Forest policy and administration
In the Greater Mekong Subregion there are a broad range of stakeholder perpectives and relationships that contribute to how forests are managed. In these nations, forests have diverse values to groups ranging from small landholders, large concessions holders, governments, the private sector and civil society. Illegal logging in ...
Climate change and health
Climate change impacts human health. Now considered by the World Health Organization to be the greatest health challenge of the 21st century, the relationship between climate change and health has received little attention.21 Only limited research on the topic has been done.22 However, the growing evidence ...
Mitigation
What is mitigation? The impacts of climate change are undeniable. Mitigation and adaptation actions must be taken to address these consequences. So, clarifying what mitigation and adaptation actually means is necessary. Flooding on the Mekong River floodplain, Thailand and Laos. Photo by NASA Johnson, Flickr. Uploaded ...
Webinar discusses fate of Mekong River
PanNature, a Vietnamese not-for-profit organisation, in collaboration with the Mekong Community Institute of Thailand (MCI) and the NGO Forum on Cambodia, organised a webinar themed “The Fate of the Mekong River: Current Development and Future Perspectives” on November 5 within the framework of the ASEAN People’s Forum 2020. PanNature ...
The struggle for the soul of the Mekong River
In June of this year, the FAO’s annual State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report ranked the Mekong Basin as the world’s most productive freshwater fishery, accounting for over 15% of global annual freshwater fish catch. Meanwhile, WWF Researchers estimate that the contribution actually accounts ...
BRIAN EYLER, ALAN BASIST, COURTNEY WEATHERBY AND CLAUDE WILLIAMS
7th MRC Regional Stakeholder Forum
The Mekong River Commission was established as a multi-lateral cooperation mechanism between the four Lower Mekong Basin countries (MC) of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam with the mission of promotion and coordination of the sustainable management and development of water and related resources ...
Watersheds
Watersheds are impacted by many factors, through interaction with both natural elements and human activity in the area. The trees and plants in forests not only tap into the water within the soil, but they also affect the quality and composition of the soil itself, ...
Trends and challenges
The management of water resources is becoming a critical issue in the region as competition for water increases and climate change takes hold. At the same time, the rapid conversion of forests to other uses has diminished the environmental capacity to regulate water at the ...
China vows closer security ties with Mekong states as cyber scams, Myanmar unrest have cross-border impact
China and its five Southeast Asian neighbours along the Lancang-Mekong River have agreed to focus on security cooperation, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said. “We will resolutely combat cross-border crime in the [region], especially cyber fraud and gambling,” Wang said after the annual Lancang-Mekong Cooperation foreign ministers’ meeting with ...
Zhao Ziwen
Mekong group urges better water management collaboration as record drought persists
The inter-governmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) on Thursday called on China and mainland Southeast Asian countries to better coordinate management of Mekong hydropower dams and reservoirs after three years of record low flows and extra dry conditions. The Mekong River’s flow dropped to the lowest levels ...
Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Martin Petty
Vietnam's Mekong Capital plans Southeast Asia climate fund as early as 2024
Vietnam-focused private equity firm Mekong Capital is looking to build a climate fund worth up to $200 million as early as next year, focusing on investments that will help with the regeneration of forests in the Mekong region. The Ho Chi Minh City-based firm is setting ...
Yantoultra Ngui
Infrastructure
Adding to and upgrading the Mekong region's infrastructure has been given a high priority by governments, development partners and regional banks. The shortfall in the estimated amount that needs to be spent by 2020 is being addressed by several new initiatives and strategies in the ...
Sustainable Development Goals
In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda). This contained 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), intended to drive action in critically important areas to the year 2030. These goals have been broken down into 169 targets ...
For a non-plastic waste marine environment
According to the Vietnam Institute of Seas and Islands under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), plastic waste accounts for between 50% and 80% of marine waste. Currently, Vietnam is ranked fourth among the five countries which have the biggest volume of plastic ...
Regional guidelines on public participation in environmental impact asessment
Mekong Partnership for the Environment (MPE)’s Regional Technical Working Group (RTWG) on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) have invited public comment on their draft regional guidelines for public participation in EIA. See an introduction to the guidelines below and access the full set of guidelines at their website ...
If data were an open forest - would anyone use it?
ShareTweetShare0 Shares Data and information drive decision making that affects everyday life; and in this day and age, data plays an increasingly crucial role in innovation and policy transformation. Its abundance is increasing yet our ability to harness and utilise this data equitably has not. Although ...
Women in Open Data
ShareTweetShare0 Shares What keeps Mekong women from accessing open data? Mekong Women in Data: Understanding barriers to women’s access to open data in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash. Licensed freely on Unsplash. Gender inequality underscores the lives of women all over the ...
Call for applicants to COCONET: Southeast Asia Digital Rights Camp
EngageMedia, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) are calling for applications to COCONET: Southeast Asia Digital Rights Camp, to be held on October 22-26 in Indonesia. Applications are open until August 10. Read the full release below, and apply on EngageMedia’s website.—When: 22-26 October ...
Mekong ICT Camp 2017 Seed Grant to support pilot project prototypes on social innovation for development
Mekong ICT Camp 2017 Seed Grant is a small grant aimed to support pilot project prototypes on Social Innovation for development. The support is USD3,000 per project. This year, the seed grant will be awarded for the 5 best prototypes (one for each country in ...
SDG 12 Responsible consumption and production
SDG 12 – “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns” – has a monitoring framework of 11 targets and 13 indicators. Unmanaged consumption and production can contribute to depletion of natural resources.138 Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) requires a fundamental shift in the way we use services ...