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| In northern Myanmar, police in March guarded a Chinese-backed copper mining project. |
DAWEI, Myanmar—Dressed in a sarong and sunglasses, Ko Lay Lwin recalls the moment he became an environmental activist. Surveyors had appeared outside his wooden, A-frame home and were taking measurements, so he asked what was going on.
"They said the land was Thailand's now," he says.
The hermit dictatorship of Myanmar was opening to the world in 2010, and the military government had lofty visions of transforming the impoverished nation into a global industrial hub—starting with a vast deep-sea port here in Dawei. There would be a 4,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant, petrochemical refineries and potential investments of $50 billion.
Today the Dawei project is stalled. Myanmar's government blocked the Thai developer's plans for the coal-burning power plant, while Thailand's leaders haven't yet lined up investors.
"Now we consider not only economic growth but also conservation and the social and environmental issues," said Ko Ko Hlaing, a top adviser to Myanmar's president.
The reversal is largely due to activists like Mr. Ko Lay Lwin. The 46-year-old former airline accountant tramps the red-dirt roads in the area, cajoling people to oppose the project and handing out leaflets detailing what he says would be its negative effects. At roadside stores selling tea, dried squid and Panda brand rum, he provides advice to residents worried whether they are getting adequate compensation for losing their land.
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| Villagers rallied in opposition. |
In Myanmar as recently as a few years ago, when it was a far less free place, environmental activism might well have landed protesters in prison. Just late last year, Buddhist monks protesting the expansion of a Chinese-run copper mine in Myanmar were burned by white phosphorous when police broke up the rally by force, according to an official parliamentary investigation led by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The police admitted using the military-grade munition, which they previously used to produce billowing clouds of smoke. Government officials have apologized to the monks and the Chinese company, Wanbao Mining Ltd., offered to increase payments to villagers to get them to move.
In an interview, Wanbao's chief executive also said the firm would build libraries in the area. Still, many locals are holding out.
For decades, Asian nations have benefited as Western companies shifted manufacturing eastward, creating jobs across the region. But the investment—some of which wouldn't be allowed in the U.S. or other countries with tougher environmental rules—left tracts of Asia scarred by pollution. One group, Clean Air Asia, which was founded by the Asian Development Bank, calculates that 800,000 people die annually in Asia because of air pollution from automobiles and industrial production.
Disenchantment over pollution is particularly acute in China. Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a business forum in April that the country will try to balance growth with environmental concerns as worries over air and water quality grow. In January, Beijing's government found airborne nitrogen-dioxide and particulate-matter levels some 47% higher than in 2011—similar to levels in mid-20th century London. Japanese authorities in February advised people on the island of Kyushu to stay indoors because the air blowing in from China had breached safe levels.
Of course, many factories, both clean and dirty, continue to be built in Asia. It is too early to say whether or when environmental efforts in Asia will gain as much traction as they have in the West. But as activists succeed in slowing some projects, it could make it more difficult and costly to build potentially polluting plants in Asia.
"We see it more and more," says Ernest Bower of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a consultant to U.S. companies in the region. "People want to have a clean environment" in Asia, he says. He calls the movement "nascent," but adds, "They just won't take it anymore."
Environmentalists in China have forced local governments to suspend or scrap several projects the past year, including a $1.6 billion copper-smelting complex in Shifang following street demonstrations. In 2011 the government closed more than 500 battery factories over improper waste disposal.
In Malaysia, activists are taking legal action against a giant rare-earths refinery and delayed its launch by more than a year. In Thailand, activists obtained a court order that suspended more than 70 industrial facilities worth $12 billion for several months in 2010, until factories in the Map Ta Phut industrial zone made environmental upgrades.
And in Vietnam, demonstrators have fought against open-cast bauxite mining. While they didn't succeed, the effort is notable because it became a lightning rod for broader dissent against Vietnam's communist leadership.
In Myanmar, authorities have blocked a $3.7 billion hydropower plant that threatened to submerge an area the size of Singapore in the country's north, citing environmental reasons.
Another factor that could limit the spread of a green lobby: Some people are eager to see the projects come to life, whether they pollute or not, because they promise jobs.
In the case of Myanmar's Dawei, employment would enable locals to stay in the area instead of job-hunting in Thailand or beyond. "I think maybe there are opportunities for us here," says Kyaw Soe Hlaing, 19 years old and a Dawei supporter, as he joined two friends on a scooter.
In Myanmar, activists are benefiting from cross-border help from environmentalists in Thailand who have helped Dawei residents organize and to publicize their message to the wider world. After Bangkok developer Italian-Thai Development PCL ITD.TH +6.92% secured the contract from Myanmar's government to build Dawei in 2008, Thai activists took Myanmar environmentalists on tours around Thailand's Map Ta Phut zone east of Bangkok—the world's eighth-largest petrochemical hub—to give a sense of what Dawei might look like.
"I took them to the coast so they could see the dead fish," Thai villager Noi Jaitang, 72, recalls. "I said 'Do you want to see this in your home, too?' " Local officials say fish kills are relatively common but the cause is unclear and could, for instance, be due to currents forcing saltwater fish into freshwater estuaries.
Executives at Italian-Thai's Dawei Development Co. say their project complies with Myanmar's regulations, and that firms locating there will do so, too.
As Myanmar gave people more freedom to speak their minds following elections in late 2010, environmentalists focused on stopping the Chinese-backed Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy, one of Asia's great rivers. Environmentalists argued the dam could damage the flow of nutrients into Myanmar's important rice plains and potentially destroy the habitat of the Irrawaddy dolphin.
Activists commissioned opinion polls showing widespread opposition to the project. To the surprise of many residents, the government took their side. In late 2011, President Thein Sein suspended the Myitsone's construction.
In remarks to Parliament, Mr. Thein Sein said he was compelled to listen to the people's wishes, although many analysts and some Myanmar policy makers privately say the country was growing increasingly wary of China's widening economic influence. The dam project, for instance, would send virtually all the power generated back to China.
Myanmar also announced plans to join an international environmental standards pact, the 30-plus-member Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. That could mean renegotiating some contracts with investors who have already signed, though the government hasn't yet completed negotiations.
The vision behind Dawei was to create an industrial zone over more than 200 square kilometers, or 77 square miles, and open a new trade corridor linking Thailand to shipping routes across the Indian Ocean. It was designed to attract the kinds of export-oriented industries that have powered the rest of Asia, but which until now have bypassed Myanmar, leaving it one of the continent's poorest and least developed nations.
Thai leaders were enthusiastic. Thailand for decades grew rapidly by attracting global investors such as Toyota Motor Corp., 7203.TO 0.00% Michelin and Western Digital Corp. WDC -0.59% But more recently, Thais have criticized industrialization's environmental toll. In 2010 a Thai court ordered the suspension of plans to build some 70 factories at Map Ta Phut after Thailand's National Cancer Institute reported unusually high cancer levels in the area.
The factories were allowed to proceed under tighter environmental controls, but the episode sent some projects looking toward Myanmar. Thailand's prime minister at the time, Abhisit Vejjajiva, gave his support in one of his regular television broadcasts. "Some industries are not suitable to be located in Thailand," he said. "This is why they decided to set up there."
In a recent interview with the Journal, Mr. Abhisit noted that companies setting up shop in Myanmar "will have to comply with regulations there."
Thai business leaders are still keen on Dawei. Tanit Sorat, vice chairman at the Federation of Thai Industries, has long viewed Dawei as a solution for businesses currently restricted elsewhere because of environmental controls. But these businesses need to move quickly because "Myanmar," he said in an interview, "is waking up."
Dawei executives say the project is more about opening speedier trade routes. The project would lop about seven days off the time it takes Thai-made goods to reach India and the Middle East, they say. The executives also say that Dawei complies with all local regulations.
At first Mr. Ko Lay Lwin, the local environmentalist, and his neighbors near the Dawei project felt powerless to object. But after Mr. Thein Sein suspended the Myitsone dam, they launched their own campaign, holding beach cleanups and cycling tours to raise their profile. "The idea is to be constructive and not too confrontational," says Bo Bo Aung, a co-founder of Mr. Ko Lay Lwin's lobby group, the Dawei Development Association.
The Dawei team started getting international help. A coalition of three Thai groups released a report saying that sulpher dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other pollutants from the Dawei project could be blown back across the border into Thailand by monsoon weather patterns. Another Myanmar group worked with the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute to document allegations from local villagers that they aren't receiving adequate compensation for leaving their land. Italian-Thai didn't respond to requests for comment on the allegations.
The governments of Thailand and Myanmar both say Dawei will go ahead eventually. Somchet Thinapong, managing director of Ital-Thai's Dawei operation, says the company believes Dawei is on track and is hopeful Japanese investors will step in to finance it.
On a recent visit to the site, a reporter found that bulldozers are continuing to clear some areas to build a reservoir. Some roads have been built, though there were few further signs of major construction.
Mr. Ko Lay Lwin and others are now organizing villagers to press for more compensation if the project regains momentum and people must move. A dozen or so fishing families in the village of Charkam are refusing to budge even though parts of the village have already been demolished.
"My family makes its living here," says Ma Marlar, 38, as Mr. Ko Lay Lwin briefs her neighbors on strategy. "Now we know the authorities should at least talk to us."
