International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—To identify common issues on environmental safeguard in infrastructure projects, a comparative analysis was undertaken for five projects which were financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and subject to environmental compliance review. Various elements were identified for successfully carrying out projects without causing environmental problems. Among those, the following were found in most of the studied projects and thus considered crucial: collecting baseline data, ensuring proper coverage of environmental assessment, appropriately assessing adverse impacts, and sufficiently carrying out public consultation and information disclosure. Whereas it is not widely noticed, changes in project scope sometimes occur and they trigger additional actions for safeguard compliance. In the recently established Environmental and Social Policy, the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) introduced a new concept of “adaptive management.” Intensive attention should be paid to proper implementation of this aspect.

Index Terms—Adaptive management, Asian Development Bank, changes in project scope, compliance review, environmental safeguard.

Masami Tsuji is with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Tokyo, Japan (e-mail: Tsuji.Masami@jica.go.jp).

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Cite: Masami Tsuji, "Compliance with Environmental Safeguard Policy — Comparative Analysis of Projects Financed by Asian Development Bank," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 753-756, 2017.