[Senate Hearing 113-150]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
S. Hrg. 113-150
REBALANCE TO ASIA III: PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENSURING FOOD AND
WATER SECURITY IN EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EAST ASIAN
AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JULY 24, 2013
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey, Chairman
BARBARA BOXER, California BOB CORKER, Tennessee
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho
JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire MARCO RUBIO, Florida
CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
TOM UDALL, New Mexico JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
TIM KAINE, Virginia RAND PAUL, Kentucky
EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts
Daniel E. O'Brien, Staff Director
Lester E. Munson III, Republican Staff Director
------------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut MARCO RUBIO, Florida
BARBARA BOXER, California RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
TOM UDALL, New Mexico JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Beck, Hon. Gregory, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia, U.S.
Agency for International Development, Washington, DC........... 12
Prepared statement........................................... 14
Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., U.S. Senator from Maryland, opening
statement...................................................... 1
Economy, Elizabeth C., Ph.D., C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and
Director for Asian Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, New
York, NY....................................................... 35
Prepared statement........................................... 38
Reifsnyder, Hon. Daniel A., Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of
Oceans and International Environmental and Science Affairs,
U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC....................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Roberts, Carter, Chief Executive Officer, World Wildlife Fund,
Washington, DC................................................. 25
Prepared statement........................................... 27
(iii)
REBALANCE TO ASIA III: PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENSURING FOOD AND
WATER SECURITY IN EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
----------
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2013
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs,
Committee on Foreign Relations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:02 p.m., in
room SD-419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Benjamin L.
Cardin, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding.
Members present: Senators Cardin and Markey.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MARYLAND
Senator Cardin. Let me welcome everyone to this hearing of
the subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the
third in our series on the Rebalance to Asia. Let me just
observe, I just came from lunch at the State Department with
the President of Vietnam, and I think that underscores the
administration's commitment to the Rebalance to Asia. The
relationship between the United States and Vietnam has gotten
much stronger in the last decade. It is a remarkable change in
a relatively short time.
The trade minister was also there, who has been negotiating
with our trade minister, USTR, on the TPP. So clearly the Asian
countries are focused on the United States and on developing
stronger strategic relationships with the United States.
Our first hearing dealt with good governance and human
rights. We also dealt with security issues. We had a chance to
talk to the President of Vietnam about human rights, good
governance, and on maritime security issues, which are
obviously very, very important issues.
This hearing is going to concentrate on the economic
priorities related to environmental protection and food and
water security in the East Asia-Pacific region. In June we
celebrated Oceans Month and were reminded that protecting the
environment and preserving our natural resources is a challenge
we must address locally, nationally, and globally. As chair of
the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and
Wildlife, I have dedicated a significant amount of my time and
energy to advancing domestic priorities that protect the
Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay is a precious resource not
just to the people of Maryland and to this region, but indeed
to our entire Nation, and it has global significance.
In my role as a member of this committee, I have supported
efforts to ensure my grandchildren inherit a clean and healthy
Earth. As President Obama noted in his recent climate action
plan, we have a moral obligation to leave our children a
healthier planet.
But environmental protection is not just about our moral
obligation to future generations. It is also about advancing
our current national security and economic interests. The
devastating impacts of climate change and environmental
degradation have touched every corner of the Earth, sending
shock waves that have reverberated in communities from the
Eastern Shore of Maryland to the peaceful plains of middle
America, to the pastoral communities of Africa, to low-lying
islands in the Asia-Pacific.
Regardless of what any of us may think about the scientific
evidence of climate change, one thing is clear: The security
and economic impacts of climate-induced shocks and
environmental degradation are significant.
For decades, the United States national security and
intelligence community have documented the strategic and
economic importance of promoting smart sustainable development,
protecting the environment, and addressing the global problems
of climate change, particularly in the East Asia and Pacific
region.
Some observers have criticized the Rebalance to Asia policy
for not focusing on the environment and related food and water
security issues. However, recent reports and public statements
by administration officials have underscored the view that
helping the East Asia-Pacific region address environmental
challenges is essential for preventing future conflicts and
instability and advancing our economic interests in the region.
Just last month, Adm. Samuel Locklear III, the Commander of
the U.S. Pacific Command, eloquently conveyed the national
security and economic impacts of climate shock, noting that
over the past 4 years, nearly 278,000 people were killed in the
region due to natural disasters and over half a million
displaced and more than $800 billion lost in economic
productivity.
In April during his trip to Japan, Secretary of State Kerry
spoke of the need for sustainable fisheries, problems related
to illegal mining and logging, and the need for innovative
global enforcement mechanisms in the region. In this region,
each nation's environmental and natural resource consumption
practices can negatively affect its neighbors and climate
change impacts are felt across the region. Rivers that provide
water for drinking, irrigation, industry, and ecosystems are
stressed by increased demands, pollution, and dams.
China's damming upstream of the Mekong River for hydropower
projects has led to agricultural and water supply problems for
downstream countries. Growing material demands, wealth, and
poor development strategies have led to illegal wildlife trade,
excessive commercial logging, deforestation, threatening native
elephants, rhinoceros, and other species.
The competition for energy and economic resources,
including overfishing, has sparked rising tensions in disputed
waters in the South and East China Seas. I already mentioned
the fact that maritime security issues are one of our greatest
threats to regional security and stability. We are all
concerned that one of these minor flareups could end up causing
a major problem in the region.
Rising sea levels in the Pacific Ocean, home to the world's
largest garbage patch of over 3.5 million tons of trash and
pollutants, threaten to degrade the water supply, disrupt
agriculture and food security, deplete marine life,
biodiversity, impact tourism, and displace millions, including,
according to the Department of Defense, our own U.S. military
installations.
Forest fires in Indonesia create a haze which devastates
the air quality of neighboring countries. Air quality in China
is a challenge of epic proportions. During my trip to Beijing
in June, I did not have an opportunity to see the sun, and
there were no clouds. You can see the air pollution in China.
It has become not only a real problem as a health issue,
including our own Embassy personnel concerned about its impact
on their children, their ability to live in Beijing safely; it
has also become a very political problem because the people of
China see the problem every day and they are expecting their
government to do something about it.
In fact, China is doing something about it. They recognized
that this is a growing problem and it looks like they are
preparing to take steps to do something about it. There was a
recent press report that we received today indicating that they
are prepared to take some pretty dramatic steps to deal with
the source of pollution and to show real leadership.
We are pleased that the United States and China entered
into a working agreement on climate change and we look forward
to seeing how that will produce results, not only for China and
the United States, but as a model for the region.
We have at least one model for success in the region.
Singapore is a trailblazer, a model for good environmental
governance, for smart sustainable development. Over the past 40
years, during a period of tremendous industrial growth,
Singapore has invested in proactive government reforms to
implement best practices in environmental planning. Despite
water scarcity, population growth, and rising sea-level
challenges, those reforms have made Singapore cleaner, greener,
and more prosperous, and they inform regional dialogue on
environmental issues within ASEAN.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses not only about
the challenges, but also the partnership opportunities to
advance best practices and develop innovative, economically
friendly solutions to these challenges.
I expect that the ranking member of the committee, Senator
Rubio, who has been a real partner in developing the agenda of
our Rebalance to Asia in this subcommittee, will be joining us
shortly. He indicated to me he may be a little bit late getting
here. He encouraged me to start the hearing so that we would
not inconvenience the witnesses and those that are here. So we
will do exactly that, and I will yield to Senator Rubio when he
arrives.
So let me introduce our first panel. On our first panel, we
are pleased to have with us: Dan Reifsnyder as Deputy Assistant
Secretary for the Bureau of Oceans and International
Environmental and Scientific Affairs. Can you get that all on
one card? [Laughter.]
I am amazed at the titles that we give everyone today. But
anyway, we appreciate the work that you do. You have held that
position since August 2006, and are responsible for overseeing
many issues related to environmental protection and
conservation, from the forests to the wetlands to the coral
reefs.
In his prior role as the Director of the Office of Global
Change, he developed and implemented U.S. policy and global
climate change. You are a real expert in this area and it is a
pleasure to have you with us.
Our second witness is the Honorable Gregory Beck. As Deputy
Assistant Administrator of USAID for Asia, he has oversight
responsibility for all of USAID programming in East Asia,
Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. He has over 15 years of
senior-level leadership experience in development and in
conflict and post-conflict environments, including in Asia.
So, gentlemen, it is a pleasure to have both of you before
the committee. Your entire statements will be made part of our
record and you may proceed as you wish.
STATEMENT OF HON. DANIEL A. REIFSNYDER, DEPUTY ASSISTANT
SECRETARY, BUREAU OF OCEANS AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND
SCIENCE AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Reifsnyder. Thank you and good afternoon, Chairman
Cardin and other members of the Subcommittee on East Asia and
Pacific Affairs. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before
you today to testify on the important foreign policy and
security issue of protecting the environment in the context of
the administration's Rebalance to Asia.
The United States has a long and rich history of strategic
engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific on a
multilateral, regional, and bilateral basis, and the
administration's rebalance moves us strategically toward even
deeper relations with these countries. Their geopolitical and
economic landscape makes it imperative that we address mutual
challenges. Issues such as climate change, water, and
conservation are beyond the reach and power of any one nation
to address.
In the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and
Scientific Affairs, we are working to advance cooperation with
countries in the Asia-Pacific region to help solve these
difficult problems. I would like to provide you with a few
concrete examples.
During the first high-level meeting this month of the U.S.-
China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, the Climate Change
Working Group agreed to focus on five new ambitious
initiatives. Their goals include: reducing emissions from
heavy-duty and other vehicles; increasing carbon capture,
utilization, and storage; increasing energy efficiency in
buildings, industry, and transport; improving greenhouse gas
data collection and management; and promoting smart grids.
Second, in my written testimony I highlighted the
announcement by President Obama and President Xi in June to
phase down the consumption and production of
hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. Such a global phasedown could
potentially reduce some 90 gigatons of carbon dioxide
equivalent by 2050.
With China's support, we hope soon to amend the Montreal
Protocol to begin phasing down HFCs and to stimulate the use of
better alternatives. We very much appreciate the letter that
you, Senator Cardin, sent to President Obama on June 5
advocating just such an agreement between the United States and
China.
Third, in addition to the work with China, we are also
assisting a number of developing countries in Asia to create
and implement ``low-emission development strategies.'' Already,
developing countries account for the majority of greenhouse gas
emissions and these emissions only increase without concerted
action to decouple them from economic growth. These strategies
enable developing countries to chart pathways to economic
growth that reduce emissions over the long term while also
achieving domestic growth objectives.
Three other examples I would like to highlight quickly
focus on water, forests, and wildlife trafficking. The lack of
access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation in the Asia-
Pacific region continues to be a major cause of illness. We are
taking steps to increase access to safe drinking water and
sanitation, improve water resources management, increase the
productivity of water resources, and mitigate tensions
associated with shared waters.
We are also collaborating with partners throughout the
Asia-Pacific to conserve and sustainably manage their forests,
supporting our climate change, biodiversity and development
goals by working regionally and with key countries such as
Indonesia to strengthen forest mapping and science, combat
illegal logging, protect natural forests, and restore degraded
lands.
Turning to the last example, wildlife trafficking continues
to drive protected and endangered species to the brink of
extinction. The illegal trade, estimated to be between $7 and
$10 billion annually excluding timber and fish, undermines
conservation efforts, robs local communities that depend on
natural resources for their economic resource base, contributes
to the emergence and spread of disease, and threatens the rule
of law.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife
Enforcement Network, ASEAN-WEN, of which the United States is a
strong supporter, helps countries share information and
facilitate the exchange of regional best practices in combating
wildlife crimes. On July 1 President Obama signed an Executive
order to combat wildlife trafficking, putting in motion a
process to marshall new efforts and better coordinate our
existing efforts against wildlife crime.
In addition, a special session on wildlife trafficking was
held recently during the 2013 U.S.-China Strategic and Economic
Dialogue. Experts from multiple agencies met to review our
efforts to combat the global illegal trade in wildlife and
identify areas for increased cooperative efforts. The United
States is committed to working with China to address this
global challenge.
It is becoming more and more vital for the United States to
demonstrate our firm commitment to the Asia-Pacific through
engagement on a full range of issues important to countries in
the region. Achieving a sustainable environment in the Asia-
Pacific region requires the cooperation and commitment of all
countries.
I thank the chairman, the ranking member, and the
subcommittee's distinguished members for the opportunity to
testify and I will welcome your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Reifsnyder follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Daniel A. Reifsnyder
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Rubio, and members of the
subcommittee, thank you very much for inviting me here today to testify
on this important issue of protecting the environment in the context of
the Rebalance to Asia. I would also like to thank the committee for its
efforts to build bipartisan consensus to engage the Asia-Pacific region
and advance U.S. interests there. We value working with you and look
forward to continuing to work closely with you and other Members of
Congress in the future.
The Obama administration's ``rebalance'' to the Asia-Pacific region
is motivated by the desire to develop deeper and more wide-ranging
partnerships in a part of the world that is increasingly important to
American interests. The region, which is home to two-thirds of the
world's population and the world's fastest-growing economies, offers
increasing opportunities and challenges for U.S. strategic interests.
As such, the administration's rebalance to the region covers a range of
strategic objectives from deepening alliances and boosting economic
growth and trade, to expanding good governance, democracy, and human
rights. However, no rebalance policy would be complete without also
examining implications for efforts to protect the environment in the
Asia-Pacific region and to promote food, water, and climate security.
The East Asia and Pacific region is known for its vast natural
resources and biodiversity. Its economic growth has outpaced
environmental protection, which has led to negative impacts on the
region's fisheries and coral reefs, forests and grasslands, rivers,
lakes, and air. Though the region has made great strides to reduce
poverty, 1.2 billion people still live on less than US$2 a day,
according to the World Bank. At the same time, in the past decade some
countries in the region have lost 70 to 90 percent of their natural
wildlife habitat to agricultural and infrastructure development,
deforestation, land degradation, and climate change effects, while
demand for water has almost doubled. Populations of big mammals such as
elephants, tigers, bears, antelopes, and wild cattle, as well as marine
turtles, freshwater fish and amphibians have continued to decline over
the past decade. Many primate populations are in serious decline.
Much is at stake: communities across the region are experiencing
great changes from fast-paced economic growth averaging 5 to 7 percent
annually. Recent growth has reduced poverty and supported progress
toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Yet rapid growth,
urban migration, extensive new infrastructure, exploitation of raw
materials, and energy needs also jeopardize the region's natural
resource base, food security, and traditional livelihoods.
The United States has a long history of engagement with countries
in the Asia-Pacific on a bilateral and regional basis. The Bureau of
Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) at
the U.S. Department of State seeks to advance U.S. foreign policy goals
in the region in such critical areas as climate change, conservation,
and environmental quality, to name a few. In my testimony, I will focus
on several efforts the United States is undertaking in such areas as
climate change, water, and conservation, among others in East Asia and
the Pacific, and will highlight some examples of bilateral cooperation
efforts.
climate change initiatives and partnerships
Internationally, we have made strides in the U.N. Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) toward an approach in which all
major economies commit to reducing emissions, and we are working to
negotiate a global agreement by the end of 2015--to come into effect
post-2020--that is ambitious, flexible, and applicable to all.
Through the Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI) and other
climate-related U.S. Government programs, the United States is
integrating climate change considerations into relevant foreign
assistance programs through the full range of multilateral, bilateral,
and private mechanisms to foster low-carbon growth, promote sustainable
and resilient societies, and reduce emissions from deforestation and
land degradation.
Through the GCCI's Sustainable Landscapes pillar and related
projects, the United States works with partners to reduce emissions
from the land sector, and especially from deforestation. These efforts
are undertaken in order to help stabilize temperatures while conserving
biodiversity, protecting watersheds, and improving livelihoods of
vulnerable populations. For example, the United States provides support
to, and sits on the governing body of, the Forest Carbon Partnership
Facility (FCPF). The FCPF is a multidonor trust fund housed at the
World Bank that supports countries to develop and implement their own
strategy to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
(REDD+). The United States also supports, and sits on the governing
body of the Forest Investment Program (FIP). This multidonor trust
fund, also housed at the World Bank, assists eight pilot countries in
implementing elements of their REDD+ strategies. The Asia-Pacific
region is prominent in each of these global initiatives. Cambodia,
Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Papua New Guinea,
Thailand, Vanuatu, and Vietnam are all participants in, and recipients
of funding from, the FCPF. Indonesia and Lao People's Democratic
Republic are FIP pilot countries. Through the GCCI's adaptation pillar
and related projects, the United States works to help low-income
countries reduce their vulnerability to climate change impacts in a
variety of multilateral, regional, and bilateral contexts. The Asia-
Pacific region figures prominently in these GCCI activities because of
its high levels of vulnerability, as well as its strategic importance
for U.S. economic and security interests.
Another example of U.S. engagement in multilateral adaptation
initiatives is our support for enhanced action on adaptation in
vulnerable countries through contributions to two multilateral
adaptation funds overseen by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The
United States is one of the largest donors to the Least Developed
Countries Fund (LDCF) and the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF),
multilateral funds created under the UNFCCC. The Asia-Pacific region
has benefited greatly from both multilateral funds. As of May 2013,
Asia and the Pacific had accessed 29 percent of total LDCF resources
approved (roughly US$160 million). For the SCCF, the largest share, or
30 percent, of financing had been directed toward Asia.
Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC)
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition is a voluntary, collaborative
global partnership uniting governments, intergovernmental
organizations, the private sector, and civil society to quickly reduce
short-lived climate pollutants such as methane, black carbon, and many
hydrofluorocarbons. Actions can be undertaken now using current
technologies. Major efforts include reducing methane and black carbon
from waste and landfills; avoiding methane leakage, venting, and
flaring from oil and gas production; phasing down hydrofluorocarbons
through new technologies; and addressing black carbon from brick kilns
and diesel engines.
In the Asia-Pacific region the Coalition's members include
Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea (Bangladesh
and the Maldives are also members from Asia). In February 2013, the
Coalition held a regional intergovernmental consultation in Bangkok for
the Asia-Pacific region. Led by the environment ministers of
Bangladesh, Nepal, and Maldives and the vice-minister of Japan, over
100 participants from 19 Asia-Pacific countries, development
organizations, CCAC partners, scientists, and NGOs participated. CCAC
is actively working with additional countries, including Indonesia, at
the subnational level though CCAC initiatives such as municipal solid
waste management.
Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS)
One of our premier international climate activities involves
support for ``low emission development strategies,'' or LEDS, in over
20 different developing countries. LEDS provide a framework for
developing countries to address poverty and development concerns, while
simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In many cases,
identifying cleaner domestic energy opportunities or finding energy
efficiencies accelerates economic growth. In Asia, our assistance is
two-pronged. First, we provide bilateral assistance to Cambodia,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam through the Enhancing
Capacity for Low Emission Development Strategies (EC-LEDS) program.
Second, we provide multilateral assistance through the LEDS Global
Partnership, a largely U.S.-supported platform which provides a space
for countries to share knowledge and best practices on LEDS.
Pacific Islands Small Developing States (PSIDS)
From a regional standpoint, the Pacific Small Island Developing
States (PSIDS), in particular, are especially vulnerable to the impacts
of climate change. They are small in size, have limited human,
economic, and natural resources, including freshwater supplies, and are
located in areas frequently prone to natural disasters, with much of
the population living within 1.5 kilometers of the shore. We are
supporting efforts to enhance the scientific and technical capacity of
governments, regional and local institutions, and communities in the
PSIDS to: understand, forecast, and use climate information to
strengthen the adaptive capacity of key sectors, and, to access and
effectively utilize adaptation financing. We are also supporting the
Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the Secretariat of the Pacific
Regional Environment Program to implement adaptation activities in
local communities across the region to strengthen their food security
and water resilience in the face of climate change and variability.
China
With regard to our bilateral efforts in the East Asia and Pacific
region, on July 10 and 11, 2013, Secretary Kerry hosted the Fifth Round
of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED). This year
there was a strong focus on climate change, with the recognition that
both countries need to do more given that together the United States
and China are responsible for the lion's share of global emissions.
Secretary Kerry elevated climate change in the U.S.-China relationship
in April on his first trip to Beijing as Secretary of State, where he
issued a Joint Statement creating a Climate Change Working Group tasked
with developing large-scale cooperative action and presenting its
recommendations at the S&ED. Essentially, the Working Group developed a
set of new initiatives to help address major sources of emissions in
the United States and China. The Working Group also emphasized the need
to work together in fora like the U.N. climate negotiations, the
Montreal Protocol, and the Major Economies Forum.
The Working Group Report highlighted the agreement announced by
President Obama and President Xi in June on the goal of phasing down
hydrofluorocarbons. Given the enormous climate benefits of acting
quickly on hydrofluorocarbons, this can only be seen as China stepping
forward and helping lead the global effort on climate change. Building
on existing bilateral cooperation, the Working Group and the S&ED have
put U.S.-China relations on climate change on even firmer footing.
Indonesia
Indonesia is a leader in REDD+, with President Yudhoyono having
committed to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,
largely from the land sector. To achieve this, Indonesia is creating a
series of REDD+ institutions to help implement a national REDD+
strategy. The second Indonesia Tropical Forest Conservation Act program
is supporting the reduction of emissions from two heavily forested
districts in East Kalimantan, developing new strategies for development
on lower emissions trajectories. The United States supports additional
work on REDD+ in Indonesia in areas such as forest mapping and
monitoring; peatland emissions and fires; low emissions rural
development options; and measuring, reporting, and verifying emissions.
We have provided support to launch the Indonesia Climate Change Center,
and are working with Indonesia on LEDS.
Korea
Korea has stepped up its international efforts to address climate
change. It has housed the Secretariat of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) Climate Center since the organization's
establishment in 2005. In 2012, the board of the UNFCCC's Green Climate
Fund (GCF) voted to locate the Fund's headquarters in Songdo, Korea.
The Republic of Korea (ROK) is now focused on implementing the GCF's
mandate, which is to provide assistance to developing countries to help
them limit their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts
of climate change. The ROK also cooperates with the United States and
other governments and organizations in the CCAC working to reduce
short-lived climate pollutants such as methane, black carbon, and many
hydrofluorocarbons.
forest initiatives and partnerships
As the United States works to assist the Asia-Pacific region in
meeting its growing energy, infrastructure, and agricultural needs in a
climate-smart way, we are also working to prevent or minimize impacts
on ecosystems, and particularly natural habitats such as biodiverse
tropical forests. We work regionally to promote conservation and to
address forest issues through the Responsible Asian Forestry and Trade
(RAFT) initiative, the Forest Legality Alliance (FLA), the APEC Experts
Group on Illegal Logging and Associated Trade, and the International
Tropical Timber Organization.
Illegal logging is one such forest issue that poses a significant
challenge in the region. It robs countries, impoverishes forest
communities, and puts money in the pockets of criminals. It undermines
sustainable forest management, destroying forests, watersheds and
habitat. And it unfairly competes with legal production and trade, and
has even been used to fuel conflict and purchase arms. The United
States supports efforts to combat illegal logging and associated trade,
and to promote trade in legally harvested forest products through a
multifaceted approach in partnership with other governments, such as
China and Indonesia, the private sector, civil society, and
international organizations.
We also work to implement the Lacey Act, a wildlife protection
statute first enacted in 1900 and amended by Congress in 2008 to expand
protections to plants and plant products.
Multilaterally, we work to address illegal logging in cooperation
with other governments and stakeholders through the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the
International Tropical Timber Organization, the United Nations Forum on
Forests, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the U.N. Office of
Drugs and Crime.
Regionally in Asia, we participate in three key initiatives:
The APEC Forum Experts Group on Illegal Logging and
Associated Trade, which we worked with the Government of
Indonesia and others to establish in 2011. The group includes
representatives of trade, forestry, and other ministries to
combat illegal logging and associated trade, promote trade in
legally harvested forest products, and support capacity
building activities.
The FLA, a public-private partnership to reduce demand for
illegally harvested forest products and increase industry
capacity to supply legally harvested forest products.
The RAFT Program, which has assisted in the development of
timber legality assurance and chain of custody systems and has
helped to bring 1.2 million hectares of tropical forest under
Forest Stewardship Council certification.
China
The United States works bilaterally with China under a formal
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to Combat Illegal Logging and
Associated Trade. The United States and China have achieved a more open
and constructive dialogue and relationship on illegal logging since the
signing of the MOU in May 2008. Discussions about the importance of
private sector and civil society engagement under the MOU have also
progressed significantly as there is mutual recognition that in the
forest sector, civil society and industry are key players. China is
actively promoting voluntary best practices guidelines for its private
forestry firms operating overseas and making progress on its wood
legality verification initiative.
The Philippines
We have recently signed agreements for a second Tropical Forest
Conservation Act debt for nature deal with the Philippines, which will
primarily focus on forest conservation and REDD+ activities. These
agreements, along with other U.S. efforts, will support the Philippine
national government's efforts to reduce emissions from forest loss.
Together these efforts are providing significant assistance to
conserve, maintain, and restore tropical forests in the Philippines.
Burma
Burma holds the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
chairmanship in 2014 and the government has stated it plans to focus on
the environment. Sustainable development and good management of Burma's
rich natural resources will be critical for its stability and success,
and will provide opportunities to encourage Burmese civil society and
government officials to implement best practices and promote sound
environmental stewardship in conjunction with economic growth and
increased investment. We are supporting NGO efforts to reform the
timber production sector and combat illegal logging in Burma.
water initiatives and partnerships
Collectively, the Asia-Pacific region has already met the 2015
Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of people unable to
reach or afford access to safe water. That said, 65 percent of the
population lacks access to piped water supplies and over 1.7 billion
people in the Asia-Pacific region lack access to sanitation. The lack
of access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation continue to be a
major source of illness within the region.
As Secretary Kerry said during his chairmanship of the July 1,
2013, Lower Mekong Initiative and Friends of the Lower Mekong
Ministerial Meetings in Brunei, ``[the Mekong] is a special river. It
sustains the lives of over 70 million people. And it is a powerful
economic engine that connects the peoples of these countries.'' The
countries of the Mekong Basin are increasingly considering hydropower
as a solution to their growing energy needs. However, construction of
dams on the Mekong River poses immediate and long-term threats to food
security and livelihoods.
Major infrastructure projects, like dams, are ultimately sovereign
decisions that the countries themselves need to make. We are, however,
conscious of both the potential negative impacts these projects can
have and the opportunities they hold to promote cooperation and
regional integration. In the case of the Mekong, we believe greater
U.S. diplomatic and technical engagement could help strengthen existing
regional institutions (like the Mekong River Commission) and drive the
region toward better decisionmaking around large-scale infrastructure.
With plans drafted, and construction already underway, the region has a
narrow window of time to get this right. Smart, sustainable development
is the key; deliberative, transparent, scientifically based
decisionmaking benefits all.
The Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI)
Launched by former Secretary Clinton in 2009 to foster cooperation
and capacity-building among the lower Mekong countries--Burma,
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam--the Lower Mekong Initiative
(LMI) has become a meaningful platform for engaging these countries on
important transnational challenges such as shared water resource
management. LMI's Environment and Water Pillar, chaired by Vietnam,
works to advance economic growth and sustainable development through
transnational policy dialogues and programs to improve the management
of water and natural resources. The Environment and Water pillar works
through three key themes: Disaster Risk Reduction, Water Security, and
Natural Resource Conservation and Management.
conservation initiatives and partnerships
Wildlife Trafficking
Wildlife trafficking continues to drive protected and endangered
species to the brink of extinction. The illegal trade, estimated to be
between US$7-10 billion annually (excluding timber and fish),
undermines conservation efforts, robs local communities that depend on
natural resources of their economic resource base, contributes to the
emergence and spread of disease, and threatens the rule of law. Asian
countries are range, transit, and consumer states, linked by multiple
transportation routes, methods, and facilitators. In recent years,
demand for ivory and rhino horn has skyrocketed. The scale of the
illegal wildlife trade in Asia indicates serious corruption at various
levels of government, including wildlife authorities and customs
officials themselves, throughout the smuggling chain. Officially
launched in 2005, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife
Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), comprising law enforcement agencies of
the 10 ASEAN countries (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand), helps
countries share information and facilitate the exchange of regional
best practices in combating wildlife crimes.
In 2012, the APEC Leaders and Foreign and Environment Ministers
condemned wildlife trafficking and urged members to cooperate to
counter this crime. We are seeking continued strong statements in the
2013 outcome documents and have proposed specific workshop activities.
This past July 1, President Obama signed an Executive order to combat
wildlife trafficking, putting in motion a process to marshal new
efforts and to better coordinate our existing efforts against wildlife
crime. A special session on wildlife trafficking was held recently
during the 2013 U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Experts
from multiple agencies met to review our efforts to combat the global
illegal trade in wildlife and identify areas for increased cooperative
efforts. The United States is committed to working with China to
address this global challenge.
The Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI)
The Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) highlights the importance of a
regional approach to issues that transcend the national borders of
Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands,
and Timor-Leste: coral reef and marine conservation, food security and
adaptation to climate change. Goals include establishing sustainable
ecosystem-based fisheries management for food security and livelihoods,
strengthening resilience and adaptation to climate change, designating
and effectively managing priority seascapes, establishing networks of
marine protected areas, and conserving threatened marine species. The
United States Government was the first financial supporter and partner
to the CTI. The U.S. team providing support to the CTI involves the
State Department, USAID, NOAA, a consortium of NGOs, and a contractor
which functions as the Program Integrator. Altogether, U.S. Government
support totals more than $60 million.
marine environment and fisheries
In the Pacific, as elsewhere, the United States has been at the
forefront of efforts to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems, assess if
certain fishing practices may significantly harm these ecosystems, and
develop effective conservation and management measures for these
fisheries to prevent such harm or halt fishing in these areas. To
promote these objectives, and to provide opportunities for U.S. fishing
vessels to participate in certain high seas fisheries, we have
successfully negotiated two new fisheries agreements that are now
pending before the Senate, one for the North Pacific Ocean and one for
the South Pacific Ocean. We urge the Senate to consider these two
treaties and two other fisheries treaties that are also before the
Senate, with a view to providing advice and consent to their
ratification this session.
The Multilateral Treaty on Fisheries between the Governments of
Certain Pacific Island States and the Government of the United States
(a.k.a. the South Pacific Tuna Treaty) remains a cornerstone of our
economic and political relationship with the 16 states of the Pacific
Island Forum. The Economic Assistance Agreement associated with the
treaty remains a primary source of economic development funds for the
Pacific Island States. Recently, we reached agreement on an interim
arrangement to extend the operation of the treaty for 18 months,
through December 2014, while negotiations for a longer term extension
continue.
trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
The United States views the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a
regional trade agreement that it is negotiating with Australia, Brunei,
Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico, Canada,
and Japan, as a unique opportunity to tackle trade-related
environmental challenges, including harmful illegal wildlife and wild
plant trade, in the Asia-Pacific region.
The United States has proposed a TPP environment chapter that
includes, among other things:
An obligation to maintain measures against trading across
TPP borders in products harvested or exported in violation of
national laws that seek to protect wildlife, forest, or living
marine resources. Such provisions would reflect and enhance
recent trends in a number of countries to restrict trade in
products that have been illegally obtained.
Mechanisms for cooperation among TPP regulatory and law
enforcement
authorities in implementing antitrafficking obligations,
including participation in and establishment of regional law
enforcement networks.
Commitments to develop and strengthen mechanisms for
cooperating and consulting with interested nongovernmental
entities in order to enhance implementation of measures to
combat trade in illegally taken wild fauna and flora, including
with respect to voluntary forest certification mechanisms.
Republic of Korea
The United States and the ROK signed an Environmental Cooperation
Agreement (ECA) on January 23, 2012, pursuant to provisions in the
environment chapter of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. The ECA
established the U.S.-Korea Environmental Cooperation Commission (ECC),
which held its first meeting in February this year. The Environmental
Cooperation Work Program approved by the ECC identifies priorities for
cooperative activities is areas such as strengthening environmental
protection; promoting public awareness of environmental and resource
conservation issues; protecting wildlife and sustainably managing
ecosystems and natural resources; sustainably managing ports and
maritime vessels; and promoting environmentally sustainable cities and
the use of cleaner energy sources.
Singapore
The United States and Singapore have a Memorandum of Intent on
Environmental Cooperation, which was negotiated in 2003 in parallel
with the Free Trade Agreement. We are actively engaged with Singapore
in environmental cooperation activities, including exchanging best
practices in water management, climate change adaptation strategies,
enforcement of environmental laws, and energy efficiency, among others.
On June 27, 2013, Singapore's national water agency, the Public
Utilities Board (PUB) and the United States Environmental Protection
Agency signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Sustainable Urban
Water Management. Through this MOU, both countries will strengthen
their cooperation on water management issues by working together on
safe drinking water research, watershed management, research and
development for innovative water and wastewater treatment, water reuse,
and other areas of mutual interest.
conclusion
In conclusion, it is becoming more and more important for the
United States to demonstrate our firm commitment to the Asia-Pacific
through engagement on a full range of issues important to countries in
the region, including the environmental issues I have mentioned today.
Achieving a sustainable environment in the Asia-Pacific region requires
the cooperation and commitment of all countries. The United States
continues to forge this cooperation and these commitments through a
variety of global, regional, and bilateral approaches.
I thank the chairman, the ranking member, and the subcommittee's
distinguished members, for the opportunity to testify, and I welcome
your questions.
Senator Cardin. Thank you very much.
Mr. Beck.
STATEMENT OF HON. GREGORY BECK, DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR
FOR ASIA, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT,
WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Beck. Chairman Cardin, thank you for the invitation to
testify on the administration's efforts to protect the
environment and promote food and water security in the Asia-
Pacific region. As part of the rebalance, a key economic and
national security priority, the administration has recognized
the need to preserve natural resources and promote sustainable
development in the region to ensure mutual prosperity,
progress, and security. Home to more than half of the world's
population, Asia is the fastest growing region in the world and
suffers from a lack of access to clean water and air,
inadequate food supplies, degradation of natural resources, and
loss of biodiversity.
The Asia-Pacific region already accounts for more than one-
quarter of global GDP, a number that is expected to rise
rapidly in the future. Asia's economic growth comes with an
increased demand for energy and land, which could in turn
increase greenhouse gas emissions and further threaten tropical
forests and marine ecosystems. The effects of these threats are
not limited to the Asia-Pacific region. Reports have shown that
air pollution emanating from Asia will cause the temperature in
the United States to rise as much, or even more, than all U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions. By some estimates, more than 10
billion pounds of airborne pollutants from Asia reach the
United States annually, that impacts the health and well-being
of American citizens.
These compelling needs require USAID assistance and support
to advance U.S. strategic interests. The Presidential global
climate change initiative invests in developing countries to
accelerate transitions to climate-resilient, low-emission
economic growth. During fiscal year 2013 USAID provided $334
million for this Presidential initiative, of which $65.4
million was for the Asia-Pacific region.
USAID's programs work on development strategies to reduce
emissions from deforestation and degradation, address the
impacts of climate change on agriculture and marine fisheries,
and protect biodiversity and wildlife through both the Lower
Mekong Initiative, or the LMI, and the Association for
Southeastern Asians, or ASEAN, and bilateral country programs.
I would like to take just a few moments to describe some of
these programs in further detail.
In 2010 the U.S. Government launched the Enhancing Capacity
for Low Emissions Development Strategies Program, a framework
for achieving economic and social development objectives while
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In East Asia we are
partnering with Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand,
and most recently Cambodia to help governments and institutions
plan for climate-resilient low-emissions development.
Regionally, we are focusing on reducing deforestation to
lower emissions through a program called Lowering Emissions in
Asia's Forests. Target countries include the countries of the
Lower Mekong River region, as well as Malaysia and Papua-New
Guinea, with potential for sharing best practices with other
countries across Asia. The regional program is working toward
improving the management of over 1 million hectares of forests
and reducing an estimated 15 million carbon dioxide equivalent
tons of emissions.
Global challenges require global responses and
participation from all sectors, public, private, and civil
society. The Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 is an example of a
public-private partnership to reduce tropical deforestation and
greenhouse gas emissions associated with key global
commodities, such as soy, beef, palm oil, pulp, and paper. It
is a whole of U.S. Government effort that works directly with
governments and producers and buyers of key commodities to end
the cutting of tropical forests for their production.
As environment, water, and food security issues extend
beyond national boundaries, it is also crucial to foster
regional cooperation through existing institutions such as
ASEAN, the Coral Triangle Initiative, the Mekong River
Commission, and LMI. For example, through LMI the Mekong
Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change Project focuses on
identifying the environmental, economic, and social effects of
climate change on the Lower Mekong River Basin, which sustains
the lives of over 70 million people and supports their ability
to adapt their livelihoods to climate change impacts on water
resources, agriculture systems, biodiversity, and ecosystems.
The CTI is a unique example of countries joining forces to
develop and implement regional solutions for regional problems.
This area in the Western Pacific Ocean is the world's most
biodiverse marine ecosystem, providing economic and food
security benefits to over 360 million people.
In January of this year, with support from USAID, senior
officials from the CTI countries signed a resolution to address
the negative impacts of an estimated yearly $1 billion fish
trade, a concrete step to support the sustainability of marine
resources.
Trafficking of wildlife, the third-largest area of illegal
trade after arms and drugs, also harms the environment by
exploiting natural resources and endangering threatened species
and ecosystems. Asia's Regional Response To Endangered Species
Trafficking, or ARREST, is USAID's flagship antiwildlife
trafficking program, working to strengthen law enforcement
capacity, reduce consumer demand, and promote regional
information-sharing and cooperation.
In conclusion, USAID will continue to emphasize cooperation
amongst countries and help build strong democratic processes
across the Asia-Pacific region for open dialogue and problem-
solving in relation to the environment and climate change.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your time and I look forward
to answering your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Beck follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Gregory Beck
Chairman Cardin, Senator Rubio, and distinguished members of the
committee, thank you for the invitation to testify on the
administration's efforts to protect the environment and promote food
and water security in the Asia-Pacific region. Today, I hope to share
with you how USAID is helping conserve water and food sources in the
region through programs which promote sustainable development. I will
also share details on our regional and bilateral efforts to reduce the
degradation of oceans, air, and forests.
As part of the rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, a key economic and
national security priority, the administration has recognized the need
to preserve the environment and protect food and water resources in the
region to ensure mutual prosperity, human progress, and security.
Within USAID, the Asia-Pacific region has been a focus for the
environment and food security given its rich areas of biodiversity and
growing populations. The Rebalance has sharpened our focus and
increased our investment in support of regional institutions and
initiatives such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI), and the Coral Triangle Initiative on
Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security.
Home to more than half the world's population, Asia is the fastest
growing region in the world and suffers from a lack of access to clean
water and air; inadequate food supplies; degradation of natural
resources; and loss of biodiversity--all of which undermine sustainable
development. The Asia-Pacific region already accounts for more than
one-quarter of global GDP, a number that is expected to rise. Asia's
economic growth comes with an increased demand for energy and land
which could, in turn, increase greenhouse gas emissions and further
threaten tropical forests and marine ecosystems. Climate change and its
impact on natural resources is affecting water and food supplies and
intensifying environmental and resource problems that communities are
already facing. More than a billion Asians are projected to suffer from
its adverse effects. At the same time, natural disasters are becoming
more frequent and more severe in Asia--an area of the world that
already experiences over 60 percent of the world's major natural
disasters. Future environmental threats to Asia are projected to be
significant, including more extreme weather and rising sea levels.
The effects of these threats are not limited to the Asia-Pacific
region. Reports have shown that air pollution emanating from Asia will
cause temperatures in the United States to rise as much, or even more,
than all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. By some estimates, more than 10
billion pounds of airborne pollutants from Asia, including soot,
mercury, and carbon dioxide, reach the U.S. annually, which impacts the
health and well-being of American citizens. Additionally, degradation
of fisheries in Asian waters impact supply in American markets.
These compelling needs require U.S. assistance and support to
advance our strategic interests. As the world becomes increasingly
interconnected, the U.S. Government, and specifically USAID, recognizes
that environmental conditions and people's access to natural resources
underlie efforts to achieve economic security, political stability, and
peace throughout the globe. If successful climate mitigation and
adaptation strategies are not adopted in the near term, hundreds of
millions of people will face increasing pressure on water resources;
damage to crops and housing; and exposure to extreme weather, diseases,
and pests. We know that the world's poorest will be the most affected
by these changes and USAID is working with our partners to mitigate
these effects and protect the environment, especially in the Asia-
Pacific region.
With a new emphasis on helping vulnerable communities build
resilience to natural disasters, the Presidential Global Climate Change
Initiative invests in developing countries to accelerate transitions to
climate-resilient, low-emission economic growth. During FY 2013, USAID
will provide $460.3 million for this Presidential Initiative, of which
$65.4 million is planned for the Asia-Pacific region.
As part of these efforts, USAID is implementing several programs
throughout the region to combat global climate change. For our work to
be relevant in the Asia-Pacific region, we are using a different
business model, one that emphasizes work with local partners so that we
enact solutions that are durable and sustainable. We recognize the need
for robust partnerships that can have national impact by focusing on
partnerships with the private sector, other donors, and host country
governments that leverage significant resources for transformational
impact. And we also rely on evidence-based development methods that
draw from advances in science, technology, and innovation. We are
implementing partnerships with American and Asian scientific and
academic institutions that are relevant to these complex challenges and
can build off of the latest research and technology.
Therefore, we are working in partnership with governments, civil
society, and the private sector, among other stakeholders, to find
alternative development pathways that lower greenhouse gas emissions
and increase the resilience of communities and economies to climate
change impacts. We are also working to help countries and communities
prepare for and adapt to climate change and extreme weather events.
Much of this work involves maintaining healthy forests, rivers, and
oceans to increase resilience to climate change.
USAID's programs include working with countries and the private
sector on low emission development strategies; reducing emissions from
deforestation and degradation; understanding the impacts of climate
change on agriculture and marine fisheries; protecting biodiversity,
including wildlife, through the LMI and ASEAN regional institutions;
bilateral programs in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines; and
the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, a public-private partnership working
to reduce global deforestation associated with key global commodities.
I would like to take a moment to describe some of these programs in
further detail.
enhancing capacity for low emission development
First, I'll talk about our efforts to promote climate-resilient,
low-emission development in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2010, the U.S.
Government launched the Enhancing Capacity for Low Emission Development
Strategies (EC-LEDS) program. A Low Emission Development Strategy
(LEDS), broadly defined, is a country's planning and implementation
framework that achieves economic and social development objectives
while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We are now partnering with 20
countries to help governments and institutions plan for climate-
resilient, low-emission development. In East Asia, partner countries
include Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and most recently
Cambodia, which signed on in June 2013. The EC-LEDS program is managed
by USAID and the U.S. Department of State, drawing upon experts from
the U.S. Government's Environmental Protection Agency and Departments
of Agriculture, Energy, and Treasury. Our partnership with the State
Department helps enhance key diplomatic relationships with partner
countries as we work to achieve an effective global approach for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions to levels that protect the climate
for our children and future generations.
Our regional mission in Bangkok is advancing countries' ability to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Low Emissions Asian
Development (LEAD) program. LEAD supports regional-level training,
technical assistance, knowledge-sharing, and partnership platforms to
advance the U.S. Government's international initiatives on LEDS. Among
its initial achievements, the LEAD program has successfully organized
and launched the LEDS partnership, a new flagship platform for several
hundred government and nongovernment practitioners in Asia to engage in
peer-learning, hands-on training, and knowledge-sharing on a range of
topics related to LEDS and green growth.
reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation
We are also working to reduce deforestation to avoid carbon dioxide
emissions while actively conserving remaining stands of natural
forests. Our activities target countries that are large-scale emitters
from deforestation, such as Indonesia; those with large existing stands
of forests, such as Cambodia; and those with the potential to reduce
carbon emissions through reforestation, such as the Philippines.
Indonesia is a major emitter of greenhouse gases because of
widespread forest clearance and burning of areas on peat soils for
plantation establishment. Just recently, Malaysia and Singapore were
affected by hazardous levels of air pollution from the illegal burning
of forests and peat lands in Indonesia. USAID is working to avoid such
emissions. The USAID Indonesia Forestry and Climate Support program is
an integrated climate change, sustainable forest management, and low
carbon emissions development activity that is implemented
collaboratively by the Governments of Indonesia and the United States.
It builds on 20 years of joint forest management efforts between the
two governments, and supports key climate change initiatives of the
Indonesian Government including its pledge to reduce emissions by 41
percent. The project also supports sustainable development of local
economies by engaging the private sector. Targeted results include a 6
million ton reduction in carbon dioxide emissions; improved management
of 3 million hectares of forest, including 1.7 million hectares in
priority orangutan habitat; and plans in 12 districts that incorporate
Strategic Environmental Assessment recommendations for forest and peat
land conservation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Regionally, we are focusing on reduced emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation through a program called Lowering Emissions in
Asia's Forests. This program is a regional technical assistance program
helping developing countries in the Lower Mekong to reduce emissions
from deforestation and forest degradation. Target countries include the
countries of the Lower Mekong River region (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand,
and Vietnam) as well as Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, with potential
for sharing best practices with other countries across Asia. The
regional program is working toward improving the management of over 1
million hectares of forests, reducing an estimated 15 million carbon
dioxide-equivalent tons of emissions, and supporting 25 institutions to
address climate change issues. The Lowering Emissions in Asia's Forests
program is also working to integrate gender considerations throughout
the program to empower 20 women leaders and to strengthen the role of
women in eight organizations across the region.
tropical forest alliance 2020
Global challenges like reducing emissions from deforestation
necessitate global responses. Such responses require participation from
all sectors: public, private, and civil society. The Tropical Forest
Alliance 2020, called TFA 2020 for short, is an example of a public-
private partnership to reduce the tropical deforestation and greenhouse
gas emissions associated with key global commodities, such as soy,
beef, palm oil, and pulp and paper. It is a whole of U.S. Government
effort, with USAID as lead, working closely with the State Department
and other departments and agencies. The significance of this alliance
is its ability to achieve scale in reducing deforestation and
associated greenhouse gas emissions. It will work directly with
governments in buying and producing countries, as well as the producers
and buyers of these commodities, to end the cutting of tropical forests
for commodity production. In June 2013, TFA 2020 held its first
workshop in Indonesia on palm oil and pulp and paper. This workshop was
an unprecedented opportunity as it brought together for the first time
private sector and civil society groups, often at odds with each other,
to discuss constructively the challenge of tropical deforestation and
how to address it. During this workshop, strong private sector
commitments were made to stop deforestation, and the Government of
Indonesia committed to protecting the rights of indigenous people
dependent on tropical forests.
food security
USAID efforts are also focused on strengthening food security by
improving the agricultural production of small-scale farmers. For
example, the Cambodia HARVEST program supports Cambodia's Millennium
Development Goal targets, including reducing extreme poverty and
hunger; ensuring environmental sustainability; enhancing agricultural
production; improving harvest yields and distribution; increasing
access to food; and improving resource management and resilience.
HARVEST--which stands for Helping Address Rural Vulnerabilities and
Ecosystem Stability--integrates two Presidential Initiatives: Feed the
Future and Global Climate Change. In Cambodia's Pursat province, the
program helped poor women by providing business opportunities,
promoting the use of sustainable products and offering environmentally
friendly alternatives to traditional income-generating activities such
as logging and charcoalmaking. This effort helps communities protect
their forest resources through a variety of activities, including tree
nurseries, wood lots, and agroforestry, while providing a source of
income for villagers. For example, the project helped the Ou Baktra
Community Forest by planting 2,000 seedlings in an effort to restore
partially degraded forest areas.
regional cooperation on environment, water and food security
As environment, water, and food security issues extend beyond
bilateral boundaries, it is also crucial to foster regional cooperation
through existing institutions such as ASEAN, the Coral Triangle
Initiative, the Mekong River Commission, and LMI. Through these
regional bodies, we can facilitate knowledge-sharing among countries
and improve the management of national and transboundary natural
resources such as water, forests, and fisheries.
USAID has capitalized on the LMI as a framework to foster common
interests between Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Burma with the
goal of enhancing cooperation in areas such as the environment,
education, infrastructure development, and agriculture and food
security. As part of the LMI, USAID supports several climate change and
environment programs. For example, the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience
to Climate Change project focuses on identifying the environmental,
economic, and social effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong
River basin, which sustains the lives of over 70 million people. The
project also assists highly vulnerable populations in ecologically
sensitive areas to increase their ability to adapt their livelihoods to
climate change impacts on water resources, agricultural systems,
biodiversity, and ecosystems.
Through Feed the Future, USAID has been working to strengthen and
institutionalize ASEAN public-private sector engagement on food
security by engaging in public-private dialogues at both the working
group and minister-levels. The December 2012 ASEAN Public-Private
Dialogue on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture, a collaboration of
ASEAN's public and private sectors, established a taskforce for
sustainable fisheries and aquaculture and formalized operational
guidelines to focus on accelerating sustainable and responsible
aquaculture practices. As a result, an ASEAN good aquaculture
practices, standards, and certification scheme is being developed to
improve the social and economic situation of small-scale farmers and
boost the supply of sustainable, responsible, and traceable farmed
aquaculture products. By increasing the availability of a key protein
source, safeguarding rural livelihoods, expanding incomes, and reducing
environmental vulnerability in the region the long-term impact of such
activities will be enhanced food security.
USAID is also committed to preserving the oceans in the Asia-
Pacific region through initiatives like the Coral Triangle Initiative,
a unique example of countries joining forces to develop and implement
regional solutions for regional problems. The Coral Triangle marine
area in the Western Pacific Ocean is the world's most biodiverse marine
ecosystem, providing economic and food security benefits to over 360
million people in the Coral Triangle region and many more around the
world.
In January 2013, with support from USAID, senior officials from the
six Coral Triangle countries took a concrete step to support the
sustainability of marine resources by signing a resolution to address
the negative impacts of an estimated $1 billion per year live reef food
fish trade in the Southeast Asia and Coral Triangle regions. In
Indonesia, USAID programs in support of the Coral Triangle Initiative
continue to focus on building the technical expertise and management of
the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. Our goal is to optimize
the intersection of conservation, sustainability, and profit so that
Indonesia's vast marine wealth contributes to long-term national
development while adapting to climate change. For example, USAID has
worked with the Indonesian Government and its people to improve the
management of over 10 million hectares of coastal zones and marine
protected areas. In addition, the programhas trained over 1,700
individuals in natural resources management, biodiversity conservation,
and climate change resilience.
biodiversity and wildlife trafficking
We are also fighting the trafficking of wildlife--the third-largest
area of illegal trade after arms and drugs and often a source of
financing for organized crime and terrorist organizations. Wildlife
trafficking activities also directly harm the environment, by
exploiting natural resources and endangering threatened species and
ecosystems. Asia's Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking
(ARREST) is USAID's flagship 5-year, $8 million biodiversity
antiwildlife trafficking program. ARREST is implemented by Freeland
Foundation, a Bangkok-based NGO, together with local partners in the 10
ASEAN countries and U.S. Government agencies such as the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, State Department, and U.S. Forest Service. ARREST's
holistic approach works to strengthen law enforcement capacity, reduce
consumer demand, and promote regional information sharing and
cooperation across Asia. ARREST continues to build on the ASEAN-
Wildlife Enforcement Network. Successes to date include increasing
arrests and seizures of illegal wildlife trafficking by elevenfold
since 2005; training more than 3,000 government officials in law
enforcement techniques; strengthening regional cooperation through a
functioning and self-sustainable Secretariat; and raising the awareness
of more than 100 million individuals about endangered species that are
threatened by consumer demand. We also partner with international law
enforcement organizations such as INTERPOL's Project PREDATOR to combat
the illegal trade in tigers and snow leopards.
water supply and sanitation
And finally, the USAID Indonesia Urban Water, Sanitation, and
Hygiene project is supporting the Government of Indonesia in its
efforts to achieve Indonesia's Millennium Development Goal targets for
safe water and sanitation. The $33.7 million, 5-year effort, which
began in 2011 and is part of the U.S.-Indonesia Comprehensive
Partnership, works in more than 50 municipalities across the
archipelago to help provide access to safe water for up to 2 million
people in urban areas and access to improved sanitation for up to
200,000 people. The project has been active in 34 urban areas and in
the coming year will expand to 20 additional cities. To date almost
250,000 people have obtained access to a safe water supply, an
estimated 13,730 individuals now have access to improved sanitation
and, in areas surveyed, the per-unit cost of water paid by the urban
poor has decreased by an estimated 32 percent.
Our work has also improved water access for nearly 800,000 people
in the Philippines and resulted in the financing of projects that will
potentially improve water access for 1.8 million more people by
mobilizing 42 million dollar's worth of loans from private banks to
fund 7 utility-scale projects; training local government units and
water districts on project design resulting in the implementation of
164 municipal projects; and strengthening public-private sector
partnerships which have implemented 36 village-level water projects.
conclusion
I would like to close by emphasizing the interconnectedness of the
world particularly in the context of climate change. This is clearly
the case with greenhouse gas emissions, but also where global commodity
markets and unsustainable resource management drive deforestation and
degradation of transboundary water resources. The world is moving from
an era of simple solutions to one in which we must address more complex
global challenges like climate change in order to ensure a healthier,
safer, and more prosperous future for both the people of Asia and the
United States.
As such, USAID will continue to emphasize alliances among
countries, through efforts like the Coral Triangle Initiative and
public-private sector alliances like the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020,
and to help build strong democratic processes across the Asia-Pacific
region, for open dialogue and problem solving in relation to the
environment and climate change.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to answering your
questions.
Senator Cardin. Well, let me thank both of you for your
presentations.
Mr. Beck, let me just have you talk a little bit more about
the Lower Mekong Initiative as to what leverage the United
States
has working with the Lower Mekong Initiative to deal with some
of the water security issues and the dam projects that have
been planned. Can you just bring us up to date as to where you
think we could be effective in using that initiative to advance
water security issues?
Mr. Beck. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for that question. I was
most recently out in Brunei with Secretary Kerry and we
cochaired the Lower Mekong Initiative ministerial. It was a
great opportunity for us to be working with the five countries
who obviously are very interconnected by the Mekong. It was
really interesting because Secretary Kerry talked about his
experience on the Mekong as a young man and noticed at an early
age how important it is to protect that for the livelihoods and
the peace and prosperity of those five nations.
At the LMI ministerial, I was able to announce two new
programs that USAID is initiating. One of them is building out
a platform, an opportunity for us to bring in the technical
expertise of the interagency of the U.S. Government, from
USAID, from Corps of Engineers, and to be connecting them up
with the planners of these large infrastructure projects.
As you noted earlier, seven megadams have already been
built up on the upper Mekong in China and I think 20 more are
in process. So we need to give them the best technical
information so that they understand what the impact will be on
the downstream nations.
The second program that we rolled out is also an
opportunity for us to connect up those planners with the
people. Obviously, the 70 million people in the Lower Mekong
region will be directly impacted by the way those
infrastructure projects are shaped. So by bringing in the
people, by bringing in the nongovernmental organizations and
civil society organizations, to be involved in that
conversation to help in the planning and to be mitigating some
of the most damaging parts of infrastructure projects, we think
we will help to mitigate and also to provide better planning
and better projects, to ensure that the livelihoods are
protected of those people.
I think 70 percent of the population in the Lower Mekong
Basin survive on agriculture and fisheries. So we believe those
two projects will be most helpful.
Senator Cardin. Well, in some cases just the presence of
the dam itself is going to create a major challenge on these
issues. In other cases, you can mitigate the effects. How
receptive are the countries to mitigation plans or using best
practices to deal with the consequences of the dam being placed
on the river?
Mr. Beck. Obviously, because China is where many of the
dams are being built, but of course also Cambodia and Laos--the
dam in Cambodia is actually going to have the most impact on
the people of Cambodia. So we do see some initial opening to
engaging with us on that by bringing in our technical experts.
So we are seeing some initial receptivity to that. But I think
there's still a tremendous amount of work to be done.
We also find that by working with civil society
organizations, by strengthening their capacity to advocate on
behalf of the citizens of the Lower Mekong Basin, that that
will also be effective in driving the interests of the people
forward to ensure that they are considered and they are
protected in those projects.
Senator Cardin. Thank you.
Mr. Reifsnyder, I want to get into the relationship with
China. Could you bring us up to date as to what has happened
since the commitment to set up a working group on climate
change between the United States and China? Then I would also
like you to comment on the press account today that--the report
says the government said recently it would name and shame
China's dirtiest cities, as well as force factories to disclose
environmental standards publicly, in an attempt to bring them
into line. It also set targets of cutting emissions intensity
in key industries by 30 percent by 2017.
At least one banking expert in the region said it is the
most aggressive policy effort to address air quality issues in
Chinese history. Is there a real hope here and how is the
working group functioning?
Mr. Reifsnyder. Thank you, Senator, for those questions,
which are excellent. I think that, first of all, let me address
the second question first because in many ways I think it is
China's recognition of the problem that is having----
Senator Cardin. I'm not sure your mike is on.
Mr. Reifsnyder. I guess it is red when you speak, OK.
Thank you for the excellent questions. I think the second
question actually leads to the first, so if I could address
that one. It is recognition by China of the problem it is
having domestically in many of its major cities with air
pollution, just as you mentioned in Beijing in your trip in
June. I myself have been to China three times this year. The
air pollution in many areas is just very, very difficult for
people.
That is giving rise, as you correctly noted, to a political
concern. People are agitating for change. I think this is well
recognized by the Chinese Government. The current 5-year plan
is very aggressive in this way. Our sense is that the Chinese
are very determined to take this on, because they have to.
It is partly for that reason that we have found some real
receptivity as well to the overtures we have made recently,
particularly with Secretary Kerry's visit in April, where he
was able to propose a new working group, a Climate Change
Working Group, that he asked to develop recommendations barely
3 months later for the Strategic and Economic Dialogue that
took place here in Washington just 2 weeks ago.
That working group met very intensively. Todd Stern, our
Special Envoy for Climate Change, and Zie Zhenhua, Vice
Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, led
that effort on each side. They produced new initiatives in the
areas that I mentioned in my testimony: heavy-duty vehicles,
reducing emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, which is one of
the fastest growing areas of emissions in both countries;
increasing carbon capture, utilization, and storage; increasing
energy efficiency in buildings, industry, and transport;
improving greenhouse gas data collection and management; and
promoting smart grids.
One of the most interesting developments I think recently
in China has been the new carbon exchange that has been set up
in Guangdong province in Shenzhen. We were there right after
the opening. It is an effort on a regional basis to begin
emissions trading in China, which is very fascinating. There is
a cooperative effort being undertaken now with California in
that regard and we met with California officials also when we
were there. So there are some very interesting developments.
I think China is quite serious about addressing air
pollution and it is also that seriousness, that concern about
air pollution, that leads to many openings for us to work
together also to address climate change.
Senator Cardin. Is there anything we should be doing to
strengthen the prospects of a constructive outcome with our
engagement in China?
Mr. Reifsnyder. Thank you, Senator. In fact you are doing a
great deal, and I could cite some examples. Your trip in June
that you mentioned--the fact that we have senior members of our
Congress going to China, talking with Chinese officials,
meeting with Chinese enterprises and others, conveying our
concern and our willingness to work with them, I think that's a
very powerful message.
The letter that you sent to President Obama, that you and
others sent to President Obama in early June about the HFC
issue, which I think was very helpful.
The hearings that you are conducting on the Rebalance in
Asia. I think all of these things are very constructive efforts
on the part of Congress and we welcome them.
Senator Cardin. Let me just make an observation from my
visit. I found the government officials I talked with--I
thought they were very sincere in trying to develop workable
plans. I think they have taken steps. They recognize they have
a political problem as well as a real problem from the point of
view of the health of their people. So I think there really is
a genuine opportunity here to make some advancement.
Let me switch gears a little bit to the overfishing issue
and the management of fish stock in the region. It not only
presents a resource problem, but it also is a security issue.
It is the source of much of the maritime security conflicts,
fishing rights, et cetera. How can the United States be
effectively involved here to deal with the management of the
problems of overfishing?
Mr. Reifsnyder. Well, perhaps I could start on that. We are
involved already. We have been for many years in a number of
regional fishery management organizations. These are efforts
collectively to try to come to grips with the overfishing
problems and so forth. We have had some success in these areas
with reducing illegal, unreported fishing and so forth. So I
think it is the engagement through regional efforts of
regional, we call them ``RFMOs,'' regional fishery management
organizations, that is our best entree to try to help influence
the overfishing that is taking place.
Mr. Beck. Mr. Chairman, if I might add, too, just in
addition to Dan. On the Coral Triangle Initiative, this is also
I think a perfect opportunity for us to be engaging with the
six countries who are at the epicenter of fisheries in the
world. It is known as the Amazon of the ocean at the Coral
Triangle Initiative. So working at both the policy level to
ensure that we are aligning policies that are protecting those
fisheries amongst the six countries, but also then working down
at the community level to ensure that we are protecting those
overfished areas, I think that is an opportunity for us also to
have some impact.
Senator Cardin. When I was in Korea we talked about the
problems of North Korea beyond just the nuclear risk factors.
We talked about deforestation. North Korea has lost 30 percent
of its forests in the last 20 years. It is having a devastating
impact on its crop and on floods.
We have limited opportunities within North Korea and most
of it is aimed at dealing with the nuclear threat issues. Yet
the North Korean policies are devastating to the environment,
devastating to the sustainable economy of their own people and
the basic rights of its citizens. Is there a way that we can
work in the region to get North Korea engaged on the
environmental disasters that they are perpetrating on their own
country?
Mr. Reifsnyder. Well, I think, yes, it is difficult,
Senator. But I can tell you that just a couple years ago I
visited Primorye in the far east of Russia. There we have been
working with the Russians on conservation of leopard and tiger
as well. Those areas are very close to the Korean border. This
is an area where I know the Russians have been working a bit
with the North Koreans. The Chinese have also been working with
them through cooperative agreements.
So perhaps through some of our partners, Russia and China,
we have an opportunity to influence some of what is going on.
But it is very difficult under the current political situation.
Senator Cardin. Let me turn to Senator Markey, who was an
expert on this area during his service in the House of
Representatives. It is a real pleasure to have him in the U.S.
Senate and particularly on this subcommittee.
Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much, and I
thank the witnesses.
The rise of China has transformed the global economy and
has enabled millions of Chinese people to rise out of poverty.
China's rise has also had repercussions on global energy
markets and the environment. As its influence on the world
grows, we must ensure that China is a responsible partner in
addressing the energy and environmental challenges that the
world faces, especially climate change.
Working with the United States and other countries to
address climate change is also in the best interests of China.
The impacts of climate change are already affecting China's
water and food security. For example, the storage capacity of
Himalayan glaciers is declining. These glaciers feed Asia's 10
largest rivers, which supply 47 percent of the world's
population with fresh water.
Chinese efforts to reduce carbon pollution from burning
coal and diesel will also improve air quality and public
health. China also has an opportunity to improve global
security by combating the growing market for illegal wildlife
products. Recent reports have documented a dramatic increase in
poaching and shown that groups like the Lord's Resistance Army
and al Qaeda-affiliated groups are raising funds by selling
elephant ivory and rhinoceros horns. China has some of the
world's largest illegal ivory markets in the world and a single
rhinoceros horn can go for $300,000. By reducing demand at
home, China has an opportunity to increase security abroad and
save some of the most endangered and beloved species on Earth.
So I was pleased to hear about the progress that is being
made through the United States-China dialogue. I am especially
concerned about black carbon, which is produced by diesel
engines and burning wood and coal. It has a large impact on
global warming and public health.
So my question is, What is the role that the United States
is playing in helping China to reduce its black carbon
emissions?
Mr. Reifsnyder. Thank you, Senator. I think that I can cite
in direct response to that the new initiative that we launched
with the Chinese in July, just this month, on heavy-duty
vehicles, where we are trying to improve standards for heavy-
duty vehicles, we are trying to improve the efficiency of
engines of heavy-duty vehicles. This work at least is not
confined to heavy-duty vehicles alone. It could also apply to
other vehicles, but we need to start, I think, in the fastest
growing sector of transportation, which is heavy-duty vehicles
in both countries.
So it is the particulate matter that comes from those
vehicles that is creating a lot of the problem in both
countries. So this is a direct area in which we are working
with them now.
Black carbon, though, as you mentioned, is a problem and it
is something that we have tried to address through the Climate
and Clean Air Coalition. This is an effort that Secretary
Clinton began about a year ago when she was still at the State
Department. It is an effort that has now expanded beyond the
initial base. We are working very productively. China is not
yet a member of that effort, but we have made overtures to
China. We would be very interested in having China participate
and join with us in the effort to address not only black
carbon, but also HFCs and methane.
Senator Markey. So do you feel that China is actually
accepting the reality of climate change in terms of something
that they have to do something about? Or are they just still
relentlessly pursuing an economic development agenda and not
willing yet to deal with this issue, although there are real
impacts that China is going to ultimately have to suffer?
Mr. Reifsnyder. My sense is that China first and foremost
as a political matter is dealing with air pollution. That is
the single overriding priority in the country today for
addressing these kinds of problems. But along with that, China
is now the No. 1 emitter in the world of greenhouse gases.
There is no denying that this is--I think it is a spot that we
occupied for many years. It is not an enviable spot. It is a
spot where you have a lot of pressure, a lot of reason to take
action.
I think that China is increasingly aware of its role with
regard to climate change. It is working with us now in this
Climate Change Working Group that we have set up under the
Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Our cooperation is
intensifying and we look forward to expanding those efforts in
the future.
Senator Markey. Will China actually respond if the United
States does not take action that they view as significant on
reducing our own greenhouse gases?
Mr. Reifsnyder. I think that is an excellent question. I
think it is very important in terms of demonstrating to others
that we are willing to act at home in order to be in a position
to encourage others also to take action regarding their
greenhouse gas emissions.
Senator Markey. I think it is very difficult to preach
temperance from a bar stool. Your father cannot have a beer in
his hand when he is saying drinking is bad for you, or a
cigarette or a cigar while he is saying smoking is bad for you.
So I think that if we are going to be preaching then we have to
act, and that is why I am so glad that the President has made
it clear that he wants the EPA to take action on our own coal-
fired plants. I think that is a very strong signal, combined
with fuel economy standards and efficiency standards, which
actually the Senate is going to pass in the next week as well.
So these are strong signals that are being sent.
Let me ask this. What is the United States doing to stop
the flow of money from ivory sales that fund wars and
insurgency groups like the Lord's Resistance Army and the
Somali Islamic group and other groups that are out there, some
of them with ties to
al-Qaeda? What is our government doing?
Mr. Reifsnyder. Well, the problem is not just the slaughter
of the animals, because it is not just a problem of the states
in which the slaughter is taking place. It is also a problem of
others, of ourselves, in the sense of the countries that are
buying these products and giving a market to these products and
creating the opportunities for that kind of trade to take
place.
So we are working through a number of--I mentioned the
ASEAN, the regional, the ASEAN-WEN, the Wildlife Enforcement
Network. We have set up these networks like the ASEAN
Enforcement, Wildlife Enforcement Network, in a number of other
places in the world. We are trying to increase awareness of the
problem, trying to bring everyone into a solution, because I
know that we had some short public service announcements that
were once made. I think Harrison Ford was one, who said that
when the killing stops the--when the buying stops, the killing
will, too.
Senator Markey. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for this hearing. I served 36 years
on the Energy Committee and 36 years on the Natural Resources
Committee. So I went to 72 years of hearings. And in one
hearing you have both of the subjects that are at the top of
the list of those two committees. So I thank you so much.
Senator Cardin. Let me point out, I chair the Water and
Wildlife Subcommittee of the Environmental and Public Works
Committee, which deals with wildlife issues. So two committees
that I serve on are very much involved here.
Your question on the wildlife trafficking is a very
important point. I will tell you, it is all about the
economics, and the U.S. market is an important tool that we
have, not only the direct purchasing by the U.S. market, but we
are negotiating a TPP now. Have we communicated with our
negotiators that this should be something considered in those
negotiations to make sure markets are protected from this type
of support for wildlife trafficking?
The United States, if we take a leadership role, we can
affect the economics of this issue. If we affect the economics,
we can deal with the species that are endangered as a result of
wildlife trafficking. Is that something that we are working on?
Mr. Reifsnyder. Absolutely, Senator. This is something that
I know Secretary Clinton when she was at the State Department
was passionate about. It is something that our own Under
Secretary for Economic, Environment, and Energy Affairs, Robert
Hormats, has been passionate about. It is something that
Secretary Kerry is now engaged in.
I think we are mounting a very concerted effort in this
area. I personally have been at the State Department since 1984
and I have watched this issue grow in importance in just the
past few years in a way that very few issues have. It has just
zoomed to the top of the agenda. So I would say yes, very
definitely.
Mr. Beck. Mr. Chairman, if I might add also on the area of
wildlife trafficking. USAID's ARREST program, within that it is
called the Predator Project, and that is working very closely
with Interpol to address the trafficking of tigers. So Interpol
is working very closely with 11 countries in the region to
break down the barriers within their own governments, whether
it is from customs or interior, and then working on
enforcement, but also working on the demand end. So, bringing
those together, we are already seeing a rapid rise in
acquisition and also in prosecution of traffickers.
Senator Cardin. That is a good segue to our second panel,
to which one of the first questions I will ask, is how
effective our leadership has been on this issue. So we thank
both of you. We thank you very much for your service and thank
you for your participation in today's hearing.
With that, we will turn to the second panel: Mr. Carter
Roberts, President and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund in the
United States. WWF is the world's largest network of
international conservation organizations. Since joining World
Wildlife Fund in 2004, Mr. Carter has doubled the size of the
organization, focusing on its efforts to save the world's
ecosystems by working with businesses to tighten their impact
on the planet through sustainable resource management.
Then we have Elizabeth Economy, who is the C.V. Starr
Senior Fellow and Director for Asian Studies at the Council on
Foreign Relations. Dr. Economy is a successful academic and
author. She has written two highly acclaimed books on China's
energy and the environmental challenges, called ``By All Means
Necessary: How China's Resource Quest Is Changing the World,''
and the other ``The River Runs Black: The Environmental
Challenges to China's Future.'' Those titles entice me to read
those books. I must confess, I have not read them yet. But
maybe on one of those long flights to Asia I will have a chance
to read those books.
Mr. Roberts, we will start with you, and if your daughter
is still here we would like you to introduce your daughter.
STATEMENT OF CARTER ROBERTS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WORLD
WILDLIFE FUND, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Roberts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would love to
introduce my daughter Eliza who is here with me to keep me on
the straight and narrow. She will be my support throughout the
hearing. Thank you very much.
Senator Cardin. It is all about her generation.
Mr. Roberts. Right.
Senator Cardin. So it is a pleasure to have her here.
Mr. Roberts. You are absolutely right.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for having me. As one of your
constituents, it is a pleasure to be here. Senator Markey, I
congratulate you. As a family whose happiness rises and falls
on the fortunes in Fenway, we are delighted to see you in your
post. So thank you for having me.
This is a tremendously important topic. In our work,
increasingly our eyes turn to Asia and Southeast Asia. It is a
time when the leaders of that region increasingly value what we
call natural capital.
I love maps and I want to talk about a map that hopefully
we will be able to project onto the screen. I think you each
may have a copy of this in your materials. There are two pages
to this map. I want to make sure you have it.
The map is one produced by Will Turner at CI. It is a
wonderful map. It is a color-coded map of the world that shows
the value of ecosystem services country by country and is color
coded. Blue is a low value, yellow is the highest.
If you look at that map and you look at the second page in
Southeast Asia, it is essentially a map of Myanmar and the
Mekong River. Because those countries have rivers that feed
their people, they have forests that sequester carbon, they
still have what most of the rest of the region has lost. And
those countries are desperate to find a way to grow their
economies without losing those assets that are so obvious on
the map.
You can see what happens--you already talked about what
happens when you get it wrong, the haze in Singapore, the
rivers that are polluted in parts of China. You can see what
might happen in the Mekong River if Lao develops its dams with
disregard for the fisheries and the rice bowl that are
downstream.
This is also a part of the world where climate change has a
disproportionate impact. Of the 10 countries that are most
impacted by climate change around the world, 6 of those are in
Asia, 4 of those are in Southeast Asia, where the population is
so crowded along the coast that they are enormously impacted by
what happens with sea-level rise.
I recently had the chance to spend a morning with the
President of Myanmar and almost his entire Cabinet here in
Washington, DC. We spent the morning talking about the future
of the country. Probably more than any other leader that I have
had a chance to meet in the world, any other head of state, he
was eloquent about the choices that are in front of him.
He has studied dam construction throughout Europe to
determine which types of dams have less impact on the free flow
of rivers. He has studied forests in his own country and his
staff has mapped forests and which ones have the highest value.
He spoke eloquently about the importance of nature in Myanmar
and making the right smart choices about the future of his
country, so that when they build the infrastructure, build the
dams, build the roads, build everything else, that they choose
smartly, so they keep the best of what our Ambassador to
Myanmar calls ``the heart and soul of the country.''
Sadly--and I will talk about this at the end of my
testimony--our policy toward Myanmar is sadly devoid of the
environment as a priority. One of my main messages today is to
reinsert that as a higher priority in our engagement with that
country.
There are other smart choices that we see in the region and
it is all a question--I think that part of the region sees a
chance, certain countries see a chance to leapfrog over their
neighbors in the use of new technologies, whether it is energy,
dam construction, and the rest. I think this is where our
country can provide an enormous value, both through technical
assistance and also through brokering exchanges and even
providing surgical support and assistance where it matters
most.
I will give you some examples. On deforestation,
traditionally our community addressed deforestation by creating
parks, and parks are super important. But the gentleman from
USAID spoke eloquently about the role of big companies in
reducing deforestation, particularly companies that source
commodities from around the world. At WWF we have identified
the 100 biggest companies that control those commodities that
have the biggest impact on deforestation. We now have MOUs with
56 of those companies.
Those companies represent a tremendous force to engage not
only governments, but with our government, in creating policies
that can drive new food production away from forests and toward
land that is already degraded. It is a really elegant solution.
But we need the power of the market and we need the right kind
of policies to make it so.
You have spoken about fisheries. A disproportionate amount
of the population of Southeast Asia depends on fish for food
and one of the signature overseas programs of USAID has been
the Coral Triangle. Building the right governance system in
that part of the world is intrinsically important to keeping
those fisheries intact and maintaining stability in that part
of the world.
Then last but not least is rivers. I had a chance to be at
the Friends of the Lower Mekong meeting last year and sat with
Secretary Clinton and representatives of key countries in
Cambodia. It is a classic complicated case of the commons,
where if we can find a way to put the value of that river on
the table for providing fish in Cambodia and for providing
water and siltation to the rice paddies in Vietnam and for
providing power in Lao, put all those on the table, and look at
what happens when you build this kind of dam versus that kind
of dam, what happens downstream, my belief is we could knit
together those countries to incentivize the right kind of
solutions in dam construction. Then our country could play a
role in not only providing some technical assistance, but
helping to broker that kind of agreement between those
countries, where their futures are bound up together.
So in conclusion, I would say three things. One is: Help
make sure the environment is at the forefront of our engagement
in Myanmar. The second is these regional priorities. Ecosystems
do not stop at national boundaries and supply-demand dynamics
do not, either. So the regional initiatives we have for the
Coral Triangle and the Mekong are enormously important. Then
the last thing is just to go back to the private sector. The
kind of relationships we are beginning to build with the
private sector could be enormously influential in that part of
the world, and finding creative ways to work with companies
like Wal-Mart or Coke or Ikea or Mars or Cargill in driving the
right kind of food production and incentivizing the right kind
of growth strategy holds enormous promise.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Roberts follows:]
Prepared Statement of Carter Roberts
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and members of the subcommittee,
thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is
Carter Roberts, and I am President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund U.S.
For 50 years, WWF has been protecting the future of nature. WWF is the
world's largest private conservation organization, working in 100
countries and supported by 1.2 million members in the United States and
close to 5 million globally. Our unique way of working combines global
reach with a foundation in science, involves action at every level from
local to global, and ensures the delivery of innovative solutions that
meet the needs of both people and nature.
The issues being considered by the subcommittee today--the
environmental sustainability and food and water security of countries
in East Asia and the Pacific--are of critical importance, not only to
the countries in those regions and their citizens, but to all of us.
The Obama administration's Rebalance to Asia comes at a time of growing
recognition in that region of how the long-term prosperity of most
Asian and Pacific countries is tied to wise management of their
``natural capital,'' including their forest, marine, and aquatic
systems and wildlife resources.
Such recognition is in part a natural consequence of the region's
rapid economic growth. It is common to see increased attention paid to
environmental quality and the protection of natural areas as
populations become more prosperous. But it is also a response to the
increasing degradation of natural resources, which is a byproduct of a
growth model that has often paid scant attention to environmental
sustainability.
Examples of such degradation abound. We have recently seen another
bout of severe haze pollution in Southeast Asia from the use of fire
for clearing tropical forests in Indonesia. Overfishing in the marine
areas surrounding the ``Coral Triangle'' countries has led to declining
local food security and threatens the most valuable tuna fisheries in
the world. In the Mekong Basin, the planned expansion of large-scale
hydropower schemes threatens to severely impact Cambodia's freshwater
fisheries, undermine water supplies in Lao PDR, and disrupt the rich
sediment flows upon which Vietnam depends for its Mekong Delta rice
production. Throughout the region, the intensifying impacts of climate
change are exacerbating and adding to these challenges. How countries,
including the United States, respond to these challenges now and over
the next few years will shape Asia's food, water, and environmental
security for decades to come.
There is much to be concerned about regarding the current state and
trajectory of Asia's natural resources and the environmental impact of
the region's rapidly growing economies around the globe, and I touch on
a number of these concerns below. But there are also many reasons for
optimism. I would like to recount a recent conversation I had with
President Thein Sein of Myanmar during a recent visit of the President
and his Cabinet to Washington. WWF had the opportunity to organize a
dialogue with the President and senior staff focused on the role of
sound renewable resources management in Myanmar's sustainable
development. One might think that this issue would be a low priority
for Myanmar's President, given the range of difficult issues facing the
country. With the country's recent emergence as a fledgling democracy
and still nascent integration into the global economy, were prepared to
inform the President and his Cabinet on the need for Myanmar to wisely
manage its rivers, forests, coasts and wildlife in order to create a
sustainable economy and ensure the country's food and water security.
But President Thein Sein demonstrated a profound understanding of, and
appreciation for, these concepts and expressed his desire to put
Myanmar's economy on a development path that takes advantage of the
country's impressive natural capital while respecting it and protecting
it for the future. He characterized Myanmar's wildlife and other living
natural resources as the heart and soul of his nation.
Like other Asian and Pacific leaders, President Thein Sein is
seeking advice on how best to achieve truly sustainable development,
actively investigating lessons to be drawn from experiences in the
United States and other countries that have faced similar challenges.
His willingness to devote more than 2 hours of his own time and that of
his entire delegation to this subject during their short trip to
Washington speaks to this desire and openness.
We have seen similar political will among the leaders of the Coral
Triangle countries of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Known as
the ``Amazon of the Seas,'' the Coral Triangle is the most biologically
and economically valuable marine ecosystem on the planet. Encompassing
nearly 2.5 million square miles of coastal and oceanic waters in
Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, the region covers just 3
percent of the globe but boasts more than half of the world's reefs, 76
percent of its known coral species and the greatest remaining mangrove
forests on the planet. The marine and coastal ecosystems of the Coral
Triangle directly sustain the livelihoods of more than 130 million
people and contribute an estimated $2.3 billion each year toward the
region's economies. The health of the Coral Triangle is also important
to global commerce and food security, including here in the United
States. Eighty-six percent of the seafood consumed in the United States
is imported, with a significant portion originating from the Coral
Triangle. The region supports the nursery grounds for the planet's
richest tuna fishery, worth over $1 billion annually.
Pressures due to widespread poverty, rapid development and global
demands have placed enormous strains on the Coral Triangle's natural
resources: over the past 40 years, more than 40 percent of the region's
reefs and mangroves have disappeared, leaving many habitats and species
vulnerable to extinction. Overfishing, destructive fishing practices
and pollution all threaten the future of this precious seascape and its
inhabitants. In response to these growing challenges, in 2009 the heads
of state of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the
Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste signed the Coral Triangle Initiative
on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI), a landmark agreement
to protect the region's marine and coastal resources and manage them
sustainably.
These are just a few examples demonstrating Asian and Pacific
leaders' growing understanding of and receptiveness to the need to
protect nature as the foundation of healthy and sustainable economic
growth in their countries. Leaders of the region are looking to make
smart choices as they seek to break free of unsustainable patterns of
resource use and development. In many cases, they see opportunities to
``leap-frog'' past the technologies and management systems employed by
Western countries, especially with respect to their energy, transport,
and telecommunications sectors.
As they confront these sustainable development challenges they need
sound advice and are actively seeking to learn from U.S. experience and
draw upon U.S. expertise and technology. The United States clearly has
an important role to play in assisting the region's transition to
greener economic development. There are clear opportunities for such
cooperation, and there are many effective approaches available to be
shared. I would now like to highlight a few key areas that WWF believe
to be priorities to ensure the sustainable development of the region
and the health and integrity of its environment and biodiversity.
forests
Deforestation is one of the great environmental challenges facing
East Asia, where rates of forest loss in some countries remain among
the highest in the world. Pulp and paper production and conversion to
agriculture, including to monocultures such as palm oil, are among the
greatest threats to the region's forests and associated wildlife and
water resources. Illegal logging associated with these industries
remains a serious problem in many countries. Earlier this year, WWF
released a report \1\ on the state of the Greater Mekong Subregion
(GMS), consisting of the countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia,
Laos, Vietnam, and the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi. WWF's
report demonstrated that the countries of the GMS (excluding China) had
collectively lost nearly a third of their forest cover between 1973 and
2009, with the highest rate (43 percent) witnessed in Vietnam and
Thailand. Large core areas of intact forest capable of supporting local
communities and healthy wildlife populations declined across the GMS
from roughly 70 percent in 1973 to only 20 percent in 2009. If
deforestation continues at the same rate, the region risks losing more
than a third of its remaining forests by 2030, with only 14 percent of
the forest areas that are left comprising habitats capable of
sustaining viable populations of wildlife requiring contiguous forest
habitat. On the other hand, the report also demonstrates that, were the
GMS countries to adopt a ``green economy'' framework with a 50-percent
reduction in the annual deforestation rate and no further losses in key
biodiversity areas, forest losses could be limited to 17 percent from
2009 to 2030, core forest patches would remain intact, and all of this
alongside continued improvements in human prosperity.
The situation is a similar one in the rest of Southeast Asia.
Unsustainable and illegal logging in Malaysia and Indonesia,
particularly on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, threatens the
destruction of some of the world's most diverse rain forests and
Southeast Asia's last intact forests, as well as the extinction of some
of planet's most unique and beloved species, including Sumatran tigers,
Javan and Sumatran rhinos, pygmy elephants and orangutans. The
clearing, often through burning, of vast areas of rainforest
representing huge terrestrial storehouses of carbon is also a main
cause of regional air pollution and a significant driver of global
climate change.
Borneo and Sumatra (the world's third- and sixth-largest islands
respectively) support diverse ecoregions that house thousands of unique
species and massive rivers, which cut across the landscapes and provide
freshwater and transportation for the islands' people. Borneo's forests
alone are home to more than 600 bird species and 15,000 types of
plants, as well as hundreds of indigenous communities that depend on
the forests for food and shelter. Only half of Borneo's original forest
cover remains due to increased production of palm oil--used in many
products purchased every day by consumers around the world, from snack
foods to soaps--and unsustainable logging for timber, paper, and pulp.
Borneo's rainforests are being rapidly exported and turned into
flooring, furniture, and plywood products found on store shelves in the
United States and elsewhere.
Economic development in Borneo is essential for poverty
alleviation, but local communities fail to benefit when major companies
clear their rainforests and ignore traditional land rights. Through
efforts such as our Heart of Borneo Program, WWF is working with
communities, companies and governments to support smart decisions that
redirect the expansion of oil palm plantations onto degraded lands,
enforce restrictions on the use of fire for land clearing, and set
aside forest reserves to maintain local watersheds, support water
security and forest livelihoods for surrounding communities, protect
Borneo's unique wildlife species and secure the global carbon benefits
of that the island's forests provide. All of this can be done while
improving land tenure, so that local communities have a clear stake in
sustainably managing their forests.
Reducing illegality in the timber trade is essential to ensuring
that Asia's forests can survive in the future as both a bastion of
biodiversity and the basis of sustainable development. This is an area
where the U.S. Government has played a critical leading role, both in
its leadership with the 2008 amendments to the Lacey Act and
development investments such as through Responsible Asia Forestry and
Trade (RAFT), a 6-year program funded by USAID and the Department of
State designed to improve forest management and bring transparency to
the timber trade in Asia while also reducing deforestation and forest
degradation. The program spans eight countries in Asia and the
Pacific--Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Papua New
Guinea, Thailand, and Vietnam--and works with government, industry,
intergovernmental organizations, international conservation NGOs
(including WWF) and academic institutions to influence public policies
and corporate practices. RAFT partners have helped bring nearly 3.2
million acres of tropical forest in Asia and the Pacific under Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, with 4.9 million additional
acres on the way. Since 2006, the number of timber concessions has
grown from 5 to 59. The program has introduced nearly 1,000 wood
manufacturers in six countries to new legality requirements for
products exported to the United States and European Union and helped 20
factories achieve FSC chain of custody certification.
freshwater
To get a sense of the critical importance of balancing development
and conservation in Southeast Asia, one need only look at the Mekong
River, the basin which contains one of the most productive and diverse
river systems on Earth. Its connectivity and natural variability of
flows support exceptional productivity, while sediments and nutrients
sustain the landforms, agriculture, and marine fisheries of the Mekong
Delta. The Mekong river system supports the world's largest and most
productive inland fishery, at least 35 percent of which depends on
migratory species. Despite long-term intensive human use of freshwater
resources in the Mekong basin, the system has maintained connectivity
throughout most of its area as well as much of its original ecological
patterns and processes.
However, the growing need for energy in the Greater Mekong
Subregion has led to an unprecedented rate of dam building, with
impacts on freshwater ecosystems, the Mekong River's connectivity and
flow, and the people that rely on these. Eleven dams are currently
planned on the Mekong main stem, and one key concern is the lack of
appropriately coordinated planning among decisionmakers for the
different portions of the basin. Recent controversy has centered on the
disputed Xayaburi dam in Laos, which is not the largest dam planned on
the main stem, but the approval of which would set a precedent for
countries, undermine the Mekong River Commission and herald even more
disruptive developments. Models indicate that although the loss of
connectivity from existing dams has negatively affected fisheries
production in various Mekong sub-basins, declines in productivity to
date have not substantially affected overall fisheries output. This
will change if planned developments go ahead, with major impacts
downstream and on major freshwater resources, including: threatening
the rich fisheries of Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia upon which millions
depend for their protein; undermining the water supplies to Lao PDR;
and fundamentally altering the nutrient rich sediment flows southward
to the Mekong Delta, which support Vietnam's southern rice bowl and
recharge the delta to prevent land subsistence.
Decisionmakers in the Mekong river basin face a difficult dilemma:
Expansion of hydropower in the Mekong River Basin presents enormous
economic potential, and could also reduce the subregion's carbon
footprint, but how can countries that share the freshwater resources of
the Mekong River profit from a renewable energy source such as
hydroelectric power without at the same time degrading the fisheries
and ecological services that support at least 60 million people? To
produce energy through hydropower, up to 11 new dams are planned for
the main stem of the Lower Mekong River alone. Their construction will
negatively impact both wild fish populations and the many people who
rely on wild fish as their major source of protein. For example, once
built, a main stem dam would hinder movements of eggs and young fish
downstream to the Lower Mekong floodplains to grow and those of adult
fish moving upstream to spawn; harm wild fisheries in Laos, Thailand,
and Cambodia by flooding upstream spawning grounds and altering
nutrient input and replenishment of downstream habitats; reduce
sediments and nutrients that build and feed the Mekong Delta's
productivity; and degrade the functionality of the whole,
interconnected ecosystem and risk exceeding thresholds that could lead
to very large and rapid negative impacts. Although dams would bring
substantial additional income to the region, they could negatively
impact fisheries, increase inequality, contribute to poverty, and have
long-term and detrimental environmental impacts.
The question of hydropower on the Mekong is thus a representative
microcosm of the larger dilemma facing East Asia and the Pacific--how
to accommodate rapid development and support a rising standard of
living without fundamentally undermining the environmental systems that
are needed ensure the continued health, security, and prosperity of the
region's people. Other major river systems in the region face similar
challenges, and there are opportunities to benefit from lessons learned
from experience in the Mekong Basin.
global resources and asian demand
While these field-based and policy measures are essential, they
will not be sufficient on their own. Attention also must be paid to
demand-side-pressures from these fast growing economies, which are
creating environmental challenges not just in the Asia and Pacific
region, but globally. Rising wealth and urbanization--particularly in
China, Vietnam, and Thailand--means that millions are being lifted out
of poverty. It also means that these countries have an increasing
desire for natural resources from abroad, which can lead to major
impacts on ecosystems found far beyond Asia. China's expansion into
Africa is well known, and its footprint there is significant and
growing. Therefore, China's approach to development and whether or not
it chooses to encourage or require that resource extraction be done in
a legal and sustainable manner can have a significant bearing on the
health of forests and rivers in Africa and around the world.
Rising wealth and a growing middle class in Asia are also putting
new and unsustainable pressure on a range of wildlife species,
including many that are increasingly threatened with extinction. There
is a growing appetite in East Asia for traditional wildlife products,
such as carved elephant ivory, rhino horn powder, shark fin soup and
tiger bone wine, access to which had until recently been limited
primarily to a smaller elite class. Consumption or possession of these
products is inherently a sign of status, and as the economic status of
millions of Chinese and Vietnamese rapidly increases, many are turning
to the purchase of ivory statues and trinkets and fad drugs made from
ground rhino horn as a demonstration of their newfound prosperity.
Unfortunately, the effect on these species has been dramatic and
swift. In 2011, WWF officially declared Javan rhinos extinct in
Vietnam, when the last surviving individual was found killed with its
horn removed. With rhino populations critically endangered throughout
Southeast Asia, the illegal trade in rhino horn has found its way to
South Africa, which is home to 90 percent of the planets remaining
rhinos. In the past 5 years, the number of rhinos killed illegally in
South Africa has risen a shocking 5,000 percent--from just 13 animals
in 2007 to 668 in 2012. This dramatic spike has been driven primarily
by new demand in Vietnam, where the ground-up horn is being sold as a
powder that is marketed to the rich and the desperate as variously a
fad drug that can prevent hangovers or a miracle cancer cure. Pound for
pound, rhino horn powder is selling for more on the market than heroin
or gold. There is no medical evidence to support either claim, but that
has not stopped those who traffic in these endangered wildlife products
from creating a lucrative illegal market for these snake oil cures:
pound for pound, the price of rhino horn has now eclipsed the price of
gold and heroin on the black market.
In China, it is the demand for ivory that has risen along with the
middle class, with a legal internal market for ivory products (based on
previous sanctioned sales of ivory stockpiles) now providing a
smokescreen for the laundering of large quantities of illegally poached
African elephant ivory. In 2012, the elephant population in Africa was
conservatively estimated at 425,000 individuals, a reduction of at
least 50,000 since 2007. In 2011 alone, the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Monitoring the Illegal Killing of
Elephants (MIKE) program estimated that 17,000 elephants were illegally
killed across the sites that they monitor and extrapolated that this
number was likely closer to 25,000 on a continentwide basis.
Broken down on a regional basis, the situation is even more acute,
with Central Africa experiencing the worst declines. Central Africa's
forest elephant populations, including those in protected areas, have
experienced reductions of more than 80 percent in the last 25 years,
and 62 percent in just the past 10 years. Between 2004 and 2012, an
estimated 11,000 elephants were killed in Gabon's Minkebe National Park
alone, representing a population loss of 44 to 77 percent. In early
2012, we saw the worst single massacre on record of African elephants,
when at least 350 elephants were slaughtered by gangs of heavily armed
ivory poachers in Cameroon's Bouba N'Djida National Park in just a few
weeks, reducing the park's population by more than half. And just this
past May, a poaching gang managed to infiltrate the Dzanga-Sangha
National Park in the Central African Republic, part of the Sangha
Trinational World Heritage Site, where they killed at least two dozen
elephants.
As would be expected, the rise in illegal killings is mirrored by
the rise in seizures of ivory, most of which is intercepted en route
from Africa to Asia. From 1996 to 2011, nearly 300 tons of ivory were
seized, representing only a small proportion of the total illegal ivory
being trafficked. From 2000 to 2011, there were 54 large-scale ivory
seizures, and over half of these have occurred in the past 3 years,
pointing to a surge in demand and a harbinger of the expanding
participation in the illegal ivory trade by highly organized crime
syndicates who see in the illegal trade in endangered species products
the promise of vast profits and limited risks, given the dearth of
enforcement and the meager penalties associated with it.
The impact on African countries of the Asian demand for wildlife
products is not just the rapid extirpation of Africa's unique wildlife.
Heavily armed poachers working to feed to the demand for ivory, rhino
horn and other wildlife products will frequently kill park rangers
tasked with protecting their countries' wildlife, and flourishing
wildlife tourism industries, which contribute significantly to the
economies of many African countries, are being put at increasing risk
by the surge in wildlife poaching as tourist areas become unsafe and
the wildlife they have come to see become more and more scarce.
A similar dynamic is playing out in other parts of the world: in
wetlands and forests, emptied of rare reptiles and mammals that have
wound up as delicacies on Asian dinner plates; and in the world's
oceans, where shark species are in rapid decline, largely due to the
growing trade in shark fins used to make shark fin soup. The latest
research suggests that around 100 million sharks may be killed
annually, often targeted for their fins.
The United States has taken a leading role in pressuring countries
such as China and Vietnam to curb demand for endangered species
products, both through international fora such as the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and APEC, as well as
through bilateral discussions, including the U.S.-China Strategic and
Economic Dialogue and State Department support for technical exchanges
between Vietnam and South Africa. The heightened attention recently
culminated in the President's newly announced Executive order on
Combating Wildlife Trafficking, which came as extremely welcome news to
us and demonstrates the seriousness with which the illegal wildlife
trade is now being taken given the multibillion dollar criminal market
it supports and its strong connections to transnational organized
crime, corruption and financing for groups that pose security threats
to the United States.
We also need to work with individual countries in East Asia and the
Pacific to strengthen policies and institutional capacities to address
increasing demand pressures on their resources. There are emerging
examples, such as China's experimentation with market-based incentives
and other policies to encourage use of renewable energy. And in
Thailand, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has shown bold leadership
on wildlife conservation with her recent pledge to end ivory
trafficking in her country. We need to do more to encourage these smart
choices and ensure that Asian and Pacific leaders take a broad and
constructive view of how their future development impacts global
resources and environmental quality, as well as that in their own
countries.
climate change
Of course, overlaying all of the environmental and resource
challenges facing the Asia and Pacific region is the growing threat of
climate change and its impacts on food and water security and essential
environmental systems. The Greater Mekong Subregion provides a powerful
case study of how climate change will increasingly affect development
in East Asia and the Pacific, with impacts on food, water, and regional
security. The plight of Small Island States in the Pacific captures
global sympathy. Several are already actively contemplating future
refugee status for their citizens, facing the very real prospect that
rising seas will inundate or make uninhabitable their islands in the
near future, erasing their cultural heritage and making them stateless
peoples. But mainland Asia also faces significant, imminent risks due
to climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified the
Mekong Delta as one of the three most vulnerable deltas on the planet
to climate change impacts, including sea-level rise, saline intrusion
and increasingly severe storms that promise to erode coastlines and
undermine coastal ecosystems. Changes to average temperatures and water
availability from precipitation and runoff are also likely to have
adverse impacts on the Mekong River and its ecosystems. Temperature
changes can affect rates of growth and reproduction for individual
species and can also alter species distribution and ecosystem
processes, such as nutrient cycling. WWF predicts that climate change
impacts will accelerate the extinction of some species, given the high
rate of endemism and habitat fragmentation found in the Mekong basin.
Changes in the seasonal flow pattern in the Mekong River basin will
strongly influence future species composition and ecosystem
productivity. Changes in temperature and precipitation in the basin may
also affect the very nature of the region's wetlands--vital freshwater
systems that are used for rice cultivation and freshwater fisheries,
and which help to mitigate floods and erosion.
Sea-level rise will have significant negative impacts in the Mekong
Delta region because of the delta's high population density, which is
supported by productive wetlands and estuaries that are in turn
maintained by naturally fluctuating water levels and input of fresh
water from the river. These upstream inputs of freshwater deliver much-
needed nutrients and sediments, which are critical for wetland soils to
accumulate and prevent plants from being inundated.\2\ Sea level rise
and saltwater intrusion threaten to upset this natural balance and
undermine the Delta ecosystem. If hydropower development proceeds on
the Mekong's main-stem, dams will block sediment that flows southward
and rebuilds the delta. As sediment is trapped by dams, the reduction
in the amount reaching the river mouth will decrease the capacity of
the delta to replenish itself, making it even more vulnerable to sea-
level rise, saline intrusion, and erosion. With nearly a quarter of
Vietnam's population located in the Mekong Delta, the combined impacts
of the proposed main-stem dams and climate change will pose significant
social and economic challenges.
The human consequences of unmitigated climate change on the Mekong
are hard to imagine. Projections across the Mekong basin show an array
of climate change effects, including a potential sea-level rise of a
meter by the end of the century. If unaddressed, a meter rise in sea
level could submerge more than a third of the Mekong delta, home to 17
million people and source of nearly half of Vietnam's rice.\3\ Already,
we are witnessing erratic changes in flood patterns in the Mekong and
other rivers of the region. Thailand's 2012 growth was all but wiped
out by costs associated with its devastating flood. Combined with sea-
level rise, we can anticipate breakdowns of roads and other
infrastructure, leading to the increasing likelihood of economic and
social instability. Even the more modest predictions of how the region
and its communities, ecosystems and economies may be altered suggest
that, without significant steps to reverse course, the humanitarian
impacts of accelerating climate change in the Mekong are likely to
present new security challenges for both GMS countries and the
international community in the 21st century.
environment and security
Climate change is the most obvious threat to security of a region
that is highly vulnerable to rising seas and extreme weather--Asia has
6 of the 10 countries most vulnerable to natural disasters, with four
of them in Southeast Asia, however there are numerous other connections
between environmental degradation and regional security. Competition
over declining fisheries contributes to resource conflicts in the South
China Sea. Much of East Asia's population lives in coastal areas, and
Pacific countries fear for their very existence in the face of
increasing sea levels, as well as rising temperatures and acidity,
which can exacerbate typhoons and droughts and threaten to undermine
the marine food chain that supports the regions fisheries. Countries of
the region need help to build their climate change resiliency, lest
they risk even greater economic losses from disasters and the creation
of environmental migrants who could spill across national borders.
Improving environmental management also links closely with the
promotion of democratic principles such as transparency, vibrant civil
societies, and human rights, including access to water supply and
indigenous peoples' use of forests.
u.s. role and opportunities
All of this reinforces the importance of enhancing U.S. support to
leaders in the region seeking to make smart decisions about the
management of their environment for local and global benefit. Bilateral
programs--through USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation, State
Department, or under targeted partnerships, such as the Comprehensive
Partnership with Indonesia, or the Strategic and Economic Dialogue with
China--offer good opportunities to cooperatively identify and agree on
ways to effectively address environmental considerations in national
development. As noted, there is a great receptiveness to and
opportunity for U.S. cooperation with Myanmar to ensure that the
country finds and follows a green economy path. Bilateral cooperation
is complemented by legislative provisions under the Lacey Act and the
Tropical Forest Conservation Act, which respectively enhance control of
the global illegal wildlife and timber trade, and encourage innovative
approaches to financing forest conservation.
Beyond bilateral cooperation, the Rebalance to Asia should include
increased attention to leveraging regional partnerships and
organizations as well as making good use of multilateral mechanisms.
Through the Lower Mekong Initiative--and in cooperation with others
working to assist countries of mainland Southeast Asia in their
development--we need to help ensure that smart choices are made on how
to best use and conserve freshwater resources, including through
integrated river basin analysis and planning, encouraging ecosystem-
based approaches to hydropower development, incorporating schemes to
value and monetize the services provided by upstream forests and
watershed ecosystems, and factoring in adaptation and resilience
strategies for freshwater systems in the face of advancing climate
change. Elsewhere in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the U.S.
Government--alongside WWF, the Global Environment Facility, the Asian
Development Bank, and other partners--has backed the Coral Triangle
Initiative through the Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP), a
unique consortium of U.S. Government agencies and the world's leading
conservation NGOs, including WWF. CTI governments are now developing a
regional framework for sustainable fisheries management, enforcement
and improved management of Marine Protected Areas across the region.
CTSP is winding down, and CTI countries are making smart choices
regarding management of their marine resources. They continue to need
U.S. support. Similarly, the tri-national Heart of Borneo Initiative
offers opportunities for improved management of the region's largest
remaining rainforest. APEC and ASEAN hold tremendous potential for
improving understanding of and cooperation on the greening of
economies. Activities supported by multilateral organizations and
mechanisms--such as the Global Environment Facility, Climate Investment
Funds, and Asian Development Bank--also contribute strongly.
Finally, there remain unrealized opportunities to incorporate
environmental provisions into the framework of the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP), which just concluded today in Malaysia its 18th
round of negotiations. As part of the Executive order on Wildlife
Crime, the President declared that ``the United States shall seek to
reduce the demand for illegally traded wildlife, both at home and
abroad, while allowing legal and legitimate commerce involving
wildlife.'' As implied in this statement, there is an important legal
trade in wildlife products--including commodity products such as timber
and fish--and this legal trade, which is of great economic value to
many countries, including the United States, is undermined by
illegality throughout the supply chain. This is why it is critical that
international trade agreements, such as the emerging TPP, incorporate
strong conservation provisions to ensure that natural resources are
legally harvested and traded and developed sustainably in source
countries.
Renewable resources and wildlife are highly traded among the 12 TPP
partner countries, which represent major producers, exporters and
importers of seafood, wood and other goods derived from natural
resources. The TPP countries represent eight of the world's top 20
fishing nations, contributing over 28 percent of the global marine
catch, with almost 33 percent of global fish product imports and 24
percent of exports. They account for 17 percent of global shark imports
and 28 percent of global exports by value. They account for 34 percent
of global timber and pulp production and 24 percent of total trade
value worldwide. They also represent significant importing, exporting,
and transit countries for legal and illegal wildlife products, and some
countries, such as Vietnam, are the major global markets for CITES-
listed species.
Where natural resources are poorly managed, the demand generated by
TPP markets can drive illegal activities and unsustainable practices.
This is why the TPP presents the participating countries, including the
United States, with a unique and important opportunity to promote
economic growth in the context of a far-reaching and ambitious 21st
century trade agreement, while also recognizing the fundamental need to
sustainably manage natural resources and protect wildlife from illegal
trade. If executed along these lines, it can also serve as a strong
model for future such agreements.
conclusion
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and members of the subcommittee, I
believe that the East Asia and Pacific region--in fact all of Asia--is
at a critical juncture with respect to incorporation of environmental
considerations into future development. It will be in neither U.S. nor
Asian interests for the region to continue with the current model,
which has led to severe environmental degradation and depleted natural
capital. There is widespread understanding of this among the region's
leaders, who strive to make smart decisions regarding sustainable use
of their natural assets for the benefit of their people and the planet.
While much is known regarding the principles behind this transition
to a more sustainable development path, each country must define its
own way. This will require strong engagement from civil society,
academia, the private sector, and public sector programs such as those
supported by the U.S. Government to ensure that smart choices are made
and resources wisely used. It is strongly in the U.S. interest to see
that this scenario is realized. If we act together now, the region can
lock in a new development model which will lead to continued expansion
of its prosperity based in large measure on protecting and enhancing
the value of natural capital.
----------------
End Notes
\1\ Ecosystems in the Greater Mekong: Past trends, current status,
possible futures. WWF. 2013.
\2\ Mekong River Commission. 2010 ``State of the Basin Report:
2010.'' Mekong River Commission, Vientiane, Lao PDR.
\3\ Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and
Environment (Viet Nam) 2009 ``Vietnam Assessment Report on Climate
Change (VARCC)."
Senator Cardin. Thank you for your testimony.
Dr. Economy.
STATEMENT OF ELIZABETH C. ECONOMY, PH.D., C.V. STARR SENIOR
FELLOW AND DIRECTOR FOR ASIAN STUDIES, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN
RELATIONS, NEW YORK, NY
Dr. Economy. Thank you very much, Chairman Cardin. It is a
pleasure to be here to have the chance to talk about China, and
a pleasure, of course, to sit on the same panel with Carter
Roberts.
China's extraordinary economic growth over the past 30
years has produced, I think by anyone's imagination, a crisis
in the country's water resources. Skyrocketing demand,
inefficiencies in the way China uses its water, and pollution
have left 400 cities out of roughly 660 without sufficient
water and 110 of them facing serious scarcity. About a quarter
of China's land is seriously degraded or technically classified
as desert. Desertification is advancing at a rate of about 600
square miles per year.
Just this past May, the Chinese Government announced that
28,000 rivers out of 50,000 rivers have simply dried up since
the 1990s. Meanwhile, there has been a serious deterioration in
water quality. According to this year's report from the
Ministry of Environmental Protection, about a quarter of the
water that flows through China's seven major rivers and their
tributaries is considered unfit even for agriculture or
industry. About 90 percent of the groundwater is moderately or
heavily polluted.
For Chinese leaders what matters most, of course, is how
this water scarcity and water pollution affects a range of
additional challenges that they face in terms of public health,
the economy, and social stability. In terms of public health,
about 600 million people in China drink water that is
contaminated and 190 million of those drink water that is so
contaminated it is considered harmful to their health.
Along China's rivers scientists have identified about 450,
upward of 450, of what they call cancer villages, just villages
where the rates of cancer are much higher than the norm. Water
pollution causes about 60,000 premature deaths annually in
China.
In terms of the Chinese economy, numbers are very sketchy
on this, but the World Bank in 2007 estimated that water
scarcity and pollution cost the Chinese economy the equivalent
of 2.3 percent of GDP. This is from lost agriculture,
fisheries, and industrial output, as well as from missed days
of work and hospital stays. In Beijing, for example, in 2009,
49 factories were forced to close because of lack of water.
Most important, however, is how the environment affects
social stability, and you discussed this a little bit, I think,
or hinted at it in the first panel. In 2010 China recorded
180,000 protests. In 2012 the environment surpassed illegal
land expropriation, land grabs, as the largest source of social
unrest in the country. The Internet really has transformed
people's access to environmental information and their ability
to organize, and this is producing enormous bottom-up pressure
on the Chinese Government.
China's strategy for addressing its water challenge is
twofold. First is going outside its borders to meet its food
security, energy, and other developmental needs. China has
become the third-largest investor in agricultural land overseas
after the United Kingdom and the United States. It is the
largest source of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing,
and it is damming and diverting, as you've discussed,
transboundary rivers in ways that are engendering concern in
its downstream neighbors in Central, Southeast, and South Asia.
Beijing is also adopting a wide range of measures at home,
including planned construction of desalination plants along the
eastern seaboard, large-scale river diversion projects within
their own country, waste water treatment plans, and experiments
with water pricing and water trading. Yet the political economy
of the country in many respects undermines the government's
efforts. For example, despite numerous laws and regulations on
the books, an estimated two-thirds of Chinese factories simply
dump their waste water untreated into nearby lakes and rivers.
Beijing has been unwilling to move forward on what I think
people in the United States and elsewhere would consider to be
the pillars of effective environmental protection:
transparency, official accountability, the rule of law, and an
enforcement system of economic incentives to promote water
conservation and recycling and disincentives to pollute.
Because of broader political fears, Beijing also limits the
role of the media and environmental NGOs, which are the most
dynamic and progressive elements in Chinese environmental
protection efforts today.
Clearly, it is early days in the Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang
era and rhetorically Premier Li has been a strong supporter of
environmental protection. But his predecessor Premier Wen
Jiabao was also quite supportive and did not accomplish as much
as he would have liked. So I think we need to wait to see what
this new government is able to accomplish.
In terms of what the United States might do within the
context of the rebalance, I have a couple of thoughts, which I
will go through very quickly since my time is almost up. I do
think we have an enormous array of agreements, memoranda of
understanding, and other things with China already on the
environment. I believe the United States ought to focus
significantly on the fundamentals of good governance, for
example a program on the rule of law, because I think this type
of capacity-building is essential. It is at the heart of
China's continued failure to improve its environment. Despite
having access to scientific knowledge or to technology, year
after year China misses its pollution reduction targets, and
why is that? It is because of the governance issue.
I also think we should be targeting areas that affect the
United States directly--U.S. interests directly. For example
development of shale gas is an area where the United States has
moved forward relatively rapidly in recent years to develop
environmental regulations. China is moving forward aggressively
to develop its own shale gas reserves. It wants to become
active, it already is active, in the United States. And yet
they are talking about a 3-to-5-year lead time before they are
going to have any regulations on the books. So I think this is
an area that is ripe for cooperation.
I also have a few other ideas, but I have gone past my
time, so I will stop there.
Senator Cardin. We will give you another minute or two if
you would like to complete your statement.
Dr. Economy. OK. I think the second thing is the Trans-
Pacific Partnership. I think here there are two steps to this,
of course. The first is that the United States has to ensure
that there is a strong environmental component with some
enforcement mechanism and commitments on issues such as
fisheries management. The second then is to bring China into
the agreement, which will be a number of years in the making.
But I think it will be one of the most effective ways to
engage China, because if we look at something like the World
Trade Organization that really is one of the most effective
ways that we have of holding China to account and reining in
some of their most egregious behaviors. I think that TPP has a
similar prospect on some of these environmental issues of
working with China.
I think the third point is that we ought more often to
think about working with China through a multilateral
framework. Too often the United States approaches China just
bilaterally, but I think in two distinct ways this is
important. First, Japan, the European Union, and Canada are all
very active as well in helping China in its environmental
protection efforts, but we do virtually no consultation with
our closest allies to try to make sure that we are reinforcing
rather than replicating similar efforts. I think if we could
work together there would be enormous synergy. So I think that
is one thing we ought to do.
Then the second I think is really to do more of the work
that the first panel was talking about, as well as Carter
Roberts here, about working with regional partners and helping
develop their capacity, because from everything, the Mekong
River, but as well looking at the development of fisheries in
the South China Sea and the East China Sea and the potential
for greater conflict to emerge, I think the United States has a
very important role to play there.
I will stop there.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Economy follows:]
Prepared Statement of Elizabeth C. Economy
How China manages its water resources over the next 5 to 7 years
has profound implications not only for the Chinese people but also for
the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. Within China, water supplies--
already scarce in many parts of the country--are diminishing and
contributing to a range of serious economic, health, and social
challenges. Spillover effects, such as damming and diverting
transnational rivers, a push to acquire arable land abroad, and
increasing conflict over regional fishery resources are also being felt
well outside the country's borders. China's leaders have adopted a
number of measures to try to address the country's growing water
crisis, but these have fallen woefully short of the task at hand. In
the context of the U.S. Rebalance to Asia, China's water challenge, if
not addressed, is a potentially destabilizing force within the region
and suggests the need for targeted collaboration with Chinese actors as
well as stronger cooperation with regional partners.
the nature of the challenge
China's per capita water resources are just over one-quarter that
of the world average, and compounding the challenge, within China are
highly unevenly distributed. Northern China possesses approximately 40
percent of the country's total population, half its agricultural land,
and more than 50 percent of its GDP, yet receives only 12 percent of
total precipitation. Southern China, in contrast, receives roughly 80
percent of the country's total precipitation, but severe water
pollution dramatically reduces its natural advantage.\1\
Rapid economic growth has exacerbated China's water challenge.
Water is consumed without consideration for future demand. Industry,
which accounts for about one-quarter of China's total water
consumption, uses anywhere from four to ten times more water per unit
of GDP as other competitive economies. Water for energy is a
particularly critical source of industrial water use--according to the
Ministry of Water Resources, in 2010, China's coal mining, processing,
and electrical-generating industries alone accounted for almost 20
percent of all water consumed nationally.\2\ Agriculture demands the
largest share of the country's water resources (about 60 percent), but
household and industrial demand have increased dramatically over the
past decade as individual wealth and the overall economy continue to
expand. And as China urbanizes, the problem will only increase: urban
residents use two and a half times more water than their rural
counterparts.
At least 10 provinces in China are below the World Bank's poverty
level of 1,000 cubic meters per person per year; and according to Jiao
Yong, vice minister of water resources, in 2012, China had more than
400 cities that lacked sufficient water, 110 of which were facing
serious scarcity.\3\ In Beijing, per capita water resources decreased
to only 120 cubic meters per year in 2011 \4\; by comparison, the
global annual average per capita is 1,385 cubic meters.\5\
China's widespread pollution poses an additional challenge. Reports
concerning levels of pollution vary widely, but none is positive.
Overall, the Ministry of Environmental Protection reports that
approximately one-fourth of the water that flows through China's seven
major river systems and their tributaries is considered not even fit
for agriculture or industry. A February 2013 report by the Geological
Survey of China revealed that 90 percent of the country's groundwater
was polluted.\6\ A year earlier, Vice Minister of Environmental
Protection Wu Xiaoqing claimed that 40 percent of rivers and 55 percent
of groundwater was unfit for drinking.\7\ Even water that is treated
cannot be safely consumed from the tap. In late 2012, the Chinese
newspaper, the Southern Weekend, featured an interview with a married
couple, both of whom were water experts in Beijing. They stated that
they had not drunk from the tap in twenty years, and have watched the
water quality deteriorate significantly over just the past few
years,\8\ even while state officials claim that more than 80 percent of
water leaving treatment facilities met government standards in 2011.\9\
In rural China, a reported 320 million people do not have access to
safe drinking water.\10\
According to one report by Century Weekly, there are a number of
reasons for differing assessments of the country's water quality: (1)
the frequency of testing at treatment plants is too low, and only 40
percent of the treatment plants in China's 35 major cities have the
capacity to test for all 106 indicators in any case; (2) there are only
a few independent water-quality monitoring bureaus, and most water
testing is done in-house by the same water-treatment plant being
evaluated; (3) there is weak transparency from local governments as to
the results of the tests; and (4) no water testing accounts for the
contamination that occurs from the aging and degraded pipes through
which the water is transmitted to Chinese households.\11\
economic, health, and social impacts
Most important to Chinese officials and to the Chinese people is
what their country's water challenge means for their health, economic
well-being, and social stability.
Impacts on Public Health
Chinese scholars and activists as well as foreign analysts have
started to document the linkages between the country's growing
pollution and its rising public health challenges. According to Wang
Zhangsheng, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Environment,
much of China's water contains organic compounds that can impair the
immune system, affect fertility, cause cancer, or interfere with the
nervous system. The impacts can take as long as 10 or 20 years to
emerge.\12\ In 2010, Lee Liu, a geographer at the University of Central
Missouri, reported in the magazine Environment that he had identified
459 cancer villages--villages in which cancer rates were significantly
higher than normal. Most were clustered around rivers with the lowest
grade of pollution on the government's five-point scale. Some of these
villages had cancer rates 30 times greater than the national
average.\13\ In February 2013, the government-financed newspaper the
Global Times took the unusual step of acknowledging the existence of
these cancer villages and their link to pollution. Along with a map of
cancer villages, the Weibo account of the Global Times stated that ``.
. . because of chemical poisoning `cancer villages' and other serious
[threats to] social health have begun to emerge in many areas.'' \14\
The negative impacts of water pollution are not limited to China's
water supply. Chemicals and pollutants that seep into rivers and
groundwater also find their way into food crops and eventually onto
Chinese tables. A consistent diet of cadmium-laced rice has caused bone
softening and weakness in some southern Chinese villagers. And
according to the China Economic Weekly, in 2011, as much as 12 million
tons of grain--enough to feed 40 million people--were contaminated with
heavy metals absorbed from the soil.\15\ Although the Ministry of
Environmental Protection and Ministry of Land Resources completed a 5-
year study of soil contamination in 2012, other than reporting that 10
percent of the land is contaminated with heavy metals, they have
refused to release the results, calling the report a ``state secret.''
\16\
Economic Costs
Measuring the economic costs of water pollution and scarcity is
notoriously difficult. In 2007, the World Bank calculated the costs of
China's water crisis to be 2.3 percent of GDP, of which 1.3 percent was
credited to the scarcity of water and the other 1 percent to the direct
impact of water pollution.\17\ In Beijing, for example, 49 factories
closed in 2009 due to water shortage.\18\ And in one of China's leading
economic centers, Chongqing, which sits on the banks of the Yangtze
River, local officials estimate that dealing only with the effects of
water pollution on local agriculture and public health at 4.3 percent
of GDP.\19\
These costs are only likely to rise as scarcity increases. In March
2013, Beijing announced that more than half of Chinese rivers have
``disappeared'' since the 1990s due to climate change, industrial
development, and large hydroelectric projects.\20\ This changing water
landscape will have significant impacts on future agricultural and
industrial development.
Social Unrest
In 2010, the number of reported social protests in China reached
180,000 \21\; and in 2013, the environment surpassed land expropriation
as the leading cause of social unrest in the country.\22\ The rule of
law in China is only weakly developed, and without effective legal
redress for environmental wrongdoing, victims of environmental
pollution often resort to demonstrations to draw attention to their
plight.
The advent of the Internet has further contributed to the ability
of the Chinese people to bring bottom-up pressure on officials:
Internet petitions, water pollution maps demarcating polluting
factories, and pictures of polluted sites or protesting Chinese are all
central to civil society efforts to reform the system of environmental
protection. Urban residents have also become skilled at using the
Internet or cell phone texts to organize protests, most commonly
against government plans to site factories or garbage incinerators near
their communities. In July 2012, for example, in Qidong, north of
Shanghai, thousands of people demonstrated violently in opposition to a
waste water pipeline from a paper mill because they believed it would
pollute their coastal waters.\23\ In response to the local government's
unwillingness to listen to their concerns, the local citizens stormed
local government offices and caused $20,000 in damage. Their protest
was inspired by another demonstration earlier that same month in
Shifang, Sichuan province, roughly 1,000 miles away, that the Qidong
residents had tracked via the Internet. In both cases, the local
governments halted the projects in the face of the citizen unrest.
regional and global implications
China's need for water to fuel its growth and feed its people also
has far reaching implications for the rest of the world. To meet its
food security needs, China is seeking land abroad; to address its
declining fish catch, it is pushing further into contested waters; and
to meet its need to supply its factories, land, and people with energy
and water, it is expanding its network of dams and large scale
hydropower plants.
Fishing in Distant Waters
In 2012, China's State Oceanic Administration completed its 8-year
survey of marine resources and discovered that 90 percent of coastal
cities suffer from intermittent water shortages; mangrove swamps have
decreased by 73 percent and coral reefs by 80 percent since the 1950s,
and coastal wetlands have shrunk by 57 percent.\24\
Pollution has taken a severe toll. Three-quarters of discharges
into estuaries fail to meet regulatory standards. The area of coastal
waters that earned the worst official pollution rating increased by
more than one-third from 2011 to 2012 from 44,000 square kilometers to
68,000 square kilometers.\25\ According to Chinese fishermen, a decade
ago, it was possible to catch fish about 90 nautical miles from the
coast but now they have to go 130 to 160 nautical miles, and the catch
has dropped by three-quarters during the same time period. In addition,
the number of types of marine products with commercial value has
dropped from 70 to 10 in recent years.\26\
As fish stocks in Chinese coastal waters have become depleted,
Chinese fishermen have become more deeply engaged in international
waters. In 2011, 470 Chinese fishing boats were sent back by South
Korean Coast guards for illegally entering South Korean waters. More
than 90 percent of Chinese companies engaged in distant-water fisheries
are private and small,\27\ yet according to some analysts, they are
increasingly coordinated with Chinese maritime authorities. As Lucio
Blano Pitlo suggests, ``In April 2012, Chinese fishermen in the Bajo de
Masincloc (Scarborough Shoal) were about to be apprehended for illegal
fishing but were able to radio Chinese maritime surveillance ships to
intercede on their behalf. Fishermen have become securitized.'' \28\
While conflict is most regularly reported with China's neighbors, such
as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan, according to some sources, the
``most extreme'' illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing by
Chinese has taken place in West African waters. A 2013 report by
scientists at the University of British Columbia estimates that the
total catch of some 3,400 Chinese fishing vessels is 4.1 million tons
(worth more than $11 billion), but that only 9 percent of China's total
catch in Africa, as well as in other international waters, was reported
to the United Nations, complicating efforts by African nations to
manage their stocks.\29\ (These numbers are disputed by the United
Nations Food and Agricultural Organization as too high.) Some of these
catches may be legal, resulting from agreements between China and host
countries that have not been made public, but the sheer magnitude and
unreported nature of the catch is enough to raise alarm bells
throughout Africa and the developing world.
Securing Food
China has historically placed enormous importance on food security
and food self-sufficiency. Increasingly, however, scarce water supplies
and lack of arable land have driven China outside its borders to ensure
this food security. According to one study published in 2013, China is
responsible for about 7 percent of all cross-border land purchases
(i.e., purchases by entities from one country of land in others), third
in the world, well behind the United Kingdom and just behind the United
States.\30\ However, the rate of its acquisitions is increasing
rapidly.
Chinese land and agricultural investments in different parts of the
world take varying forms and serve different purposes. In African
countries such as Zambia and Senegal, Chinese-invested farms are
typically smaller-scale--generally under 5,000 hectares--and often
serve local Chinese communities, such as those that emerge around
particular resource or infrastructure investments.
In other countries, such as Brazil and Australia, China has sought
larger stakes, generally to meet needs in China. Chinese companies'
preference is to own land outright to ensure ``product safety, lower
production costs, and better profits.'' \31\ Where owning land outright
is not possible as in Brazil, they are investing in infrastructure and
processing facilities that allow them to purchase soybeans directly
from Brazilian farmers, circumventing multinational grain
companies.\32\ In a number of countries, such as the Philippines,
Brazil, Argentina, and Australia, there has been pushback--particularly
from local populations--where communities have either passed laws or
rejected land purchases by Chinese companies. Concerns vary by country,
but range from fears over the export of Chinese farmers to control of
valuable arable land by Chinese state-owned enterprises.
Damming and Diverting
China has more dams than any other country in the world, and
between 2007 and 2020, it plans to triple its hydropower capacity.
According to Ma Jun, director of the Chinese NGO Institute of Public
and Environmental Affairs, many Chinese rivers simply will not be
running in 10 years if China meets such hydropower goals.\33\
China's hydropower plans and water needs also have significant
implications for the country's neighbors. Several of Asia's longest and
most important rivers begin in the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau,
and China is a central player in many of the controversies surrounding
shared water resources in Central, South, and Southeast Asia. Several
of these conflicts, such as those centered on the water resources of
the Irtyush, Mekong, and Brahmaputra Rivers are raising regional
tensions as China develops plans upstream that may have dramatic
impacts on the lower reaches. Damming of rivers to generate
hydroelectric power alters the way that water flows; it can harm
fisheries and agricultural activity downstream. When river waters are
permanently diverted for irrigation, other energy production, or
similar uses that permanently consume the water (unlike hydroelectric
dams), they can harm those who share the water resources more. This
potential for damage is often compounded by poor or nonexistent
information sharing between China and others with which it shares
rivers.\34\
Across all three conflict areas--the Mekong, the Irtysh, and the
Brahmaputra--China has been generally unwilling to discuss shared water
rights--which it does not recognize--or even to share information
concerning water levels, usage, or pollution. In each case, however,
significant negative media attention and public pressure have brought
China to the table. With regard to the Irtysh, for example, China's
plans to divert significant amounts of water from the Irtysh through a
series of canals contributed to significant negative publicity within
Kazakhstan and eventually to the establishment of a 2011 Agreement on
Water Quality in Transboundary Waters between China and Kazakhstan,
obligating each side to monitor water quality.\35\ The two countries
are also conducting scientific research on transborder river issues.
The research is expected to be completed in 2014 with an eye toward
informing later agreement. Still there is no agreement as to shared
water rights, although Kazakhstan may be able to leverage Chinese
interests in investing in and developing Kazakh oil and copper
resources to make progress in this area.
beijing's response
The Ministry of Environmental Protection's annual report released
in June 2013 stated that the future outlook on the quality of China's
water sources is ``far from optimistic.'' \36\ China's leaders face a
daunting challenge: how to meet the needs of their rapidly growing
economy and large population with a gravely threatened water supply.
Beijing's answer more often than not has been to launch large work
projects and campaigns reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution era. They
also have plans to invest $650 billion on projects between 2011 and
2020, but between 2006 and 2010, they spent $112 billion and the
situation still has not improved.\37\
The answer to China's water dilemma is not complicated in
conception, but it is challenging in implementation. It rests in
developing a system of incentives and disincentives that make it easy
for officials and the Chinese people to do the right thing. Local
environmental protection bureaus often lack the capacity to enforce
laws and regulations, with too few human or financial resources to
oversee the factories in their jurisidiction. Fines for polluting
enterprises are often ignored or negotiatied such that continuously
paying fines is still cheaper than following regulations. And
corruption is also a significant problem. Of the 1.3 percent of GDP
that Beijing currently spends on environmental protection (note:
experts believe the percentage should be closer to 2-4 percent of GDP),
half finds its way into other local priorities such as infrastructure
development.\38\
Pricing reform is one element of an effective policy response.
Simply put, water in China is too cheap. Experiments are under way in a
number of municipalities for tiered pricing to try to distribute the
burden of price rises, and Beijing has asked local governments to
``carry out a tiered pricing system for urban households by the end of
2013.'' \39\ However, such efforts are highly sensitive politically. A
recent proposal by the China Water Investment Corporation, which is
owned by the Ministry of Water Resources and the China Power
Construction Corporation, to increase water tariffs by more than ten
times was the object of a scathing editorial in the investigative
journal Caixin, which argued, ``More than half of the country's water
companies are in the red. Low prices are not the major reason companies
have suffered large scale losses--it is due to lack of government
investment. They need to maintain pipes and other facilities. Public
access to clean drinking water should be provided by the government.
Not one Chinese city has said its tap water is suitable for drinking.''
\40\
A sound Chinese water strategy also needs to strengthen those
elements of China's political system that support good environmental
policymaking. Yet such change is even slower to emerge than pricing
reform. The most dynamic and creative forces in Chinese environmental
protection are Chinese environmental NGOs and the media. They
collaborate--often with international partners--on a wide range of
issues such as publishing maps of polluting factories, pushing local
officials to publish legally mandated pollution statistics, protesting
excessive dam construction, developing building energy efficiency
standards, and documenting the public health consequences of pollution.
Yet Chinese officials remain concerned about delivering too much
information and too much power to forces outside direct government
control. Thus, the media are advised not to publicize water pollution
disasters, and environmental activists may be detained and arrested if
they overtly challenge local officials.
The rule of law is also essential to effective environmental
protection. Former deputy director of the State Environmental
Protection Administration (now the Ministry of Enviornmental
Protection) Zhang Kunmin, for example, has stated that the environment
cannot truly be protected until people's legal rights are
guaranteed.\41\ However, laws and regulations that promote transparency
are often poorly enforced. For example, Chinese scholars have noted
that although environmental impact assessments are perhaps the most
important form of government-supported citizen engagement in the
environment, the system is deeply flawed: only a small percentage of
projects are subjected to compulsory public participation; the timing
and duration of engaging the public is short; the method of selecting
those who can participate is often biased; and the amount of
information actually disclosed is often quite limited in order to try
to prevent social unrest.\42\
Moreover, recent draft revisions to the Environmental Protection
Law take a step backward in accountability and the rule of law by
placing sole authority for bringing public interest environmental
lawsuits in the hands of the All-China Environmental Federation (ACEF)
and its provincial-level branches. Previously, some cities, such as
Hainan, had permitted a wide range of people, including individuals to
bring cases; and nongovernmental organizations, such as the Center for
Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims, have handled over 200
environmental lawsuits for pollution victims. Since the ACEF is
overseen by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, many
environmental activists believe that it is unlikely to be very
aggressive in bringing cases, and are protesting the draft
regulations.\43\
china's environment and the u.s. rebalance to asia
The U.S. Rebalance to Asia reflects a renewed and broader
commitment by the United States to the Asia Pacific region, first and
foremost in the realms of security and trade and investment. Expanding
the parameters of the rebalance to include issues such as the
environment, which is integrally intertwined with both regional
security and future regional economic growth, adds an important new
dimension to this U.S. effort.
The role of China in the original conception of the rebalance is
somewhat complicated, recognizing both the enormous opportunities for
growing U.S.-China cooperation but also the challenges posed by China's
inreasing economic and military strength. Much as in the security and
economic arenas, the U.S. focus in the environmental arena should be
twofold: supporting targeted bilateral U.S.-China cooperation; and
strengthening multilateral cooperation to enhance the efficacy of
collaboration with China when possible and to bring pressure to bear on
China when necessary.
Target the Fundamentals
The United States has a vast array of environmental cooperation
efforts underway with China. It should develop a clear set of
priorities that focus most explicitly on those areas where China needs
the greatest support. For example, given the structural weakness in
China's environmental protection system, the United States could
develop a signature program on the rule of law, utilizing public-
private partnerships with U.S. business, scholars, and NGOs. Building
on the work of the American Bar Association and others, the program
could help train judges and lawyers, as well as help develop
regulations and standards where appropriate. For example, China is
making significant investments in shale gas development both within
China and, increasingly, in the United States. It plans to have the
capacity to develop 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually by
2020. Yet China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has said that it
will need at least 3 to 5 years to develop the necessary
regulations.\44\ Given the strong interest of Chinese oil and gas
companies in U.S. shale gas development, U.S.-China cooperation on
developing environmental standards would be beneficial to both sides.
Strengthen and Better Utilize the U.S. Embassy in Beijing
The United States Embassy in Beijing achieved singular success in
supporting environmental protection in China by Tweeting Chinese air
pollution statistics and spurring the citizen activism that resulted in
Chinese cities more accurately reporting local air quality. The Embassy
should consider launching a broader environmental educational campaign
via the Internet that would strengthen citizen awareness. The campaign
could share best U.S. practices, provide a platform for the Ministry of
Environmental Protection and Chinese environmental activists to share
their work, and potentially even address sensitive issues such as food
safety.
Encourage China's Participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Transpacific Partnership (TPP) represents a unique opportunity
to reinforce the linkage between trade and environment in a meaningful
manner. Evading environmental laws and subverting norms undermines best
trade practices. The United States should ensure that a strong
environmental commitment on issues such as the illegal timber trade,
trade in endangered species, and illegal fisheries that allows for
binding commitments and international enforcement is incorporated into
the TPP. China's accession into the TPP would then represent an
important new vehicle for helping ensure China's adherence to
environmental laws and regulations.
Work with Other Partners in the Region to Support Transparency and Best
Practices
Bilateral U.S.-China cooperation can only accomplish so much. The
European Union, Japan, and Canada have all been very active in
developing Chinese environmental protection efforts. More attention
needs to be paid to ensuring that cooperative efforts reinforce but do
not replicate each other. To the extent possible, intellectual and
financial resources should be combined to deliver the strongest
support. At the same time, the work that the United States has
undertaken throughout the Asia-Pacific region, such as the Coral
Triangle Initative and the Mekong River Commission, are essential to
strengthening the capacity of our partners to address their own
internal monitoring and enforcement capacities, as well as that of
China. The United States should look for additional means of enhancing
its commitment to such regional agreements, as some analysts have
proposed for example, by developing a system of fish import
certification to reduce the proliferation of illegal fishing throughout
the region.
----------------
End Notes
\1\ Elizabeth Economy, ``China's Growing Water Crisis,'' in
``Coming Up Empty: Tackling Resource Scarcity,'' World Politics Review,
August 9, 2011.
\2\ Keith Schneider, ``Coal is China's Largest Industrial Water
Consumer,'' Grist.org, February 24, 2011, http://grist.org/article/
2011-02-23-coal-is-chinas-largest-industrial-water-consumer/.
\3\ Ecns.com, ``China's water crisis a growing threat,'' March 26,
2012, www.ecns.cn/2012/03-26/11135.shtml.
\4\ Ibid.
\5\ Mark Fischetti, ``How Much Water Do Nations Consume?''
Scientific American, May 21, 2012, http://www.scientificamerican.com/
article.cfm?id=graphic-science-how-much-water-nations-consume.
\6\ Barry van Wyk, ``The groundwater of 90% of Chinese cities is
polluted,'' Danwei.com, February 18, 2013, http://www.danwei.com/the-
groundwater-of-90-of-chinese-cities-is-polluted/.
\7\ Wu Xiaoqing, ``Address at the Press Conference of the State
Council Information Office,'' June 5, 2012, http://www.china.com.cn/
zhibo/zhuanti/ch-xinwen/2012-06/05/content_25566769.htm.
\8\ Peng Liguo, ``Beijing family boycotts city's tap water,''
ChinaDialogue.net, January 16, 2013, http://www.chinadialogue.net/
article/show/single/en/5611-Beijing-family-boycotts-city-s-tap-water;
for the original article in Chinese, please see: http://www.infzm.com/
content/84703.
\9\ ``50 Percent Of Water In China May Be Unsafe To Drink,'' May
17, 2012, http://www.ibtimes.com/50-percent-water-china-may-be-unsafe-
drink-698930.
\10\ ``Report on China's national economic, social development plan
(2010),'' NPC.gov.cn, March 16, 2010, http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/
Special_11_4/2010-03/19/content_1621704.htm.
\11\ Gong Jing and Wang Haotong, ``What's coming out of China's
taps?'' ChinaDialogue.net, June 7, 2012, http://www.chinadialogue.net/
article/show/single/en/4962-What-s-coming-out-of-China-s-taps-.
\12\ Jing Gong and Hongqiao Liu, ``Half of China's urban drinking
water fails to meet standards,'' ChinaDialogue.net, June 6, 2013,
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/6074-Half-of-China-
s-urban-drinking-water-fails-to-meet-standards.
\13\ Lee Liu, ``Made in China: Cancer Villages,'' Environment,
March/April 2010, http://www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/
Back%20Issues/March-April%202010/made-in-china-full.html.
\14\ David Wertime, ``China's State-Run Media Shares Powerful Map
of `Cancer Villages' Creeping Inland,'' ChinaFile.com, February 22,
2013, http://www.chinafile.com/china-s-state-run-media-shares-powerful-
map-cancer-villages-creeping-inland.
\15\ Shi Jiangtao, ``Millions of hectares of farmland and 12m
tonnes of grain contaminated,'' South China Morning Post, July 19,
2012, http://www.scmp.com/article/738908/millions-hectares-farmland-
and-12m-tonnes-grain-contaminated.
\16\ Christina Larson, ``Soil Pollution Is a State Secretin
China,'' Bloomberg BusinessWeek, February 25, 2013,
www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-25/soil-pollution-is-a-state-
secret-in-china.
\17\ Jian Xie, ``Addressing China's Water Scarcity,'' The World
Bank, 2009.
\18\ Brooke Barton, ``Why water consciousness is a business
imperative in China,'' GreenBiz.com, April 16, 2013, http://
www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/04/16/water-business-imperative-china.
\19\ ``Cost of Pollution in China: Economic Estimates of Physical
Damages,'' The World Bank, 2007.
\20\ Emily Ford, ``More than half of Chinese rivers have
`disappeared' since 1990s,'' The Times, March 29, 2013, http://
dgrnewsservice.org/2013/03/29/more-than-half-of-chinese-rivers-have-
disappeared-since-1990s/.
\21\ Tom Orlik, ``Unrest Grows as Economy Booms,'' Wall Street
Journal, September 26, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424053111903703604576587070600504108.html.
\22\ ``Chinese Anger Over Pollution Becomes Main Cause of Social
Unrest,'' BloombergNews, March 6, 2013,http://www.bloomberg.com/news/
2013-03-06/pollution-passes-land-grievances-as-main-spark-of-china-
protests.html.
\23\ ``China waste water pipeline scrapped after protest,'' BBC
News, July 28, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-
19026464.
\24\ Jane Qiu, ``Chinese survey reveals widespread coastal
pollution,'' Nature, November 6, 2012, http://www.nature.com/news/
chinese-survey-reveals-widespread-coastal-pollution-1.11743.
\25\ Qian Wang, High Tech Marine Sector Steams Ahead, China Daily,
June 8, 2013, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/202936/8277851.html
\26\ An Baijie and Xu Wei, ``Overfishing depleting sea resources,''
China Daily, February 21, 2013, http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/
business/2013-02/21/content_16241804.htm.
\27\ ``Group formed to aid fisheries,'' Xinhua, May 30, 2013,
www.china.org.cn/environment/2012-05/30/content_25515197.htm.
\28\ Lucio Blanco Pitlo III, ``Fishing Wars: Competition for South
China Sea's Fishery Resources,'' Eurasia Review, July 10, 2013, http://
www.eurasiareview.com/10072013-fishing-wars-competition-for-south-
china-seas-fishery-resources-analysis/.
\29\ John Vidal, ``Chinese fishing fleet in African waters reports
9% of catch to UN,'' the Guardian (April 3, 2013) http://
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/03/chinese-fishing-fleet-
african-catch.
\30\ Maria Cristina Rulli, Antonio Saviori, and Paolo D'Odorico,
``Global land and water grabbing,'' PNAS 10, no. 3 (January 2013): 895.
\31\ Stephen Chen, ``Party cadre Zhu Zhangjin pins hopes of food
security on overseas farms,'' South China Morning Post, March 24, 2013,
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1198218/party-cadre-zhu-
zhangjin-pins-hopes-food-security-overseas-farms.
\32\ Elizabeth Economy, Interview with Brazilian Agricultural
officials (March 2013).
\33\ David Stanway, ``Water, CO2 the priorities for China's 5-year
plan,'' Reuters, March 3, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/
03/us-china-environment-idUSTRE72214Y20110303.
\34\ Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi,``By All Means Necessary:
How China's Resource Quest is Changing the World'' (forthcoming Oxford
Press, 2014).
\35\ ``Conflict of Interest has Created Water Crisis,'' European
Dialogue, April 13, 2011, http://eurodialogue.org/conflict-of-
interests-has-created-water-crisis.
\36\ ``China moves to address drinking water woes,'' Xinhua, July
21, 2013, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-07/21/
c_132559802.htm.
\37\ David Stanway, ``After China's multibillion-dollar cleanup,
water still unfit to drink,'' Reuters, February 20, 2013,
www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/20/us-china-pollution-water-
idUSBRE91J19N201.
\38\ Stephen Chen, ``Money for fighting pollution `wasted,' ''
South China Morning Post, April 1, 2012 http://www.scmp.com/article/
698060/money-fighting-pollution-wasted.
\39\ Zhao Li, ``Low water prices must be revised,'' China Daily,
May 27, 2011, http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2011-05/27/
content_12592357.htm.
\40\ Gong Jing, ``Closer Look: Why Idea to Raise Water Bills Is All
Wet,'' Caixin, April 18, 2013, http://english.caixin.com/2013-04-18/
100515675.html.
\41\ Meng Si, ``Seeking damages,'' ChinaDialogue.net, July 21,
2011, http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4422-Seeking-
damages.
\42\ Yuhuan Zhang, Xiaowen Liu, Yunjun Yu, Guojian Bian, Yu Li, and
Yingxian Long, ``Challenge of Public Participation in China's EIA
Practice,'' South China Institute of Environmental Sciences: IAIA12
Conference Proceedings, May 27-June 1, 2012.
\43\ Luna lin and Zhang Chun, ``Amending environmental protection
law a backward step, say NGOs,'' ChinaDialogue.net, June 28, 2013,
www.chinadialouge.net/blog/6162-amending-environmental-protection-law-
a-back.
\44\ Wang Xiaocong, ``Environmental Frets as Frackers Move In,''
Caixin, November 20, 2012, http://english.caixin.com/2012-11-20/
100462881.html.
Senator Cardin. Well, thank you. I thank both of you. I
think your testimony has been extremely helpful to our debate.
Dr. Economy, let me just point out that the first hearing
we held on rebalance dealt with good governance because we do
think it is fundamental to the building blocks on all these
issues, including how we deal with the environmental challenges
in the region.
Your suggestion on TPP is a really good suggestion. It
gives us an opportunity to include, we hope, an environmental
dimension in that agreement. We will have a debate about that
when we deal with trade promotion authority. I also serve on
the Senate Finance Committee. That will be an issue that the
Senate Finance Committee will deal with, and also the trade
agreement itself as to how it deals with environmental issues.
As you point out, China's not a party to the TPP and it is
not likely that they will be engaged with this type of a
multilateral agreement including Western countries in the near
future. So we still need to find a way to engage China.
One way that could work--and I talked to President Park of
South Korea about it, it is her initiative--is to establish a
regional dialogue organization similar to the OSCE. Her idea is
for Northeast Asia, but there are possibilities of expanding
that mechanism beyond just Northeast Asia, to include not just
China, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan, but also the United
States and Russia.
So there are ways that we think we can engage on a regional
basis to advance sustainability.
Mr. Roberts, you raise a very good point about
sustainability. I was with former President Clinton when we
named the EPA building after President Clinton and he made the
point that his administration understood and supported the fact
that a commitment to your environment is compatible with
economic growth. In fact, he made the point that the only way
you are going to get economic growth, is if you respect your
resources.
So as we are working with countries that still have
valuable resources, but have not developed to the level that
the industrial nations have, it is a point that is going to be
difficult for us to make because we have already done our
thing. But these nations' future economic growth very much
depends upon the way they manage their resources today. The
more that we can make that point, it is going to be yes, good
for us because we want stable countries, but it is also good
for that country.
I know that is a difficult point to make when you are
sitting in a position where you are a developed nation and you
have already lost some of the diversity that we are trying to
protect in other countries. But it is a point that I think we
have to emphasize when we can.
Well, I first want to get on the record the wildlife
trafficking issue and whether there is more that you would
expect the United States to do in leadership to promote
management of wildlife, to preserve diversity, and to protect
endangered species. Is there more that we should be doing?
Mr. Roberts. Yes, absolutely. You know, the numbers are
stunning. We lost 30,000 elephants last year alone. On the
rhino trade, South Africa was losing about 20 a year for a
long, long time. Three years ago it jumped to 150, then to 350.
This year we are on track to break 650. The numbers are just
growing. They are quite, quite huge. You rightly point out the
connection between that and criminal syndicates and the rule of
law and the rest.
There is a lot of interest in our government, in the White
House, in the State Department, in Interior, and in Congress to
do something about it. We have been working with--in fact, this
morning we had a meeting with the wider conservation community
we hosted in our office, in responding to the new Executive
order that President Obama signed just a few weeks ago.
I think there is an opportunity for real legislation and we
are working with the House Foreign Affairs Committee on several
legislative options, including a moratorium on ivory trade in
our own country, and also really making sure we have the
resources to mobilize the right kind of action on the ground.
It is not just enough to catch poachers.
I was just in Nepal with my daughter in fact and we were
tracking rhinos on the back of elephants, and we had the
opportunity to dart one one-horned rhino and put a collar
around the rhino to track the rhino. We were with a colonel of
the army there. Nepal has reached the zero poaching level and I
asked him: How did you get to zero poaching?
He said: It was all about infiltrating the networks; it is
all about intelligence. It is about going upstream. The
poachers are just local guys who are following the money, and
you have got to follow the money upstream by deploying the best
available intelligence. That includes our resources available
here, but working with other governments, too.
So I think--then last but not least is demand. That is a
diplomatic issue as much as anything. The Prime Minister of
Thailand just committed to ending the ivory trade in her own
country. She is going to need help. I believe there are real
opportunities in China and Vietnam, which on ivory and rhino
horn respectively are the two main drivers.
So I think our government should do a lot more. It needs to
start at home. There is some legislation that we have talked
about. I think having a Senate hearing on this topic would be
magnificent and would open up not only the crisis, but also the
options that are in front of us, and help drive some things
forward quickly that need to be done.
Senator Cardin. Well, thank you. Thank you for that
suggestion.
On Myanmar, it is a young country from the point of view of
reform. The President was recently here. I must tell you--and I
think I express the sentiment of all those who had the
opportunity to meet with him--that he is very impressive. The
jury is obviously out on what is happening in that country, but
it is a country that is struggling with civilian leadership--
and whether it will survive--we will see.
I would welcome your thoughts as to Myanmar, because I
think we do have inroads to impact some of their decisions. The
President asked for transparency--he wants to do things very
openly. I thought he was very sincere about that.
So I think it would be helpful if you could perhaps give us
help as to what should be on our wish list as they manage the
resources of their country, things that we should try to
promote, which might be useful.
Well, we have mentioned China, which is obviously the
country that gets the most attention. Dr. Economy, I would like
you to tell us, knowing the current environment, how can the
United States be more effective in bringing about leadership
from China on environmental issues?
Dr. Economy. Well, I think it is probably prudent to bear
in mind that in most respects the United States leverage,
impact, influence, on China is, if not marginal, it is limited.
This is an enormous country. It is now the second-largest
economy in the world and it will likely be the largest economy
in the world in a decade or less. And it marches to its own
drummer and it has its own sets of priorities.
But I do think we have seen in the past 5 to 10 years some
evidence of what it does take to move China. I think in some
respects it can be rather surprising. For example, I think it
is excellent that we have a new climate partnership, but the
reality is that getting China to move on certain issues came
about on the climate change issue much more because small
island states and other small countries stood up and said: You,
China, need to do more.
There are certain things that matter to China. For example,
still being considered a leader within the developing world
matters a lot to China. It does not like to be called out on
certain kinds of behavior. When developing countries unite and
do ask China to change its position, sometimes that does bring
about change.
I think working with actors in China that are obviously
supportive of doing the right thing, identifying them and then
working with them is important as well. I think that requires
operating at a number of different levels: certainly the
central government, but also Chinese businesses now. There is a
Green Entrepreneur Society that includes some of the powerful
Chinese companies, that are the largest Chinese companies, that
are out there today, that are very concerned about doing the
right thing on the environment. I think working with some of
them, having our business community work with them, is one
possibility, developing partnerships at that level.
And certainly NGOs. As I mentioned, they really are the
most dynamic and I think creative force in China today. They
are the ones who are pushing for the types of change that will
bring about that good governance.
So I think there are things that we can do to support them.
Obviously, they cannot be overt, because the United States
Government supporting Chinese NGO activity will not go over
very well. But for example, there are many, many NGOs
worldwide--World Wildlife Fund is certainly one of them, but
NRDC, Environmental Defense Fund, and many others--who have
been working in China, working with the Chinese for long
periods of time. To the extent that the U.S. Government can
support their activities and their partnerships with China, I
think that is also really important, because supporting the
people that are actually effecting the change from the bottom
up I think is quite worthwhile.
Senator Cardin. So we have talked about China, we have
talked about Myanmar, we have talked about the countries along
the Mekong. Are there other countries in Asia that we should be
particularly concerned about on the environmental front or on
preserving diversity, water security, et cetera, that you would
want the subcommittee to pay attention to?
Mr. Roberts. Obviously, Indonesia is at the top of the
list. When we map all the priorities of the world in terms of
fisheries and forests and rivers and the rest, Indonesia always
comes out No. 1. It is where everything piles up. It is the
world's richest forest pound for pound in terms of diversity of
life per square kilometer. I do not know if you have seen the
map of coral reef diversity in the world. It looks like a
bull's eye. The center of the bull's eye is Indonesia.
Yet it is a very complicated country because it is such a
vast archipelago with so many different dynamics there. Yet it
is also a country where the President has made the Coral
Triangle Initiative one of his signature accomplishments. But
it is where everything comes together in terms of food
production, in terms of timber and pulp production, in places
like Borneo and Sumatra, and where I think there is an
opportunity. We talked about commodities and getting those
right and we talked about fisheries management and getting that
right, that Indonesia is more than any other a place where, if
we can nail those kinds of models in a country that has real
governance issues, that it will have an enormous impact just in
that country and also beyond.
So it has been already one of the priority programs for the
U.S. Government. But just continuing that kind of work with the
countries around Indonesia is enormously important.
I do not know if you have any other suggestions.
Dr. Economy. No, I focus on China. It keeps me busy, let me
tell you.
Senator Cardin. You want to get back to China.
Dr. Economy. No, no. All I was going to say is actually, as
I was just thinking about it, I am glad to hear that you are
thinking about working with Japan and South Korea and the sort
of Northeast Asia regional sort of forum. I know that had been
floated even during the Clinton administration, and China was
not interested at that point in time. So this I think
represents a real step forward if in fact they are interested.
This may be sort of a six-party talks comes to the environment.
Senator Cardin. That is exactly right. The motivating
factor for this is South Korea. They are the ones pushing it
hard. China was interested because they thought it helped North
Korea to be in this type of a regional discussion. Japan
thought it was interesting that they could be in a regional
organization with Korea and perhaps do something about their
relationship. It is a complicated group. When you are in each
country they have different priorities, but I think they share
a lot in common.
The good news about the Helsinki framework is that it is
not that intimidating because it is a consensus group. So you
do not have to worry about treaty responsibilities. You just
sit down and talk. It is proven effective.
The other advantage and what we are looking at is whether
it could be put under the umbrella of OSCE, so they do not have
to negotiate the commitments. The commitments are universal.
They have already been agreed to under Helsinki.
So there is interest in that and we are pursuing it. We
expect to see whether that can be done, either formally or
informally. Some of the countries already have affiliate
memberships within OSCE.
Mr. Roberts. Mr. Chairman, one thing I wanted to just touch
on, and it is building off of your comments, is the whole
notion of regional influence. On Myanmar, Myanmar is going to
chair ASEAN in the coming year. I think if we can smartly work
with Myanmar on a set of agenda items in the context of ASEAN
that build off the kind of green economy principles that we
ought to be building with Myanmar and the kind of smart choices
that I talked about in Myanmar, that we could engage Myanmar
also in their leadership in ASEAN in advancing those kind of
principles throughout that region and use their influence.
I never thought I would be talking about Myanmar's
influence in the rest of Southeast Asia, but there you have it,
because everybody is watching, they have the platform, and by
giving the right technical assistance on mapping their
biodiversity and giving them the right guidelines on technical
choices and using ASEAN as a platform, is I think, a golden
opportunity for us to engage with that country and have ripple
effects far beyond.
Senator Cardin. It is an opportunity. When nations want to
take on leadership responsibility within regional
organizations, they need to be a model in using that to advance
the goals of those regional organizations. You are absolutely
correct, we do have higher expectations if they want to step
into leadership positions.
I found this with Vietnam and now perhaps with Myanmar--
that they really do want to become more of a legitimate
international player. And if that is the case, then they need
to change and they need to show leadership. We are seeing that
they are taking some steps to do that. Again, the jury is out.
I am not trying to oversell this. But we have seen some signs
of progress. Certainly I could get into human rights, which is
one of my favorite subjects, and there are certain deficiencies
there that are pretty fundamental that have to be dealt with.
Mr. Roberts. When we look around in the world, we have all
kinds of science that says these parts of the world are
important and that prioritize different parts of the world, and
then there are these unexpected openings when the biggest
things happen. One of the proudest things we have ever done was
when Namibia attained independence and the U.S. Government
through USAID helped build one of the most powerful community-
based programs for conservation there--another country that
almost has zero poaching.
There are these moments when countries like Myanmar or
Namibia or Nepal change governments and things happen, where
shame on us if we do not provide the right technical assistance
at the right moment and do so over an extended period of time,
because success blossoms in the most unexpected places. I see
that part of the world, Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, as
one of the biggest opportunities we have in our work.
Senator Cardin. Agreed.
Well, let me thank both of you for your contributions to
this hearing. I think this has been extremely helpful to us.
The President's initiative on the rebalance gives the United
States much greater visibility in the Asia-Pacific region, and
that allows us to move forward on agenda items. We think very
much that sustainability, the environmental front, the
management of food and water resources is a critical objective
for the United States in Asia. So we will continue to promote
these issues, and you have helped us develop a workable
strategy.
Thank you all very much, and with that the subcommittee
will stand adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 2:22 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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