Commentary资料文件与下载

COMMENTARY 评论

This report describes some of the special challenges of implementing environmental impact assessments (EIAs) effectively in Asia. It is prepared by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a financing source for many large-scale infrastructure projects across the continent.

本报告由亚洲开发银行（ADB）编制，介绍了在亚洲有效实施环境影响评估（EIA）所面临的一些特殊挑战。亚洲开发银行是亚洲许多大型基础设施项目的融资来源。

The authors review the difficult balance involved in meeting the urgent development needs of Asian countries with large populations living in poverty while at the same time avoiding the environmental damage associated with rapid and unplanned growth. The authors point out that environmental problems such as deforestation, groundwater exploitation, land erosion, water pollution, and uncontrolled urban expansion can exacerbate poverty while at the same time occur as a byproduct of valuable economic development.

由于有大批人口处于贫困之中，亚洲国家有着紧迫的发展需求。与此同时，各国政府又希望尽可能避免过快和无规划增长带来的环境破坏。作者在文章中回顾了上述情况，并说明了要在其中寻求平衡十分困难。此外，作者还指出，森林砍伐、地下水开采、土地侵蚀、水污染和不受控制的城市扩张等环境问题是经济发展的副产物，但也会加剧贫困。

The report describes the various types of planning at the national, regional, sectoral, and project level that can help to avoid excessive environmental damage. EIA is designed for use at the project level, but in cases where wider development plans do not already exist, an EIA may have to confront larger scale trends and impacts. This is a challenge for an analyst using a tool that has a hard time taking account of ‘cumulative effects’ of a project beyond the narrow geographic boundary of an EIA study.

该报告描述了国家、地区、部门和项目层面的各种规划，有助于避免出现严重环境损害。环境影响评估原本旨在用于项目层面，但如果尚不存在更加广泛的发展计划，那么环境影响评估可能也不得不考虑更大规模的趋势和影响。对于分析师来说，这是一个挑战，因为在环境影响评估研究狭窄的地理边界内很难将“累积影响”考虑在内。

The authors highlight the frequent lack of sufficient baseline data upon which to model project impacts and inadequate resources for monitoring implementation as two of the perennial problems that make it hard to conduct EIAs in Asia.

作者还强调，用以模拟项目影响的基准数据长期不足，监管实施资源匮乏是亚洲难以推行环境影响评估的两个主要问题。

Despite these challenges, a growing number of national laws call for including EIA in Asian project planning efforts. EIA is also a requirement for anyone seeking access to financing for infrastructure projects from international donors, such as the ADB.

尽管面临这些挑战，越来越多的国家通过立法要求在亚洲项目规划中纳入环境影响评估。 对于任何为基础设施项目寻求国际捐助（比如亚洲开发银行）的人来说，环境影响评估也是必不可少的。

Reflection questions 思考题:

1.   Where does responsibility lie for addressing the obstacles to effective EIA implementation in Asia identified in this report? National governments? International donors? Civil society?

本报告中指出，要想在亚洲实现有效的环境影响评估，谁应当承担责任？国家政府？国际捐助人？公民社会？

2.   How do you react to the authors’ presentation of these challenges? Do they seem like a fair representation of the difficulties that most countries in the region face?

对于作者列出的这些挑战，你有何看法？你觉得这些问题能否代表该地区内绝大部分国家所面临的困难？