Climate Change Water And Agriculture In The Greater Mekong Subregion

The impacts of climate change on agriculture and food production in Southeast Asia will be largely mediated through water, but climate is only one driver of change. Water resources in the region will be shaped by a complex mixture of social, economic and environmental factors. This report reviews the current status and trends in water management in the Greater Mekong Subregion; assesses likely impacts of climate change on water resources to 2050; examines water management strategies in the context of climate and other changes; and identifies priority actions for governments and communities to improve resilience of the water sector and safeguard food production.

The Mekong Delta of Vietnam is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. The Mekong River fans out over an area of about 40,000 sq kilometers and over the course of many millennia has produced a region of fertile alluvial soils and constant flows of energy. Today about a fourth of the Delta is under rice cultivation, making this area one of the premier rice granaries in the world. The Delta has always proven a difficult environment to manipulate, however, and because of population pressures, increasing acidification of soils, and changes in the Mekong’s flow, environmental problems have intensified. The changing way in which the region has been linked to larger flows of commodities and capital over time has also had an impact on the region: For example, its re-emergence in recent decades as a major rice-exporting area has linked it inextricably to global markets and their vicissitudes. And most recently, the potential for sea level increases because of global warming has added a new threat. Because most of the region is on average only a few meters above sea level and because any increase of sea level will change the complex relationship between tides and down-river water flow, the Mekong Delta is one of the areas in the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. How governmental policy and resident populations have in the past and will in coming decades adapt to climate change as well as several other emerging or ongoing environmental and economic problems is the focus of this collection.

Wasser, Wasserressourcen und Wasserwirtschaft sind heute mit die schwierigsten, nicht-traditionellen und grenzüberschreitenden Sicherheitsprobleme überhaupt. Auf der Grundlage von Dokumenten aus erster Hand versuchen die Experten in diesem Band, ein Verständnis dafür zu entwickeln, warum die Greater Mekong Subregion(GMS) aus geostrategischer Sicht wichtig ist, welche historischen und aktuellen Herausforderungen die Region zu bewältigen hat, wie sich Großmächte wie China, Indien, Japan und die USA politisch in der GMS engagieren und was die GMS in der Frage des Wasserressourcenmanagements von anderen Regionen lernen kann.

The second edition of the Greater Mekong Subregion Atlas of the Environment again champions the environment of this unique part of Asia, an area straddled by rivers great and small, with bountiful watersheds, wetlands, and forests. The Atlas celebrates the peoples of the subregion, and presents the environmental and development challenges they face and their responses. It reminds us that the subregion's peoples and communities are key to maintaining its environment. The Atlas captures in one volume maps, remote-sensing images, and essential information on one of the most culturally, ethnically, and biologically diverse regions in the world. The subregion is made up of Cambodia; Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province of the People's Republic of China; the Lao People's Democratic Republic; Myanmar; Thailand; and Viet Nam.

This book brings together a talented international group of scholars, policy practitioners, and NGO professionals that explores a range of issues relating to environmental, developmental, and governing challenges on the Mekong, one of the world’s greatest rivers and, alas, one of the most endangered. The book is divided into three sections devoted in turn to historical perspectives on the Lower Mekong Basin. Issues relate to livelihood strategies, environmental threats, and adaptation strategies; and various aspects of river governance, with individual authors treating questions of governance at different levels of refraction and in different registers. The result is a fresh and innovative collection of essays, which, taken together, provide much-needed new perspectives on some of the most important and seemingly intractable environmental and development issues in contemporary Asia.

​This Brief provides a cross-sectional analysis of development-directed investments in the wider Mekong region. The wider Mekong region includes Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Chinese province of Yunnan. Evidence highlights that a few critical dynamics, including human migration, natural resource flows, and financial investments, generate a high level of connectivity between these countries. Such high levels of connectivity increase complexity and the potential for ripple effects of national decisions. The emerging links between countries can unfold in financial investments, migration, or the flow of resources. As these links intensify the regional connectivity increases and over time a highly connected region can emerge, as experienced by the Mekong region.​ This Brief also contains a chapter at the end of the book featuring numerous charts and diagrams further illustrating the impact of development activities in the area.