Eye on Asia | China’s institutions and banks need help from the world’s civil society to ensure the Belt and Road Initiative remains green
- A massive dam in northern Sumatra, financed by the Bank of China, threatens to wipe out the natural habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan
- The orangutan, discovered only in 2017, is the rarest species of apes
Activists of 12 countries conducted rallies in London, Hong Kong and Nairobi last week to protest financing by Bank of China to build the Batang Toru Dam in Indonesia’s North Sumatra, due to its catastrophic impact on communities and biodiversity.
If built, scientists say that the dam will doom the Tapanuli orangutan, which was only discovered in 2017, almost to certain extinction. It would also impoverish downstream communities who rely on the natural flow of the river for their livelihood.
With such extreme biodiversity impact, the Batang Toru Dam bears the uncomfortable distinction as not only the first project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to potentially trigger the collapse of an entire species, but also the first to spark a global wave of protests against a Chinese bank.
International outcry against ill-conceived Chinese investments are growing, and this is not directed only at those with extreme biodiversity impact.
Financial institutions bankrolling the BRI are also coming under fire for failing to constructively engage and listen to civil society. The BRI calls for environmental protection with “with higher standards” and encourages the “exchange and cooperation of non-governmental environmental organisations,” according to the Chinese government.
