Environmental justice and project development : the Sri Lankan experience

Abstract

Despite large contributions from academia, there is a significant lack of indicators against which to measure environmental injustice, particularly with regard to project development in developing countries such as Sri Lanka. Indicators and methodological approaches that have been developed and are being used in the West are mostly irrelevant since the types of environmental injustices experienced in the two regions are different. This study presents an "environmental justice matrix", a tool consisting of selected indicators that represent a variety of issues that have the potential to cause environmental injustice and that are encountered during the different phases of project development in Sri Lanka. The matrix is designed to evaluate the degree of environmental injustice that may arise during project development and should serve to keep environmental justice front and centre of every stage of the project, especially during the assessment and decision making processes. The value of this tool is illustrated by assessing two large infrastructure projects against the matrix.