Dams and state security: Damming the 3S rivers as a threat to Cambodian state security

State security is a key concern for countries when dealing with transboundary river governance issues. While there is a considerable amount of literature on transboundary river cooperation in general, there has been little on transboundary cooperation and the damming of shared rivers in terms of their impacts on state security. As a result, this article seeks to answer the following questions in relation to the lower Mekong basin: (i) How is the damming process embedded in transboundary cooperation? (ii) How does this type of cooperation contribute to peace and security in the study area – the 3S river basin? And, (iii) how can transboundary cooperation be improved so as to address state security issues? To answer these questions, this study reviews the relevant literature and uses two case studies, one of the Yali Dam in Vietnam and the second of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Cambodia. In doing so, the article examines dam developments in the lower Mekong basin, their environmental and human security impacts, and how they contribute to or threaten state security in Cambodia. It concludes that dams on international rivers induce insecurity among states downstream and that cooperation between riparian states is key to addressing this insecurity.     

‘Water war’ in the Mekong Basin?

The Mekong River system provides a crucial source of natural resources for riparian nations. However, the increasingly rapid pace of hydro‐development in the Mekong Basin is threatening the integrity of the river system, posing a real concern for Lower Basin states, which are particularly dependent on the basin. This scenario has led to warnings of armed conflict, or even ‘water war’, between riparian states. Certainly, the expanding scale of hydro‐development can be expected to continue increasing interstate tensions in the Mekong region; but are these tensions really likely to escalate to armed conflict? This paper explores this question by drawing on the water and conflict theory of Aaron Wolf. Ultimately, this paper concludes that interstate tensions over Mekong hydro‐development are unlikely to generate armed conflict. This is in part due to the strategic impracticality of such a conflict as well as the presence of a river basin management institution. Most compellingly, though, armed conflict is unlikely because the economic imperative shared by Mekong states is better served by cooperation – or at least non‐interference – than conflict, over regional hydro‐development. In closing, the paper urges that the study of water and conflict in the Mekong Basin be refocused at the intrastate level.     

Reclaiming community spaces in the Mekong River transboundary commons: Shifting territorialities in Chiang Khong,Thailand

In Northern Thailand's Chiang Khong district, which lies along the banks of the Mekong River and the Thai‐Lao border, an community‐based environmental movement under the leadership of the Rak Chiang Khong conservation group emerged in response to processes that have appropriated territories traditionally used by locals for state‐led economic exploitation. The Rak Chiang Khong has put up fierce opposition to large‐scale development projects such as the China‐led navigation project, which planned to blast ecologically and culturally significant rapids, and hydropower dam development along the Mekong River. As a result, local‐level governance arrangements of the transboundary commons in Chiang Khong have shifted to counter threats both within and beyond the borders of Thailand. Through adapting fishing arrangements, engaging in community‐led research and establishing village conservation zones, overlapping forms of territorialisation have emerged in response to socio‐ecological changes to the river. These new forms of territorialisation are produced by complex configurations of political, cultural, and ecological histories, politicaleconomic changes, and transboundary dynamics. These territorial strategies have been key towards reclaiming the transboundary commons of the Mekong River for riparian communities, and providing a deeper understanding of the values that drive community involvement in the transboundary environmental governance of the Mekong River.     

Greenhouse gas implications of replacing fish protein with beef in the lower Mekong Basin

At least 88 new hydropower dams are planned between 2010 and 2030 in the lower Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia as a source of electricity with lower greenhouse gas emissions. Dams result in declines in fish populations that will need to be replaced with other sources of protein for food security. We make the first assessment of emissions should beef production substitute for lost fish in Cambodia and Laos. We assessed two sources of emissions. Replacing lost fish with beef would require as much as 12 million hectares of new pasture. Forest clearing for pastures in Cambodia and Lao PDR would initially emit between 0.859 and 3.015 giga‐tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (Gt CO₂‐eq.). Methane emissions from additional cattle would add at least 0.0013 Gt CO₂‐eq./year to Cambodia's total greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to a 20% increase. In Laos at least 0.0005 Gt CO₂‐eq./year would be released, a 4–12% increase in annual emissions. We demonstrate that activities displaced by hydropower developments could significantly increase emissions. It shows how enclosure of commons at local scales impacts upon other common pool resources at different scales, raising questions for sustainable and equitable transboundary governance.     

The unseen transboundary commons that matter for Cambodia's inland fisheries: Changing sediment flows in the Mekong hydrological flood pulse

This paper focuses on the ‘the unseen transboundary commons’ of residues, nutrients and mobile matter associated with the annual flood pulse that support Cambodia's inland fisheries. We develop the idea of biophysical geopolitics concentrating on political‐socio‐natures rather than the purely biophysical. In the context of multiple mega‐projects in the Basin, we argue the flood pulse has become increasingly compromised, which is an urgent socio‐ecological security issue facing the Mekong region. Scores of livelihoods are dependent on the hydrological flood pulse via the reproduction of the inland fisheries, and a diversity of wetlands resources. Our paper builds on cross‐comparative research focusing on a geo‐strategic mouth of the Tonle Sap (Chhnok Tru) and a transborder area along the Mekong main‐stream (Stung Treng, Cambodia – Champasak, Laos area). By viewing biophysical matter as becoming trans‐border geopolitical matter, we wish to emphasise the critical socio‐ecological character of the hydrological flood pulse, and the urgency of cumulative spatial and temporal changes affecting diverse wetlands communities. Loss of wild capture fisheries and the more unpredictable flows of the Mekong are signs of an emergent and dangerous era of increasing environmental insecurity.     

Scaling the environmental commons: Broadening our frame of reference for transboundary governance in Southeast Asia

The transboundary environmental commons in Southeast Asia are normally conceived in terms of shared resources and environmental impacts that transcend national borders. The Mekong's ‘fugitive resources’ of water, fish and sediment and the issue of Indonesia's smoke haze drift into Malaysia and Singapore dominate discussion. Assumed national interests shape actors and institutional arrangements for transboundary commons governance. Failure to address the governance challenges is explained in terms of their politico‐cultural failings (e.g. the ‘ASEAN Way’ of non‐interference), the weak regulatory remit of agencies with a specific transboundary governance role (Mekong River Commission), the dominant developmental agenda of subregional cooperative arrangements (Greater Mekong Subregion) or the geopolitical dominance of China (Lancang–Mekong Cooperation). This article builds on these critiques by considering the relationship between the local commons impacted by transboundary projects and the framing of the commons at an inter‐governmental level. It shows that neglect of the local commons and the impacts on them of projects with transboundary effects is partly to be explained by the institutional scaling of the transboundary commons at a country‐to‐country level. It also argues for an expanded notion of transboundary, including investment and governance flows as well as the material environmental footprint of large‐scale investments.     

‘Shifting ground’: Renegotiating land rights and rural livelihoods in Sarawak,Malaysia

In this paper, we use an actor‐oriented perspective to explore the nature and extent of conflict and negotiation with regard to land use and tenure among the Iban of Sarawak. The Iban are shifting cultivators who have long been involved in smallholder cash crops. We argue that the complexity of land‐use change and the major shifts in land law and policy in Sarawak in recent decades, particularly those favouring the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations on both state and customary land, have created a situation of indeterminacy that can be exploited to renegotiate land rights and livelihoods. We present a case history of an Iban community that has ‘shifted ground’ several times over the past century, both geographically and in its strategic position relative to state and private sector actors. We show how, under formidable pressure from these actors, this community has nevertheless renegotiated its access to land and other resources, and opportunistically developed a diversified livelihood system that has enabled it to survive in rapidly changing political and economic conditions. While not necessarily typical, the case sheds light on the limits and modes of negotiability in the context of a strong developmental state.     

The Salween River as a transboundary commons: Fragmented collective action,hybrid governance and power

Viewing the Salween River as a transboundary commons, this paper illustrates how diverse state and non‐state actors and institutions in hybrid and multi‐scaled networks have influenced water governance in general, and large dam decision‐making processes in particular. Putting power relations at the centre of this analysis and drawing on the conceptual lenses of hybrid governance and critical institutionalism, we show the complexity of the fragmented processes through which decisions have been arrived at, and their implications. In the context of highly asymmetrical power relations throughout the basin, and the absence of an intergovernmental agreement to date, we argue that hybrid networks of state and non‐state actors could be strategically engaged to connect parallel and fragmented decision‐making landscapes with a goal of inclusively institutionalising the transboundary commons and maintaining connected local commons throughout the basin, foregrounding a concern for ecological and social justice.     

Container river services and gateway ports: Similarities between the Yangtze River and the Rhine River

Abstract: Container ports located in a delta of navigable waterways generally strive to develop the inland river services as a competitive transport mode, with a view to serving local and distant hinterland regions. The spatial and functional development of river‐based container networks is location‐specific and time‐specific. While each barging network and associated seaport system has its own dynamics, similarities in development patterns cannot be excluded. This paper discusses similarities and dissimilarities between the spatial and the functional development of the container river service networks of the Yangtze River and the Rhine River. It is shown that the Yangtze service network has the tendency to converge, in more than one aspect, with the (historical) development pattern of inland container services in the Rhine basin.     

Relationship changes between lowlander and hill tribes in Xishuangbanna,P.R. China

Xishuangbanna, which is well known for its ethnic diversity, is located in the upper reaches of the Mekong River. Dai lowlanders make up one third of the total population, 13 other indigenous highland groups make up another third and the balance are Han Chinese. The research on which this paper is based was conducted in three villages, Dai, Hani and Jinuo communities and designed to explore the changing relationships between lowlanders and highlanders. It was found that over the past five decades two critical events triggered profound changes. One was liberation by the Chinese Communist Party in 1950, and the other the land and economic reform policies introduced at the beginning of the 1980s.     

Work and struggle of fishing livelihoods in the Delta: Development and ‘new’ change along the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River,Myanmar

Fishing constitutes a key source of income and food for rural communities worldwide. This is the case in predominantly rural Myanmar (World Fish, 2019), particularly in the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River Delta. Fishing has long been a central livelihood strategy and valuable source of food security in the Delta, and now also generates a substantial contribution to the gross domestic product. However, the livelihood practices of the fishers, particularly small‐scale fishers, are largely ‘invisible’ in the literature and policy. In this article, we advance understanding of the significant but understudied livelihoods of small‐scale fishers through interviews with fishers and a range of other actors in 2018. Taking a careful examination of the challenges, practices and responses of fishers in the Delta, our research underlines that fishers are important actors in the ‘making’ of the Delta as a geographical scale and concept, yet they are being pushed out of the very landscape they have helped co‐create and have lived in for generations. At this crucial point in Myanmar's development and change, we contend that a better understanding of the livelihoods of fishing households, as some of the nation's most vulnerable, is important for inclusive policy development, economic reforms and research strategy going forward.     

中国与东南亚三国（越、老、柬）普通野生稻遗传多样性的比较研究

利用24对SSR引物,对来自中国10个代表性居群和越南、老挝、柬埔寨的5个居群共计282份普通野生稻材料进行遗传多样性比较研究。结果表明,(1)24个微卫星位点共检测到等位基因289个,平均等位基因数(A)为12,有效等位基因数(Ae)为7;期望杂合度(He)平均为0.812,观察杂合度(Ho)平均为0.543,香农指数(I)平均为1.99;(2)4个国家中,中国普通野生稻的遗传多样性最丰富,老挝次之,越南和柬埔寨最低,香农指数(I)分别为1.92、1.69、1.47和1.45;(3)采用UPGMA方法对供试15个居群进行聚类分析。老挝和柬埔寨2个居群的亲缘关系最近,二者与越南居群有着较近的亲缘关系;(4)在中国所有参试居群中,广西武宣和贺州居群与东南亚3国亲缘关系最近。     

When land,water and green‐grabbing cumulate: Hydropower expansion,livelihood resource reallocation and legitimisation in southwest China

Hundreds of hydropower dam projects, of all sizes, have been initiated in Yunnan Province, China, since the late 1990s. This paper frames hydropower‐driven resource reallocations as resource grabs that combine aspects of land, water and green‐grabbing, investigating how two dams built along the Red River have impacted local communities and how corporate and governmental stakeholders have viewed local livelihood changes and considered compensation mechanisms. This research documents how hydropower expansion triggers changes in both land and water availability, in turn depriving riverside communities of a wide range of intersecting livelihood benefits. Villagers were compensated for some losses, but in ways that failed to address how impacts accumulated over time and how hydrologic changes would impact overall livelihood activities. Financial compensation and specific environmental and modernisation agendas legitimised resource reallocations together with the provincial, national and global development campaigns driving them. Considering how different actors experience, frame and address the impacts of hydropower development through a resource‐grabbing lens elucidates the compartmentalised approaches of distant hydropower actors as well as scholars. This study answers recent calls to mobilise the scholarship on resource‐grabbing in the service of shedding light on the socio‐political projects driving resource reallocations and their livelihood impacts.     

Road to shared prosperity: The elaboration and influence of a transboundary policy narrative for regional economic integration

In the Mekong Region, the Asian Development Bank and partners have promoted economic corridors as a way to achieve regional economic integration and growth. This study evaluates how a transboundary policy narrative of shared prosperity around the East–West Economic Corridor programme emerged, and then how it was elaborated and used, taking a set of border policies of the government of Thailand as cases. For two decades the shared prosperity narrative has been used by a coalition of elite actors to support a programme of investments in road infrastructure, as well as to push for agreements on trade, border logistics, investment and tourism. The shared prosperity narrative has helped maintain support for the programme despite its failures to meet projections and expectations. Although criticised by civil society and experts from time to time, no coherent shared counter‐narrative emerged. Policy elites in Thailand have used the transboundary narrative to justify investments in special economic zones, and transport infrastructure near the border and inside neighbouring countries. Thailand has also reproduced the narrative in support of efforts to bolster tourism cooperation, and negotiate cross‐border trade and logistics agreements. Roads and bridges have been built, underlining how discursive practices have material consequences and reinforce the narrative.     

长江下游水体微生物群落代谢多样性及影响因素研究

研究旨在对长江下游微生物群落代谢多样性以及环境因子对它的影响进行分析,以期为长江下游地区生态环境的改善及修复做参考。通过Biolog-ECO技术分析了长江下游各江段水体微生物代谢多样性,探究各江段水质理化因子变化与微生物群落代谢多样性的关系。研究发现长江下游水质指标除TP、TN外,其他指标均符合Ⅱ类以上标准;微生物群落的整体代谢能力南京江段最强;微生物群落丰富度指数在南京江段最高;多样性指数与均匀度指数由高到低排列顺序为安庆江段、南京江段、靖江江段、铜陵江段、芜湖江段;RDA分析表明,水体理化因子TP、Pb对长江微生物代谢六大类碳源呈现正相关关系。综合水质指标和各江段微生物代谢多样性分析,长江下游水体安庆江段和南京江段的富营养化程度较高,TP、Pb对长江下游水体微生物群落代谢多样性具有促进作用。     

Bonding,bridging and linking social networks: A qualitative study of the emergency management of Cyclone Pam,Vanuatu

Cyclone Pam (March 2015) was an unprecedented event in Vanuatu forcing the simultaneous involvement of national and long‐term international actors, well integrated into the national disaster governance system, as well as numerous short‐term international actors, unfamiliar with the geopolitical and cultural disaster context of the country. Cooperation between these three groups of actors evolved through the three scales of bonding, bridging and linking social networking. This paper questions the different drivers and challenges within and across these scales of social networks affecting cooperation among the three different groups of actors during an emergency. Using a mixed methodology based on social network analysis, this paper utilises the case study of Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu to study the strengths and weaknesses of the disaster governance system in place based on bonding and bridging social capital to conduct disaster risk management and to prepare the integration of linking social capital when external support is needed. This paper contributes to the identification of key considerations in the development of resilience‐building strategies: the interactions of diverse actors to address disaster management needs and the reciprocal impacts of these interactions within and across the three different scales of social networks.     

Tourism and transitional geographies: Mismatched expectations of tourism investment in Vietnam*

Abstract: The Vietnamese state's interaction with international capital has been influenced by the Communist Party's strategy to develop a ‘socialist market economy’ which aims to maintain the leading role of the state and its one party dominance while implementing economic reforms. This is at odds with alternatives proposed by neo‐liberal institutions such as the IMF and World Bank who favour a progression towards a more fully‐fledged market economy coupled with political pluralism. As a result, foreign investors and the Vietnamese government have had a turbulent relationship over the past decade stemming in large part from differing perceptions of a market economy and what foreign investment should entail. This paper depicts the principal issues that lay behind the restrictive policies toward foreign tour operators through a case study of their management and regulation in Vietnam throughout the 1990s. It is argued that foreign tour operators and Vietnamese tourism authorities perceive the role of international capital in tour operations quite differently. Over‐regulation has provided little space for foreign tour businesses to operate in a manner that has met their expectations, while government policies have been intent on ensuring that profits remain in the country. This paper also illustrates how social networks undermine top‐down government policy directives and allow foreign tour businesses to continue operating, albeit in a complex and insecure environment.     

基于DEM 的重庆长江流域水系分维估算

摘要：基于数字高程模型,本文利用ArcGIS9.3的水文分析模块,根据不同的集水面积阈值, 提取了重庆长江流域河网信息,通过网格法计算了相应的水系分维。根据集水面积阈值与水系分维的相互关系, 确定该流域水系分维值为1. 036,经计算得到的河网特征以及流域信息与实际河流水系特征及流域信息基本吻合。     

Rice production and food security in Asian Mega deltas—A review on characteristics,vulnerabilities and agricultural adaptation options to cope with climate change

Asian Mega deltas (AMDs) are among the world´s most important rice-growing areas and vital for food security. This review describes the major environmental and agricultural characteristics as well as current and future threats to food production and livelihood, using three AMDs as examples, namely the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh, the Ayeyarwady delta in Myanmar and the Mekong River delta in Vietnam. In addition, we analysed the most widely used agricultural adaptation methods in these areas. The major threat to agriculture is salinity intrusion and water scarcity, which consequently leads to a shortage of irrigation water and yield reduction. The most common applied agricultural adaptation strategies are the use of salt-tolerant varieties and the adjustment of cropping calendars, as well as the use of water-saving technologies. It was found that there are many concepts that address individual problems, but a comprehensive and integrated concept for delta regions to adapt to climate change is still missing.     

水稻褐飞虱防控策略

褐飞虱近年对水稻的为害愈来愈严重,为探讨新的防控策略,笔者从飞虱的主要越冬虫源地、成灾原因及综合防控等分析认为：（1）对中国水稻为害极重的褐飞虱,真正成灾的越冬虫源应主要来自16°N以南的地区,尤其是越南南部与泰国南部的湄公河三角洲区域。（2）水稻褐飞虱的成灾原因既与越战后东盟国家大力发展水稻等粮食作物种植,且在耕作制度上也相应地由高秆改矮秆、单季改双季甚至三季,密集程度和施肥程度有所提高有关,又与国内水稻品种多、生育期不一,在防控上不能统一行动,用药混杂和过量有关,还与全球气候变暖更利于飞虱的繁衍与迁移,以及杂交水稻可能更利于飞虱类的繁衍有关。因此,要彻底防控水稻褐飞虱的为害,要“防控前移”,到飞虱的发源地-湄公河三角洲区域去实施以生态治理为核心的综合防治技术,一方面帮助其提高水稻产量,改良水稻种植模式,压缩冬春稻种植面积;另一方面帮助其发展经济,构建世界热带水果与特种经济植物基地,同时组建大型粮食生产加工集团,以及开展褐飞虱防控国际间合作;对迁入代要及早治理,并且以县为单位组建植物保护公司,再利用飞虱对某些水稻品种特别嗜好性,构建飞虱诱集区,形成聚而歼之的主战场。