China has constructed numerous ports, bridges and other coastal projects throughout the developing world in recent years in what’s been dubbed by Beijing the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” – part of President Xi Jinping’s greater Belt and Road Initiative to build infrastructure.
But while some projects help developing economies increase their capacity for trade, there are environmental downsides to China’s coastal infrastructure, according to an academic study published this week in the journal One Earth, with Africa among the most negatively affected regions and Caribbean Island nations also facing high risk to marine habitats.
The study, by researchers from Boston University Global Development Policy Center, University of California Santa Barbara, Colorado State University and the University of Queensland, looked at the risks from 114 Chinese-funded coastal development projects over a 10-year period until 2019. The projects studied were funded by either the China Development Bank or Export-Import Bank of China and totaled some $65 billion in financing. China is the biggest bilateral funder of coastal infrastructure overseas, surpassing Japan and multilateral institutions like the Asian Development Bank.
“‘The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road’ has enormous potential to propel economic prosperity … but there are growing concerns regarding the potential deleterious impacts of this initiative on the environment and local and indigenous communities,” the study said.
For example, in “Angola and Mozambique, more than 2,000 [square kilometers] of marine habitats face high impact risks,” the research found. However, just a few months ago, Chinese upgrades to a port in Angola were lauded by Chinese state media the Global Times, which said the project is designed to benefit the community in several ways including meeting “local demand for import and export of goods.”
While infrastructure such as bridges and power plants can also threaten the environment, it is port developments that represent the greatest risks to marine systems, researchers found.
“Ports rank as the highest-risk sector for coastal construction, because of the many possible avenues for environmental and social impacts: beyond the noise, light, and habitat disruption from the construction itself, they also bring the potential for significant changes in local ecosystems through the introduction of invasive species who ‘hitchhike’ on incoming ships and the depletion of local fish stocks from new fishing fleets who may come to use the port,” Rebecca Ray, senior researcher in global development policy at Boston University, told VOA.
African ports, such as those in Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique and Djibouti, are prominent regional risk hotspots. The study found that as well as affecting marine life and biodiversity, such projects can negatively impact indigenous coastal communities.
This was particularly stark in West Africa, it said, where “seas surrounding coastal indigenous communities in Western and central Africa are disproportionately at risk, which could result in negative effects in seafood consumption and local livelihoods.”