Fisheries bioecology at the Khone Falls (Mekong River, Southern Laos)

This CD-ROM contains full database of the "Khone Fall fisheries database" and detailed analyses done in the companion report "Ecological studies of fish in the Khone Falls area (Mekong River, Southern Lao PDR).Fisheries, Ecology, Mekong River, Laos,

Some solutions to respond climate change for the Mekong Delta, Viet Nam

In the recent decades, the Mekong River Delta has suffered quite significant impacts of climate change. Fluctuations of weather elements and sea level rises have caused adverse changes, namely: the appearance of unusual high and low levels of annual floods, more and more intense storms, more severe droughts, forest fires, river erosion, cyclones, and tidal surges appear increasingly more dangerous. Traditional adaptation measures to the environmental conditions may be unsuitable in the context of climate change in the Mekong River Delta. This paper summarizes some of the new adaptation measures that scientists and policy planners have proposed for the area to cope with the negative impacts of climate change

Conflict resolution and policy making mediation in the Mekong River Basin

The Mekong River serves China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam covering an area of approximately 795, 000 square kilometres and the Mekong River basin is a delicate eco-system rich in natural resources and bio-diversity. Competing demands for increasingly scarce supplies of water, the reciprocal impacts of land and water uses and inadequate governance arrangements have given rise to conflicts that has to be resolved by policy making to facilitate a process, whereby the main principles adopted in the Mekong River Agreement can be implemented.<br /

Assessing Human Vulnerability in Major River Systems - The Human Dimension

This presentation will summarize ongoing work at the University of Minnesota Water Resources Center (WRC) and the Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS) to investigate socioeconomic vulnerability to multiple stresses and hazards occurring in the lower Mekong River basin

Climate risk mapping provides rice growers with adaptation options in the Mekong River Delta

The Mekong River Delta in Vietnam accounts for over half of the country’s domestic #rice production yet is increasingly affected by climate change. Dr. Bui Tan Yen is leading a team to develop an approach known as CS-MAP, a participatory approach of climate risk mapping, which provides farmers with adaptation options

The Civil Engineers’ Unfinished Business: Japan’s Commitment to the Development of the Cambodian Prek Thnot Project

Between the 1950s and 1960s, a comprehensive development plan existed concerning the Lower Mekong River Basin. Questions revolved around who devised what concept for the development of the Lower Mekong River, and how these concepts were implemented. In this article, we first analyzed the processes leading to Japan’s participation in the comprehensive development plan. Next, as part of the tributary development plan for this initiative, we analyzed the processes of the formation and subsequent development of the catchment area’s development plan for the Kingdom of Cambodia’s Prek Thnot River by multilateral development assistance as led by Japan. The development of the Prek Thnot River Power and Irrigation Project stopped as a result of the 1970 Cambodian Civil War and remains incomplete. Therefore, we analyzed the planning potential of the Prek Thnot River’s development plan from current viewpoints. What is made clear from the analyses is that both the basic philosophy and design philosophy behind the Mekong River Basin’s development initiative is relevant to today, and the development should not be conducted as a domestic matter, but should be conducted in continuation of its conceptual framework of international significance, as it concerns the suburb countries of the Mekong River

Values of inland fisheries in the Mekong river basin

Asia has the most productive inland fisheries in the world. The fishery sector contributes significantly to the national economies of the region. Inland fisheries also improve food security by providing a source of protein and a livelihood for millions of people in this part of the world, especially the rural poor. The purpose of this report is to provide information on the biological, economic, social and cultural values of river fisheries in the Lower Mekong Basin, and to identify the main impacts of environmental changes on these values. A review of fisheries-related literature, including project reports and gray literature, was undertaken. More than 800 documents were reviewed, and original information was extracted from 270 of them. The analysis identified a large number of localized studies leading to generic conclusions. The report addresses the basin wide issues and studies. It is then organized by nation, namely, the Chinese province of Yunnan, then Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It first gives an overview of each country’s economic, fisheries and social situation, then details the values documented for river fisheries in each country

Management of wetland resources in the lower Mekong Basin: issues and future directions

The Lower Mekong Basin has extensive wetlands and these are being threatened by numerous problems. Most of these problems are interdependent and interact with one another. The lack of an appropriate definition of wetlands applicable to the region, pervasive inefficiencies and chronic lack of funds among riparian governments, and the poor appreciation of the true economic importance of wetlands and its resources are among the most prominent. The current definition, based on the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), is too broad when compared to the understanding of wetlands as being swamps, marshes and the like, and was developed specifically for wetlands with international importance as waterfowl habitats. Furthermore, wetlands are composed of different types of resources, which require different modes of management. Often, institutional competition, overlapping mandates and sometimes jealousies occur between government departments when they try to assert their authority on a particular wetland resource and use, and put forward their development plans without considering how these may conflict with other wetlands uses. Finally, effective wetland management requires reliable statistics or information on rate of harvest of natural resources such as fish and others, fishing/harvesting methods over time in order to determine the level of exploitation, and the status of the natural resources. This information is needed to identify opportunities for expansion, to establish historical trends, and to determine when management interventions are necessary to protect the resources from being overused by other developments. In order to address these issues, ICLARM - The World Fish Center has launched a project, the aim of objectives of which are described in this paper

The Governance Regime of the Mekong River Basin

The Governance Regime of the Mekong River Basin provides a comparative analysis of the global water conventions and the 1995 Mekong Agreement, whereby, the authors strongly recommend Mekong states joining both conventions in order to buttress and clarify the Agreement.; Readership: Scholars and practitioners in the field of international water law and anyone concerned with the legal framework and governance regime of the Mekong River and its tributaries