The World Bank and the environment in the Caspian: a case study of the Kolkheti National Park

This report focuses on the construction of an oil terminal and related infrastructure inside one of Georgia’s national parks. The World Bank has a positive environmental objective in helping to finance the establishment of the Kolkheti National Park but this, the authors claim, is being undermined by the private development of the Kulevi Oil Terminal. The Bank’s own assessment claims that the development of the oil terminal is a threat to the success of the National Park yet despite this the Bank refuses to call for a halt to the terminal’s construction and it’s reaction has been taken by some as tacit support for the scheme.The papers central arguement is that the World Bank has failed to use the influence on the national government, which it has demonstrated in other policy areas, to enforce the environmental standards which it claims to be fully committed to.The report begins by looking at the involvement of the Bank in the development of the oil sector in the region and the Kulevi Terminal project and looks in detail at the potential impacts and perceived problems of the privately funded Kulevi project which include: The minimal co-ordination with the World Bank-funded Georgia Integrated Coastal Management Project (GICMP) which consists of a commission specifically designed to co-ordinate this type of development; and the Kolkheti National Park which is being physically encroached upon by the Terminal project. The project violates the international Ramsar Convention, to which Georgia is a signatory. Georgian EIA procedures have not been followed, nor enforced.The procurement of land for the project is questionableThe Government is facilitating the privatisation of public land that is earmarked for conservation and then backing up the private property owners’ rights to develop the land.The authors find that while the World Bank has been responsive to a degree in trying to address some of the problems facing the Kolkheti Park project, this has not been sufficient.