Environmental Performance Evaluation and Reporting in Developing Countries

In June 1995 Indonesia became the first developing country to introduce a public environmental reporting initiative, the 'Programme for Pollution Control, Evaluation and Rating' (PROPER). This chapter begins by describing PROPER, in more detail, followed by a discussion of the conceptual issues involved in developing composite indicators. It describes the specific approach adopted by PROPER and examines its real impact in Indonesia. PROPER satisfies the key need for reporting in developing countries, which is the ability to communicate with audiences that have no familiarity with mainstream business language or may even be illiterate. Under PROPER, industrial enterprises are evaluated by the Environmental Impact and Management Agency, Government of Indonesia, for their environmental performance, and the results, in the form of a five colour rating scheme, are reported to the public through press conferences and the Internet. For three categories of performance—average, bad and very bad—the pollutants covered in the programme are governed primarily by the water regulations.