Cultural influences on implementing environmental impact assessment: Insights from Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia
- SRD Sustainable Resource Development, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)
In Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia, political and business support for environmental impact assessment (EIA) is low, and environmental agencies are virtually powerless compared with economic development agencies. Whereas technical factors contribute to the consequent ineffectiveness of EIA, cultural factors provide complementary explanations. A reliance on paternalistic authority, hierarchy, and status as principles of social organization; a dependence on patron-client relationships for ensuring loyalty and advancement among political, bureaucratic, and private-sector actors; and a strong desire to avoid conflict and maintain face; all of these factors reinforce the power of political and business elites and circumscribe that of individuals and communities. They also result in government bureaucracies where low-status environmental agencies have little power or authority and the interagency cooperation needed for effective EIA is lacking. The article demonstrates that it is vital to consider cultural as well as technical factors when examining the difficulties of implementing policies or programs like EIA, which are invented in the West and transferred to another culture with very different social and political heritages and practices.
- OSTI ID:
- 290236
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Vol. 18, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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