INTRODUCTION

While linear infrastructure development is a vital component of economic and social development throughout Asia and specifically within the Lower Mekong, it presents significant risks to the environment and local communities. Mekong for the Future (MFF), a three-year program funded by USAID, is designed to strengthen civil society’s engagement in natural resource governance in the Lower Mekong, specifically in improving understanding and access to environmental data from public and private actors.

This report proposes a holistic regulatory model for resilient and inclusive linear infrastructure development in ASEAN by focusing on investment strategies that encourage sustainability, resilience, and inclusivity, with a particular emphasis on strengthening regulatory arrangements.1

Currently, the environmental and social impacts of linear infrastructure development are largely viewed through the lens of safeguard mechanisms such as environmental impact assessments (EIAs). While EIAs are important tools, they are reactive and cannot provide a regional and holistic perspective that maximizes resilience and inclusivity. As a result, efforts to promote sustainable linear infrastructure in ASEAN have emphasized low-carbon development that minimizes environmental and social impacts but does not consider resilience and inclusivity, including the role that nature-based solutions can play in maintaining ecosystem service provision. 2

Moreover, linear infrastructure is still largely designed to follow the shortest, least-cost route, without a holistic understanding of the risks, downstream costs, or distribution of benefits. 3 This occurs, in part, from considering linear infrastructure projects on a caseby-case basis. Although land use planning arrangements exist in many ASEAN member states, they are generally not applied when designing linear infrastructure.

Ensuring that strong, inclusive, strategic planning underpins all linear infrastructure development in the ASEAN region will minimize environmental and social risks while reducing downstream costs, disaster risk potential, and community conflict, as well as maximizing the positive social benefits of individual projects.

By providing an overview of the concepts of resilience and inclusivity as they relate to linear infrastructure, and a summary of the key biodiversity, climate, and social risks associated with linear infrastructure development, the report outlines the existing framework for linear infrastructure approvals in ASEAN and constructs a conceptual framework of the key regulatory and non-regulatory mechanisms that apply at different phases of the linear infrastructure project cycle.

This is then used as the basis for an analysis of the constraints of the current approach to linear infrastructure development and a series of recommendations for the adoption and implementation of a holistic model. These recommendations are structured with the long-term ambition of regulatory reform while also presenting immediate interventions and tools that can be adopted within the current framework. In recognition of the need for coordinated action by all stakeholders, the recommendations are crafted for national governments, ASEAN, project proponents and financial institutions, and civil society within ASEAN.

Matters Outside The Scope Of This Report

While this report contains detailed information related to the issues, systems, and processes involved in developing linear infrastructure in ASEAN, the following factors are beyond the scope of the analysis.

• The report does not assess the forecast demand for linear infrastructure but recognizes that accurate and justified future needs are important inputs—along with environmental, climate, disaster risk, and social assessments—to the planning and design of infrastructure.

• The report does not address issues surrounding procurement and green procurement, nor the development of green or sustainable finance mechanisms, such as green bonds and green finance initiatives being pursued in Indonesia and Thailand. These initiatives provide tools to promote sustainable and resilient development but will always be more successful if the project itself has been designed to be sustainable, inclusive, and resilient.

• The report recognizes a wide range of tools available that project proponents can use to consider resilience and inclusivity in their risk assessments and other processes when designing linear infrastructure projects but does not evaluate or recommend any of these tools. The report is concerned with the legal framework that requires such considerations to be made and the recommendations have been made presuming that proponents will continue to use such tools as appropriate for their circumstances.

• The report acknowledges that implementation of the proposed holistic model will require significant support from the development community for capacity-building and data collection and use, but does not explore these needs in detail.