ABSTRACT
This dire situation first began to shift during the quasi-civilian government of President Thein Sein between 2011 and 2016, with an Environmental Law, which had been drafted and redrafted over 15 years, finally passed in March 2012 (Government of Myanmar, 2012). The various rules and procedures that were to implement this law took several years to be finalized, with implementation of, for example, the EIA Procedures left to the newly formed National League for Democracy (NLD) government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, from 2016. Due to these governments’ lack of experience and expertise in this area, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) assisted with the drafting of the EIA Procedures, Rules and National Environmental Quality Standards through a Technical Assistance Grant under the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Environment Program (ADB, 2014). 1 Although the ADB itself is regularly criticized for not having adequate public participation and environmental safeguards, the historical lack of any
environmental protections in Myanmar makes the standards of international financial institutions such as the ADB look relatively thorough (Simpson and Park, 2013).
