China’s overseas loans pose risks to biodiversity and indigenous lands, US study shows
- Some 63 per cent of Chinese-financed projects, mainly in Southeast Asia and Central Africa, found to overlap ecologically sensitive and indigenous areas
- Speedy approvals make Chinese loans attractive, but both policy banks and borrowing countries must step up due diligence, researchers behind study say
Around two-thirds of China’s overseas lending in the past decade posed risks to the environment, a new study has found.
As much as 63 per cent of nearly 600 Chinese-financed projects from 2008 to 2019 overlapped with ecologically sensitive areas and indigenous lands, mainly in Southeast Asia and Central Africa, the study by US-based researchers showed.
“Countries such as Ethiopia, Laos and Argentina have more than 70 per cent of their loans overlapping indigenous peoples’ lands, and all the loans in Benin, Bolivia and Mongolia overlap ecologically sensitive areas,” they wrote in an article published on Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
“Due to the lack of universal recognition and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights, many development projects within or surrounding indigenous lands have been implemented without indigenous communities’ consent, leading to social, economic and political conflicts.”
Up to 24 per cent of the world’s threatened birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians are potentially affected by projects all over the world, they added.