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Summary China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), designed to build critical infrastructure and coordinate economic growth, is the most significant development initiative in modern history. The BRI has a documented vision for sustainability, including environmental impact assessments and responsibility tenets. Despite this, a growing body of literature has found adverse effects of BRI projects on protected land and species. To understand corporate responsibility and regulations for companies participating in the BRI, we gathered information on 260 BRI companies using the Refinitiv Eikon BRI Connect database and the China Global Investment Tracker. The results revealed a significant gap in corporate responsibility reporting for biodiversity impacts, environmental restoration, environmental project financing and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 14 ‘Life below Water’ and 15 ‘Life on Land’. The modest fraction of companies that we found to report biodiversity accountability highlights the need to restructure and incentivize the reporting of environmental and biodiversity risks. The current evidence of limited adherence to responsibility measures highlights a clear opportunity to align BRI development with the BRI’s vision for sustainability, and to strengthen links for policy engagement within Chinese regulatory frameworks and international obligations at the United Nations within its SDG framework.
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The Deforestation and Biodiversity Risks of Power Plant Projects in Southeast Asia: A Big Data Spatial Analytical Framework
Ecosystem destruction and biodiversity loss are now widespread, extremely rapid, and among the top global anthropogenic risks both in terms of likelihood and overall impact. Thorough impact evaluation of these environmental abuses—essential for conservation and future project planning—requires good analysis of local ecological and environmental data in addition to social and economic impacts. We characterized the deforestation and biodiversity impacts of energy investments in Southeast Asia using multiple geospatial data sources related to forest cover and loss data from 2000 to 2018, other landcover data, and the location, type, and characteristics of energy investments. This study paid particular attention to different types of power plants and financing sources. We identified critical buffer zones and forest structures impacted by these projects in accordance with IUCN criteria and spatial ecology. The paper introduces a novel, replicable analytical framework that goes beyond earlier studies in which all forests are treated as equivalent. It characterizes forests based on spatial morphological structures such as core forest, edges, islands, and bridges, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of deforestation and its impacts on biodiversity. Preliminary findings suggest that projects financed by Chinese development banks pose different risks compared to non-Chinese financing. The study also reveals significant differences in biodiversity impacts based on the type of energy source, be it coal or hydro. The study offers critical insights into the trade-offs between energy development and biodiversity conservation. It provides actionable metrics and strategies for policymakers, conservationists, and development banks to prioritize forest and habitat preservation in Southeast Asia and globally.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2209284
- PAR ID:
- 10519258
- Publisher / Repository:
- MDPI
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Sustainability
- Volume:
- 15
- Issue:
- 19
- ISSN:
- 2071-1050
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 14461
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- sustainability IUCN Red List investment forest morphology geospatial analysis
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914461
