MAKING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW IN ASIA MORE EFFECTIVE

The report argues that while many Asian nations have adopted stringent environmental laws based on Western models, these laws are often ineffective due to a lack of integration with economic planning, corruption, and a failure to account for local cultural contexts. It recommends integrating environmental policy into investment promotion, simplifying regulations to reduce corruption, and utilizing land-use planning as a primary tool for prevention. Specifically, it suggests enhancing compliance through community-based monitoring, adopting alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and reforming Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) to include public consultation and post-implementation monitoring.

• Environmental protection in Asia is often inadequate and expensive because environmental policy is not integrated into overall planning and investment promotion, leaving agencies to focus on mitigation rather than prevention.
• To combat the prevalence of corruption in the region, environmental laws and regulations should be designed to be as transparent as possible and avoid unnecessary complexity to minimize administrative intervention points.
• Land use planning is a significantly underused tool in Asia for reducing the environmental impacts of development, which often leads to higher long-term costs for clean-up and restoration.
• Environmental laws in Asia should be drafted to avoid creating arbitrary or disguised barriers to international trade, ensuring consistency with GATT and WTO requirements.
• Compliance monitoring is most cost-effective when government efforts are supplemented by self-monitoring by industry and information provided by local communities.
• Traditional legal enforcement approaches adapted from other nations may be less effective in Asia due to cultural factors; therefore, alternative dispute resolution and the use of public exposure to cause 'loss of face' should be considered.
• There is a general need in Asia to expand the ability of private citizens to bring environmental protection cases to court, though governments often resist this to limit their own vulnerability to lawsuits.
• The selection of environmental policy instruments—whether market-based or direct controls—should be based on a five-part assessment of effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, administrative ease, fairness, and political acceptability.
• Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) in Asia are generally characterized by inadequate transparency and public consultation; they should be conducted early in the planning process and include a 'no-build' option.
• EIAs should be expanded beyond narrow pollution concerns to include aesthetic, social, and cultural factors, particularly for communities whose lifestyles are closely tied to the environment.

APA

BARRON, W., & COTTRELL, J. (1996). MAKING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW IN ASIA MORE EFFECTIVE. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/LawAsia_1996.pdf

Chicago

BARRON, WILLIAM, and JILL COTTRELL. MAKING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW IN ASIA MORE EFFECTIVE. Center for International Environmental Law, 1996. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/LawAsia_1996.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=BARRON |first1=WILLIAM |last2=COTTRELL |first2=JILL |title=MAKING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW IN ASIA MORE EFFECTIVE |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=March 1996 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/LawAsia_1996.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{barron1996making, author = {BARRON, WILLIAM and COTTRELL, JILL}, title = {{MAKING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW IN ASIA MORE EFFECTIVE}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {1996}, month = mar, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/LawAsia_1996.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }