The Mekong: A Socio-legal Approach to River Basin Development
The Mekong: A Socio-legal Approach to River Basin Development

Author: Ben Boer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1317657780

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An international river basin is an ecological system, an economic thoroughfare, a geographical area, a font of life and livelihoods, a geopolitical network and, often, a cultural icon. It is also a socio-legal phenomenon. This book is the first detailed study of an international river basin from a socio-legal perspective. The Mekong River Basin, which sustains approximately 70 million people across Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, provides a prime example of the socio-legal complexities of governing a transboundary river and its tributaries. The book applies its socio-legal analysis to bring a fresh approach to understanding conflicts surrounding water governance in the Mekong River Basin. The authors describe the wide range of uses being made of legal doctrine and legal argument in ongoing disputes surrounding hydropower development in the Basin, putting to rest lingering caricatures of a single, ‘ASEAN’ way of navigating conflict. They call into question some of the common assumptions concerning the relationship between law and development. The book also sheds light on important questions concerning the global hybridization or crossover of public and private power and its ramifications for water governance. With current debates and looming conflicts over water governance globally, and over shared rivers in particular, these issues could not be more pressing.

The Mekong
The Mekong

Author: Ian Charles Campbell

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2009-11-20

Total Pages: 647

ISBN-13: 0080920632

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The Mekong is the most controversial river in Southeast Asia, and increasingly the focus of international attention. It flows through 6 counties, China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. The 4 downstream countries have formed the Mekong River Commission to promote sustainable development of the river and many of their people depend on it for their subsistence ? it has possible the largest freshwater fishery in the world, and the Mekong waters support rice agriculture in the delta in Viet Nam (which produces about 40% of that country's food) as well as in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. China is now building the first large mainstream dam on the river, and has proposals for several more. These dams are likely to affect the downstream countries. Several of the downstream countries also have plans for large scale hydropower and irrigation development which could also impact the river. This book will provide a solid overview of the biophysical environment of the Mekong together with a discussion of the possible impacts, biophysical, economic and social, of some possible development scenarios. It is intended to provide a technical basis which can inform the growing political and conservation debate about the future of the Mekong River, and those who depend on it. It is aimed at river ecologists, geographers, environmentalists and development specialists both in the basin and (especially) outside for whom access to this material is most difficult. This book will be the first comprehensive treatment of the Mekong system. - The first comprehensive overview of all aspects of the Mekong River system - Deals with a regionally critical ecosystem and one under threat - The Mekong supports the world's largest freshwater fishery and provides water underpinning a major regional rice paddy system - Presents the authoritative findings of the Mekong River Commission's research for a wider audience for the first time outside of limited distribution reports

Contested Waterscapes in the Mekong Region
Contested Waterscapes in the Mekong Region

Author: François Molle

Publisher: Earthscan

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 1849770867

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The water resources of the Mekong river catchment area, from China, through Thailand, Cambodia and Laos to Vietnam, are increasingly contested. Governments, companies and banks are driving new investment in roads, dams, diversions, irrigation schemes, navigation facilities, power plants and other emblems of conventional "development." Their plans and interventions pose multiple burdens and risks to the livelihoods of millions of people dependent on wetlands, floodplains, fisheries and aquatic resources.

Last Days of the Mighty Mekong
Last Days of the Mighty Mekong

Author: Brian Eyler

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2019-02-15

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 178360722X

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Celebrated for its natural beauty and its abundance of wildlife, the Mekong river runs thousands of miles through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Its basin is home to more than 70 million people and has for centuries been one of the world's richest agricultural areas and a biodynamic wonder. Today, however, it is undergoing profound changes. Development policies, led by a rising China in particular, aim to interconnect the region and urbanize the inhabitants. And a series of dams will harness the river's energy, while also stymieing its natural cycles and cutting off food supplies for swathes of the population. In Last Days of the Mighty Mekong, Brian Eyler travels from the river's headwaters in China to its delta in southern Vietnam to explore its modern evolution. Along the way he meets the region’s diverse peoples, from villagers to community leaders, politicians to policy makers. Through conversations with them he reveals the urgent struggle to save the Mekong and its unique ecosystem.

Developing a hydrological model for the Mekong Basin: Impacts of basin development on fisheries productivity
Developing a hydrological model for the Mekong Basin: Impacts of basin development on fisheries productivity

Author: G. W. Kite

Publisher: IWMI

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 9290904240

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This report describes the hydrological aspects of a CGIAR project to model the effects of water flows on aquatic resource production in the Mekong Basin. The project was carried out by the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM, Penang, Malaysia) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka) in cooperation with the Mekong River Commission (MRC, Phnom Penh, Cambodia) together with other institutes and national and regional agencies working in the riparian countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. The project commenced in January 2000 and finished in December 2000. The land cover analysis for the Tonle Sap area was carried out, and the data on existing and proposed dams were collated, by Dilkushi De Alwis, IWMI, Colombo.

Hydropower Development in the Mekong Region
Hydropower Development in the Mekong Region

Author: Nathanial Matthews

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-11-13

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1317964128

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The Mekong Basin is home to some 70 million people, for whom this great river is a source of livelihoods, the basis for their ecosystems and a foundation of their economies. But the Mekong is also currently undergoing enormous social, economic, and ecological change of which hydropower development is a significant driver. This book provides a basin-wide analysis of political, socio-economic and environmental perspectives of hydropower development in the Mekong Basin. It includes chapters from China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Written by regional experts from some of the region's leading research institutions, the book provides an holistic analysis of the shifting socio-political contexts within which hydropower is framed, legitimised and executed. Drawing heavily on political ecologies and political economics to examine the economic, social, political and ecological drivers of hydropower, the book's basin wide approach illuminates how hydropower development, and its benefits and impacts, are linked multilaterally across the basin. The research in the book is derived from empirical research conducted from 2012-2013 as part of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food's Mekong programme.

The Mekong: A Socio-legal Approach to River Basin Development
The Mekong: A Socio-legal Approach to River Basin Development

Author: Ben Boer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1317657799

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An international river basin is an ecological system, an economic thoroughfare, a geographical area, a font of life and livelihoods, a geopolitical network and, often, a cultural icon. It is also a socio-legal phenomenon. This book is the first detailed study of an international river basin from a socio-legal perspective. The Mekong River Basin, which sustains approximately 70 million people across Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, provides a prime example of the socio-legal complexities of governing a transboundary river and its tributaries. The book applies its socio-legal analysis to bring a fresh approach to understanding conflicts surrounding water governance in the Mekong River Basin. The authors describe the wide range of uses being made of legal doctrine and legal argument in ongoing disputes surrounding hydropower development in the Basin, putting to rest lingering caricatures of a single, ‘ASEAN’ way of navigating conflict. They call into question some of the common assumptions concerning the relationship between law and development. The book also sheds light on important questions concerning the global hybridization or crossover of public and private power and its ramifications for water governance. With current debates and looming conflicts over water governance globally, and over shared rivers in particular, these issues could not be more pressing.

Developing the Mekong
Developing the Mekong

Author: Evelyn Goh

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-11

Total Pages: 74

ISBN-13: 1134974965

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In Southeast Asia, China’s growing economic and political strength has been accompanied by adept diplomacy and active promotion of regional cooperation, institutions and integration. Southeast Asian states and China engage in ‘strategic regionalism’: they seek regional membership for regime legitimation and collective bargaining; and regional integration to enhance economic development, regarded as essential for ensuring national and regime security. Sino-Southeast Asian regionalism is exemplified by the development plans for the Mekong River basin, where ambitious projects for building regional infrastructural linkages and trade contribute to mediating the security concerns of the Mekong countries. However, Mekong regionalism also generates new insecurities. Developing the resources of the Mekong has led to serious challenges in terms of governance, distribution and economic externalities. Resource-allocation and exploitation conflicts occur most obviously within the realm of water projects, especially hydropower development programmes. While such disputes are not likely to erupt into armed conflict because of the power asymmetry between China and the lower Mekong states, they exacerbate Southeast Asian concerns about China’s rise and undermine Chinese rhetoric about peaceful development. But the negative security consequences of developing the Mekong are also due to the shared economic imperative, and the Southeast Asian states’ own difficulties with collective action due to existing intramural conflicts.

A Procedural Framework for Transboundary Water Management in the Mekong River Basin
A Procedural Framework for Transboundary Water Management in the Mekong River Basin

Author: Qi Gao

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

Published: 2014-03-13

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 9004266798

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In A Procedural Framework for Transboundary Water Management in the Mekong River Basin: Shared Mekong for a Common Future, Qi Gao explores procedural implications of integrated water resources management and its application in the Mekong River Basin. As a problem-based study, enlightening conclusions are made based on the increasingly polycentric nature of transboundary cooperation in the Mekong region. The procedural requirements in the Mekong context, both the ideal and practical scenarios are considered, combined with selected case studies. Qi Gao convincingly asserts the necessity to enhance decision-making processes and suggests procedural legal mechanisms to institutionalize sustainability concepts in transboundary cooperation.