A Political Economy of Environmental Impact Assessment in the Mekong Region

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a central process in sustainable development to reduce and mitigate anticipated impacts of development projects. Every national government in the region has or is in the process of developing specific legislation on EIA and related environmental governance issues. Yet despite the fact that significant environmental impacts may occur across borders, no regional EIA agreements have yet been passed and implemented. Why is this so? Explanations offered to date for the ineffectiveness of regional cooperation centre around a perceived "lack of political will" and "local pressures and issues" (Baird, 2014: 30-31). This finding provides an excellent starting point for analysis from a political economy perspective. Rather than falling back on a black-box explanation of "political will" (Green, 2009), a political economy approach seeks to understand what factors are driving or blocking proposed reforms, and what can be done to affect the situation.