the Environmental Law Institute, the University of Tokyo, and
the United Nations Environment Programme
In a world of burgeoning populations and resource-intensive development needs, acute challenges are emerging regarding water resource allocation and protection. Managing freshwater resources more equitably and effectively is fundamental to ensuring that both human and ecological needs for water are met in a sustainable fashion. With over 250 river basins shared by two or more states worldwide, one of the most complex aspects of this management will be the improved governance of shared watercourses. Environmental impact assessment and, more recently, social impact assessment have emerged as valuable tools for ensuring the sustainability of natural resource and development projects that affect these transboundary watercourses.
The Environmental Law Institute (ELI), the University of Tokyo, and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently completed a three-year project to assess the accuracy of transboundary impact assessments. The project focused on comparing predicted social and environmental impacts with the actual impacts for five projects in Africa and Asia. Please join us for a discussion about the findings of the case studies, including insights about the accuracy of transboundary impact assessments, factors that may affect the accuracy, and suggestions about where to go from here.