Tuesday, 12 May 2020
New research has found that not enough is being done by financiers of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to put in place safeguards to protect critical wildlife habitats.
The research carried out by the University of Queensland and University of Nottingham Malaysia found that few financiers funding the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI), a massive international infrastructure programme, require biodiversity safeguards. The research has just been published in Nature Sustainability.
BRI is China’s ambitious regional connectivity initiative encompassing thousands of transport, energy and industrial infrastructure projects being built along eight trans-national corridors spanning 70 countries in the Asian, European and African continents and their adjacent seas.
“The six terrestrial infrastructure corridors envisaged under BRI crisscross some of the most ecologically-fragile geographies in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and South Asia,” said Divya Narain, a PhD candidate at the UQ Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science who led the study. “We argue for best-practice mitigation measures to be put in place by BRI’s financiers as the initiative risks having an irreversible impact on global biodiversity”
Our analysis finds that the road and rail routes of the initiative potentially affect 150,000 sq. km. of critical habitat. Financier safeguards can act as an important line of defense against construction-induced effects on biodiversity.
“We compiled a list of BRI’s financiers and scrutinized their policies for enforceable requirements to protect biodiversity,” explained Ms. Narain. “However, most financiers of BRI are yet to put in place binding biodiversity impact mitigation requirements. The considerable biodiversity impact of the infrastructure projects could remain unmitigated.”
“Safeguards of multi-lateral development banks (MDBs) offer international best practice that has evolved over decades,” noted Professor Martine Maron who co-authored the study. “International best-practice requires a ‘net gain’ of biodiversity in cases where there are impacts upon critical habitat. Strong safeguards such as this are especially important for projects that potentially damage large areas of essential biodiversity habitat.”
“Co-financing by MDBs offers the opportunity for transfer of best practice to financiers who lack biodiversity safeguards, through capacity building and technical assistance,” added Prof. Maron.
Story credits
More information is available from alex.lechner@nottingham.edu.my or Jane Icke, Media Relations Manager for the Faculty of Science at the University of Nottingham on jane.icke@nottingham.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
More news…