The environmental implications of Asia's 1997 financial crisis

This article assesses the environmental implications of the Asian financial crisis in South-East Asia and Melanesia, covering the period from mid-1997 until early 1999. It examines the implications for agricultural developmen t, natural resource management, industrial pollution, corporate activities, and slate environment budgets and implementation. It shows that the crisis has contributed to extensive environmental changes. There are, however, co nsiderable variations across sectors,areas, and rime. For some environmenta l issues, such as water quality and conservation, the crisis has (in some i nstances) aggravated environmental mismanagement in the immediate term. In others, such as agriculture, plantations, and fisheries, it has created pow erful incentives to expand export-oriented production to earn foreign excha nge. And in still others, most notably commercial timber and urban air poll ution, it has created temporary respites and windows of opportunity for env ironmental reformers, although if reforms are unsuccessful, environmental m anagement is likely to worsen in the long term. Finally, the article points to the need for further research to help the countries of the Asia-Pacific address the immediate and future implications of the present crisis, as we ll as build a set of analytical tools for policymakers, donors, and develop ment specialists to analyse the environmental implications of globalisation as well as future financial crises.