MARCH 10, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 9

The Greening Of Asia
All is not lost. After being abused and neglected, Asia's environment is healing - slowly
By CHOONG TET SIEU

The pages that follow contain heartening news. After decades of helter-skelter economic growth in which the dark side of development was ignored, governments, corporations and citizens around the region have woken up to the damage that has been done to the precarious balance between man and his surroundings. Thank the economic crisis for some of that. In the same way that it brought home the need for a more responsible way of doing business, the downturn provided a moment to pause and reflect on how the environment could have been better managed.

Now efforts are underway to right some of the wrongs. China, whose factories spew out poisons that fall as acid rain on its neighbors, is cutting back on the use of coal and thus reducing sulfur dioxide emissions. In Hong Kong, plans are in hand to clean up the city's ever-thickening air by replacing diesel fuel for taxis with less noxious liquefied petroleum gas. Japan, often accused of plundering the world's oceans for the dinner table, has set a timetable to cut back on fish catches by 2002. The South Koreans have made great strides in recycling garbage (up by 75% since 1995), and big businesses in Malaysia are heeding the government's call to minimize industrial effluents. Seventeen sites in Singapore - already in some ways an environmental blueprint for much of Asia - have been designated Nature Areas.

ALSO IN ASIAWEEK Cover: Internet money goes shopping in Hong Kong and what PCCW-HKT means for old-economy firms in Asia • Players: The deal, the winners and the losers • Interview: Richard Li on bagging the region's biggest buy • SingTel: What now for Singapore Telecom? • Chart: Comparing PCCW and Cable & Wireless HKT • No. 1: The Lis are definitely Asia's top business family Editorial: Taiwan should respond to China's peace feeler - hidden in a war threat Editorial: India's RSS must curb its chauvinism Philippines: Amid terrorist attacks in Mindanao, President Joseph Estrada plays tough with MILF insurgents Brunei: The sultanate sues Prince Jefri Singapore: Behind Ong Teng Cheong's maverick presidency • Extended Interview: Ong does not regret riling his former colleagues Nepal: Why the Maoists are resurgent Green Stakes: Why Asia has to clean up - fast • Snapshots: Where countries stand on the environment • Eco-warriors: Fighting to save the planet • By Design: Ideas that can make a difference Exhibitions: The art world - a proxy cross-straits battlefield Newsmakers: India's pointman for defense Real Estate: Building up Indonesia's multimedia dreams MyWeb: As this Malaysian Internet company proves, a U.S. listing is not an automatic road to riches Investing: Don't use yesterday's rules to value tomorrow's hottest telecommunications companies Business Buzz: CLOB gets resolved Viewpoint: Political reform is inevitable in China

These are just a selection of the many encouraging developments. But they don't just happen. It takes dedicated people to bring about change. And there is good news there too. Asia has always had its environmental activists, but often they have struggled without recognition against an unheeding system. Not any more. Today, with the media at last seeing that they too could have spent less time cheerleading economic growth and more time focusing on some of its harmful consequences, ecologists and concerned groups have been given a voice. We profile some of those people in this report - from the government minister with the super-warrior task of fighting grime in China to an activist nun in the Philippines; from a green business executive in Hong Kong to a campaigning lawyer in India. They and others are making a genuine and lasting contribution to the greening of Asia. But they, better than most people, know how much still has to be done.

In urban China the air is so filthy that 10,000 people in four major cities - Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang - are expected to die prematurely this year from air-borne poisons. Breathing is almost as hazardous in a host of cities across the region, including Seoul (now worse than Mexico City), Manila, Hong Kong and Bangkok. From Bombay to Beijing, rivers are running dry or are so polluted they cannot support life. Lower stretches of China's once mighty Yellow River were parched for two-thirds of 1997 because of the destruction of watersheds, unchecked industrialization and inappropriate land use.

Elsewhere, regulators reluctant to invest in waste treatment still sometimes argue that the toxins will be diluted to safe levels in the vast expanse of Asia's seas. But the cleansing power of ocean currents has its limits. Researchers are discovering alarming levels of industrial poisons in whales and dolphins caught in northern Asian waters. An international study found their meat to be highly contaminated with deadly chemicals. You shouldn't think you are safe just because dolphin and whale don't feature on your menu. Experts are now concerned that other seafood - even fished from the ocean depths - may present similar perils.

At the same time, fish stocks across the region are being severely depleted because of over-exploitation. Coral fish such as groupers and wrasses have all but vanished from some waters, especially off the coasts of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In order to cater to the seafood-crazy appetites of Hong Kong, China and Singapore, fish supplies from Southeast Asia leapt from 400 tons in 1989 to 5,000 tons in 1995. By then, demand had exceeded the ability of fish populations to replenish themselves. Catches fell 22% in 1996.

Huge swathes of Asia's species-rich forests have fallen to powerful plantation and logging interests - many of them operating outside the law (where there is one). Satellite imagery taken over Indonesia in 1997, for example, showed that more 17 million hectares had been lost since 1985. Without a comprehensive protection program, experts fear that invaluable lowland forests are likely to vanish from Sumatra within five years. Protected areas aren't always better off. Many national parks and designated wildlife sanctuaries are safe only on paper. A joint study by the World Bank and the Worldwide Fund for Nature last December found that just 1% of such areas are protected from pollution and various "developments," including mining and tourism.

Shrinking forest cover will remove the best defense against global warming. Rising temperatures and melting ice caps are not just distant worries for mainly low-lying Pacific islanders and owners of prime coastal land. Last month, scientists warned that a hotter planet would have a far wider impact than previously thought. Higher temperatures may well produce more cases of cholera. The bug is a parasite in a common plankton, so warmer seas will stimulate the bacteria to replicate more rapidly. Similarly, heavier rainfall is likely to bring more outbreaks on land of mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria.

ASIAWEEK'S ENVIRONMENT SPECIAL REPORT: Green Stakes: Why Asia has to clean up - fast • Snapshots: Where countries stand on the environment • Eco-warriors: Fighting to save the planet • By Design: Ideas that can make a difference

In a pilot index gauging nations' environmental progress released by the World Economic Forum last month, richer nations dominated the top ranks. Not surprisingly, Japan led the pack in Asia. (It was placed among the second greenest of five clusters of nations.) Poorer countries such as India, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam were among the environmental stragglers. But that does not mean they are destined to endure decades of pollution until they grow rich. A World Bank report, "Greening Industry," identifies simple ways to bring about effective pollution control, especially in developing countries. Targeting corporate bottom lines is one. Government policies that make clean technology cheaper or pollution more expensive give business the incentive to clean up - fast.

Increasingly, though, many Asian corporations and communities don't need that kind of lesson. They see that the benefits of investing in the environment outweigh costs such as health care for pollution-related illnesses, loss of crops and cleanup efforts. Times are clearly changing. For more on how much and how effectively, read on.