ENVIRONMENT

Asia’s ecosystems and the clean air, water, food, disease management, climate regulation, economic livelihood, and natural beauty they provide, are fundamental to the health and prosperity of all Asians today and for generations to come. Sustained protection of the environment becomes an even more significant issue as environmental degradation increases with rapid economic development. Democratization does however, allow greater opportunities for discussion of environmental challenges. Now more than ever, Asia’s urban and rural communities, governments, businesses, and broader civil society are voicing their concerns regarding the impact of declining global and local ecological systems and are working toward sustainability. In support of these efforts, The Asia Foundation works with local partners to improve environmental stewardship, economic development, and human health by building capacity for public participation; involving a broad range of stakeholders in adopting environmental management approaches that respect ecosystems; and strengthening Asia’s environmental cooperation with the global community.

Too often, economic, institutional, and social incentives inadvertently support polluting and environmentally destructive practices. The Foundation’s programs focus on re-aligning these incentives, so that all of the key stakeholders involved can benefit from improved environmental management. Drawing on its decades of experience designing and implementing environmental protection programs, the Foundation addresses these challenges systemically, building capacity in organizations and individuals to apply innovative solutions that are based on the reality of local conditions.

Since the Foundation’s first large-scale regional environmental initiatives in the early 1990s, the Environment Program has continued to innovate through a combination of regional and country programming. The Foundation employs a distinctive toolbox of local knowledge and relationships, fundamental research and analysis, Asian NGO Business environmental management models, collaborative project design and multi-sectoral partnerships. Projects cover both regional and local interests, spanning topics from reducing water pollution in China and throughout Asia, to promoting stronger environmental standards in Mongolia’s mining industry, to participatory land use planning in the Philippines, to providing greater access to environmental information across sectors in Vietnam, Mongolia, and throughout South and Southeast Asia. Through its network of 17 offices throughout the Asia-Pacific, the Foundation works with a wide range of local and international environmental stakeholders. The Foundation’s reputation and capacity as a trusted, neutral convener enables it to bring together individuals representing different institutions, sectors, and perspectives to address environmental issues, in a balanced, considered, and collegial manner. From expanding local grassroots participation to advancing regional multi-sector cooperation, the Foundation works to promote collaborative solutions to Asia’s local, national, and politically complex regional and transboundary environmental challenges. Current programs support multi-sector efforts to solve environmental problems through innovative and data-driven environmental management approaches and policymaking.

REDUCING ENTERPRISE POLLUTION IN CHINA

Rapid industrialization in China has contributed to some of the highest rates of air and water pollution in the world, severe land degradation, and a range of emerging natural resource challenges. Of particular concern is the pollution of China’s rivers and groundwater, which are rapidly becoming depleted and unfit for any purpose. Through partnerships with Chinese institutes, regulatory agencies, industry associations and community organizations, The Asia Foundation is developing an integrated environmental program strategy for rivers in China that will go beyond treatment, which only cleans up the problem, to prevention of water pollution. The “Clean Water through Clean Production” project aims to change the way that public and private sector institutions interact with one another and with citizens on water-related issues. The Foundation’s environmental program in China works to:

• Reduce the impact of agricultural-based pollution on down-stream industrial enterprises and vice versa;
• Reduce the quantities of pollutants at their source by demonstrating the economic losses often associated with polluting activities; and
• Engage supporting players, including regulatory agencies and NGOs, to demonstrate the linking of environmental and economic progress.

ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION - ASIA (ECO-ASIA)

ECO-Asia is a seven-year program aimed at expanding access to clean water and sanitation, particularly for Asia’s urban poor; strengthening environmental compliance and enforcement; and managing transboundary conflict in the lower watersheds of the Mekong River. National and regional program activities are conducted in partnership with Asian governments, cities, and other organizations and agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to promote regional dialogue in sharing and replicating innovation across Asia. Key program countries include India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The Asia Foundation provides country coordination, technical assistance in environmental governance activities, expertise to ensure the participation of women, and small grants and exchanges management for ECO-Asia. Program activities improve the operational efficiency of water and sanitation providers in highly populated and underserved urban areas using pilot initiatives and innovation grants; support and expand regional networks such as the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network to improve local government capacity in this area; and increase institutional capacity of the Mekong River Commission and participating countries to manage trans-boundary conflicts.

SUSTAINABLE NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Through the program, “Securing Our Future,” The Asia Foundation promotes sustainable environmental management practices that contribute to Mongolia’s economic development, and protect its valuable human and natural resources. The Foundation facilitates constructive public, private, and NGO multi-sector dialogue on environmental policy and legal formulation, transparent licensing and permitting, and public oversight, which includes community and student public engagement in water quality monitoring. Through multi-stakeholder dialogues; advocacy and public awareness campaigns; environmental education and water quality monitoring; and the development of new markets for “green” gold, and other metal and minerals products, the Foundation and its local partners are working to build national support to raise the standards for mining operations throughout the country.

GREENING THE HOTEL INDUSTRY IN POSTTSUNAMI THAILAND

In Phuket, the Green Leaf Foundation (GLF) and the Association for the Development of Environmental Quality, non-profit partners of The Asia Foundation, are working with hotels to reduce their environmental impact as they rebuild after the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami. By participating in the Green Leaf Environmental Audit Program, hotels and resorts are able to identify new ways to improve their environmental performance, achieve significant savings, market themselves as “green” businesses, and conserve the region’s valuable natural resources. The Asia Foundation and GLF are coordinating workshops and providing technical assistance for 20 resorts to help them develop cost-effective strategies to reduce their environmental impact. By engaging hotel owners and managers from towns that were badly impacted by the tsunami, GLF and The Asia Foundation hope to improve the surrounding natural environment, as well as the health and safety of hotel workers and guests.