 such as

creating an increased risk of landslides that requires costly engineering solutions.

Linear infrastructure has both positive and negative impacts on local communities: positive impacts include increased access to services and facilities or short-term employment opportunities during construction, while potential negative impacts could include losing transportation access if bypassed, or increased road safety risks, restrictions on land access, heightened disputes, and environmental health risks (e.g., from gas pipelines). The most vulnerable are generally the most affected. Thus, inclusivity in linear infrastructure development means not only considering potential community impacts in project design but also providing opportunities for meaningful participation for all stakeholders throughout all phases of the project lifecycle.

THE CASE FOR A HOLISTIC MODEL

ASEAN has in place a range of international laws, principles, and instruments that support the development of resilient and inclusive linear infrastructure, including multilateral environment agreements (MEAs), transboundary impact assessment mechanisms, and international human rights laws, including corporate commitments to human rights. Furthermore, financial institutions are increasingly imposing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requirements as a condition for investing.

Collectively, these principles and instruments reinforce global and regional commitments to incorporating resilience and inclusivity into linear infrastructure development. However, the current approach in the ASEAN region does not ensure resilience and inclusivity for two reasons:

1. Without a clear overarching regulatory framework that begins at the upstream stages with system planning and project identification and continues to individual project development, linear infrastructure is not being planned and implemented in a coordinated manner.

2. In the absence of a regulatory framework, EIAs have become the default mechanism for considering the risks associated with project proposals. However, EIAs come too late in the project lifecycle to avoid significant impacts while simultaneously expecting them to go beyond their purpose in building resilience and inclusivity.

A recent WWF analysis, Visioning Futures, attributed the lack of progress in shifting investments towards climateresilient and sustainable infrastructure to three causes:16

1. Insufficient “upstream” strategic planning across multiple projects and sectors, limited by insufficient data and analysis of key climate risk, ecological integrity, and ecosystem services factors

2. The limited spatial scope of environmental and other impact and feasibility assessments

3. Insufficient consideration of the risks and likely future impacts of ever-increasing climate change

Cutting across all three issues is a disconnect between the project-based, or “downstream,” mechanisms and the “upstream” considerations for long-term infrastructure,

15. Singh, S. and Gulliya, D. (2021) Integration of Environmental Risks in Infrastructure Investments in India: A Business Case for Financial Institutions, WWF-India, p. 31. 16. Bartlett (2019), p. 17.

community, and environmental needs in a region. Without a clear requirement for landscape-level planning, project proponents are not obliged to consider risks and potential impacts as part of the upstream stage of project prioritization and selection. Rather, upstream planning only involves pre-feasibility and other assessments that focus on

the financial viability of projects. These tools do not always require consideration of landscape-level, strategic issues that are critical to resilient and inclusive infrastructure development, nor do they establish criteria for project prioritization and selection that are linked to public policy objectives.

PROPOSED HOLISTIC MODEL: OVERVIEW

DEPICTION OF HOLISTIC FRAMEWORK FOR LINEAR INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN ASEAN MEMBER STATES

STRATEGIC LANDSCAPE PLANS FOR LINEAR INFRASTRUCTURE

Incorporating nationally determined contributions for climate change action, protected areas, vulnerability and multi-hazard risk assessments, socio-economic development plans, natural resource management plans

Identifying areas and corridors as:

- Suitable

- Unsuitable

- Requiring case-by-case assessment

KEY PRINCIPLES APPLYING CONSISTENTLY ACROSS PHASES

• Precautionary principle

• Access to information

• Public participation

• Long-term climate resilience

• Nature positive development

• Inclusivity

• Rights of Indigenous Peoples

• Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

• Gender mainstreaming

Principles of sustainable development underpin the proposed model, many of which arise from the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 1992. The principles considered critical to the development of resilient and inclusive linear infrastructure in ASEAN, and which should be explicitly incorporated into the proposed regulatory framework, are:

• Meaningful public participation, including access to information

• Rights of Indigenous Peoples and principles of FPIC

• Inclusivity and a gender lens

• The precautionary principle

• Inter-generational equity, including long-term climate resilience

• Nature positive development

A regulated approach for governing the proposed holistic

• Provides clarity for communities, developers, and financial institutions about where particular types of linear infrastructure can be developed in the future and streamlines the project identification and selection phases. Planning and pre-screening could also be the basis for a “project bank” that would allow proponents to explore government and community priorities.

• Enables interfacing with existing regulations such as protected area management.

• Establishes clarity for monitoring and enforcing obligations and provides a clear basis for grievance mechanisms and access to justice.

The holistic regulatory model does not demand an entirely new series of laws or require identical laws across ASEAN; each jurisdiction can adapt its current laws and institutional arrangements. However, ASEAN is best placed to establish guidance for applying laws to linear infrastructure development. Consistent approaches between ASEAN member states would:

The Dawei-Htee Khee Road, as seen on a WWF field trip. May 2015

Photo by WWF-Myanmar

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

ASEAN provides a platform and opportunity for collective action. However, transitioning to a regulated, holistic model will also take concerted effort from the national governments of ASEAN member states, project proponents and financial institutions, and development

ASEAN

ASEAN should promote the benefits of a regulatory approach, including increased investment certainty, increased connectivity, and reduced conflict in the region. ASEAN can also play a key role in developing guidance on land acquisition and resettlement, as well as providing a forum for sharing experiences, facilitating data collection, and supporting project proponents and financial institutions in their due diligence and risk assessment processes.

PROJECT PROPONENTS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Project proponents should employ the upstream screening checklists to ensure that they undertake due diligence at all stages of the linear infrastructure project lifecycle. Financial institutions, including multilateral development banks, should require evidence of due diligence that considers resilience and inclusivity issues and enter into an ESG covenant to promote compliance by the borrower for all environmental and social obligations associated with the project.

partners, including multilateral development banks. To map a pathway for the implementation of the holistic model, the following recommendations are directed to various actors who can support the transition:

NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS

Until a strategic landscape-level plan can be finalized, national governments should use SEAs or sector-wide impact assessment tools to evaluate key factors including climate change and disaster risks, community needs and aspirations, ecosystems and the services they provide, potential cumulative impacts on the landscape, and alternative locations that would avoid negative environmental and social impacts. National governments can also reinforce the existing EIA system using tools provided in the annexes of the full report.

THE DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

The development community should support the adoption and implementation of a regulatory framework by offering ASEAN member states technical assistance in drafting regulations and supporting pilot projects to demonstrate successful implementation of the holistic model. The development community should seek to increase capacity with ASEAN member states and support civil society organizations working to help local communities understand resilience and inclusivity, identify risks, and provide input into linear infrastructure development.

This report was conceptualized by Urvana Menon (WWF) and developed by Martin Cosier (ARIEL) and Matthew Baird (ARIEL), with assistance from Sai Nay Won Myint (ARIEL) and Roger Joseph ‘Rocky’ Guzman (ARIEL). Special thanks to Sai Than Lwin (WWF), Stefano Zenobi (WWF) and the Asia Research Center for Migration, Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University for their contributions, review and support throughout the development of this report.

This report is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of USAID Mekong for the Future.

The contents are the responsibility of WWF and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

© Photo by Hkun Lat for WWF-Myanmar

Dawei Road, Dawna Tenasserim Myanmar