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.     

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.     

Fixing flammable Forest: The scalar politics of peatland governance and restoration in Indonesia

Peatland fires and the impact of transboundary haze are often intertwined with socio‐environmental externalities of neoliberal forest governance and overlapping systems of resource property rights in Indonesia. New peatland governance strategies are emerging to address fires and haze by reorganising peatland management using a more ecologically relevant scale that territorialises peatland according to its hydrological characteristics. Employing the concept of the eco‐scalar fix, this paper interrogates rescaling peatland governance as a strategy to address the socio‐ecological crisis associated with the conversion of peatland into mono‐agricultural land. However, rescaling peatland governance entails the risk of merely displacing socio‐environmental crises to areas considered less ecologically important rather than addressing them. Drawing on a case study of a peatland restoration in Riau, Indonesia, this paper shows how emerging hybrid forms of peatland governance can address the environmental externalities that have unintentionally been created. This hybrid form of peatland governance has pressured actors across multiple types of property to rework the ways that environmental commons are controlled and accessed.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Negotiating local livelihoods: Scales of conflict in the Se San River Basin

Abstract: The Se San is an important tributary river basin of the Mekong. In 1993, Vietnam began building the Yali Falls Dam 80 kilometres upstream of the point at which this westward flowing river enters Cambodia. Ninety indigenous communities along the Se San River in two provinces of north‐eastern Cambodia have been impacted severely by flooding, and a dramatically altered hydrological regime that affects fisheries and all other aspects of livelihood, such as river bank agriculture. Since 2000, when the first turbines were commissioned, the affected communities have been increasingly vocal regarding the impacts of Yali and the plans for several more dams on upper reaches of the river. A complex set of actors including non‐governmental organisations, village, district and provincial authorities, national committees in Cambodia and Vietnam, the Mekong River Commission and a range of international players have become involved in a two‐track process, which has nevertheless allowed little space for negotiation over the Se San River on the part of those most directly affected. This case has fundamental implications for governance and conflict management in the Mekong and more widely. The Australian Mekong Resource Centre has been working with local actors to document the Se San case as part of an international project on River Basin Management: a negotiated approach, in support of six cases that involve up‐scaling of grassroots river basin initiatives in Africa, Latin America and Asia. In this article, we illustrate the significance of and problematise negotiation as a socially and politically embedded conflict management principle, with reference to the Se San case.     

How transboundary processes connect commons in Japan and Thailand: A relational analysis of global commodity chains and East Asian economic integration

In this paper, with a focus on Japan and Thailand, we outline a relational environmental and economic history of East Asian economic integration (EAEI) and its implication for the commons in both places. We draw attention in particular to global commodity chains as relational processes not only of trade and investment, but also geopolitics and aid, to argue that these transborder processes have connected together commons in distant localities resulting in their simultaneous enclosure, dispossession and (re‐)commoning with implications for community vulnerabilities in positive and negative ways. To demonstrate this argument we analyse three periods of EAEI: the late nineteenth century until World War II, when Japan and Thailand both began to modernise and new trade and geopolitical relations emerged in the context of colonialism; the post‐World War II recovery until the Plaza Accord in 1986, during which time Japan rapidly industrialised, as did Thailand to a lesser extent and regionalism was largely defined by US hegemony; and the post‐Plaza Accord period, when Japan deindustrialised its labour intensive manufacture and heavy industry and Thailand rapidly industrialised and EAEI became defined by new and intensified global commodity chains.     

The geopolitical economy of Thailand's marine plastic pollution crisis

Currently approximately 9 million tons of plastic enter the world's oceans annually. This is a major transboundary problem on a global scale that threatens marine wildlife, coastal ecologies, human health and livelihoods. Our concern in this paper is with the environmental governance of marine plastic pollution that emanates from Thailand, the sixth biggest contributor globally. By zooming in on land‐based polluters in Thailand, we highlight both the systemic nature of the marine plastic problem and the relative impunity with which drivers of transboundary environmental harm function at all levels of governance. Drawing from 19 interviews conducted with actors from the public, private and non‐profit sectors, we examine three stages of the problem: production, consumption and waste management. We found that three major barriers prevent Thailand's government, private sector and citizens from engaging in the sort collective action needed to reduce marine plastic pollution. They are: (i) insufficient incentives to enact political change; (ii) scalar disconnects in waste management; and (iii) inadequate public and private sector ownership over plastic waste reduction. As the state alone cannot change corporate and consumer behaviour, we argue that multi‐stakeholder efforts across organisational scales of governance and administrative boundaries are needed to address the barriers.     

‘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.     

常州市城市内河常见鱼类资源及保护的研究

为了更好的评价常州城市内河治理后的生态环境。于2012年8—12月连续3次对江苏省常州市新北区运北水系的三井河、柴支浜河、北塘河、通济河、澡港河进行了常见鱼类群落调查。调查共捕获鱼类331尾、3523.55 g,隶属3目3科11属12种。鲤形目中的鲫（餐）、贝氏（餐）为优势种（IRI≥1000）,似鳊、麦穗、乌鳢等为常见种（IRI≥100）,合鳃目中黄鳝等为稀有种（IRI≤100）。Margalef丰富度指数以4#易买得最高,达到1.924,而1#塘北桥,7#勤丰桥为较高,以11#通济河西为最低;Shannon-Wiener多样性指数以7#勤丰桥最高,达到1.431,而10#三井河桥,1#塘北桥为较高,以13#通济河东为最低;Pielou＇s Evenness Index均匀度指数以3#三井桥最高,达到0.978,而10#三井河桥,1#塘北桥为较高,以13#通济河东为最低;多样性指数和均匀度指数与高锰酸盐指数、BOD5、石油类、总氮、氨氮等环境因子呈显著负相关关系,多样性指数和发光细菌急性毒性及丰富度指数呈显著正相关关系。鱼类种类调查结果可为常州市运河鱼类资源保护和利用提供参考,同时也为生态环境的修复进展提供有力证明。     

Plant Landscape Design in River Renovation Based on Site Characte-ristics——A Case Study of Plant Landscape Design in Renovation of Longwanggang River

Plant landscape design in the renovation of Longwanggang River was taken for example to elaborate that plant landscape designs based on site characteristics are mainly demonstrated as "respecting original landforms, considering original plant species, communities and landscapes, exploring proper indigenous plant species". Plant landscapes of Longwanggang River were oriented as riverfront landscape belt with multiple textures, urban portal and ecological corridor, aiming at returning to the nature, integrating environmental resources, achieving large scales and multiple forms. Considering properties of the neighboring plots, functional areas are divided according to different community types and eco-community structure of the plant landscapes, so as to form landscape nodes, highlight overall plant landscape effects, regional characteristics and low maintenance cost.     

Water and Soil Conservation in Taiwan Based on Theoretical Research of Water and Soil Ecology

Taiwan has always attached great importance to management of mountain slopes, and its steepslope water and soil conservation system has been a reference for the water and soil conservation in hot and rainy regions. From the perspective of water and soil ecology theory, new forms of water and soil loss emerged since the industrialization and urbanization of Taiwan, also known as hidden water and soil loss, such as soil hardening, change of original landform, destruction of ecological landscape etc.. These losses should be controlled through water and soil conservation measures such as initial involvement, dynamic analysis, systematic treatment and disaster avoidance, all production and construction activities should follow three elements(water, soil and vegetation) and their correlation laws, in order to maintain water and soil ecological balance. By integrating water and soil ecological concepts, water and soil conservation in Taiwan will make more progress.     

玛曲高寒草甸沙化研究进展──生物诱因、影响及治理

地处青藏高原东南缘的黄河玛曲是黄河全境最主要的产流区、水源涵养区和水源补给区,也是世界重要的生物多样性保护热点地区之一,但自20 世纪60、70 年代以来,该区地表径流减少、地下水位下降、植被破坏、草场严重退化及水土流失等生态环境问题日趋严重,尤其是草地沙化问题已相当突出,引起了国内外的广泛关注。笔者通过搜集国内外文献,在总结分析的基础上,揭示了生物因素对玛曲高寒草甸沙化的影响,探讨了沙化带来的严重后果,提出了高寒草原沙化治理、持续利用和保护的有效途径和对策,以期为今后进一步展开深入研究以及有效治理该区高寒草甸沙化提供依据。     

Livelihoods,leadership, linkages and locality: The Simbo for Change project

This paper analyses the ‘Simbo for Change’ project in the Western Province of Solomon Islands, a collaboration between Simbo leaders and a Samoan non‐governmental organisation (NGO), with funding provided by the Australian aid programme. We explore the role of local leadership in catalysing an island‐wide community development project that has generated new livelihoods opportunities and led to greater community cohesion and more proactive governance. By mobilising around a ‘collective subject’ (Simbo as an island community), the project allowed existing skills and practices to be revalued and extended, particularly in relation to chiefly governance and the standing of women in the community. While mobilising the island scale was important in building social cohesion and support for livelihoods activities, this was not a parochial identity but was redefined by stronger connections to off‐island markets, organic accreditation for Simbo, renewed interest from provincial and national government authorities and by the enduring trans‐Pacific friendships established with the Samoan NGO and its trainers. The case study provides an example of the constructive potential of the island scale in Melanesia, whereas other recent studies of similar scale‐making processes have focused on violent conflict generated by industrial scale mining.     

Circuits of power: Environmental injustice from Bangkok's shopping malls to Laos’ hydropower dams

In what ways are lifestyles in urbanising Thailand, increasingly oriented towards shopping malls related to the threat to the wildlife and struggles for subsistence in distant Lao hinterlands? Our article answers this question by looking at the workings of electricity as the key infrastructure that connects these seemingly unrelated events and practices. We argue that the circulation of electricity flows along uneven channels, shifting injury and environmental harm across international borders. This circuit is perpetuating inequality and environmental injustice in the Lower Mekong. To demonstrate this claim, we analyse the electricity sector at numerous scales and locations – the urban scale in Bangkok, the country scale of Thailand and then Laos and the local community scale in Laos. We then discuss by what means various material and social processes and actors at these different scales form this circuit. Looking at circuits of power allows us to link the story of electricity consumption with that of production, with an emphasis on their extraterritoriality, multiplicity and boundaries. Our findings illustrate the effects of this circuit on spaces far from a thought‐of urban area. Furthermore, we demonstrate the ways in which these effects have produced inequality and injustice across borders.     

Southeast Asia's transboundary haze pollution: Unravelling the inconvenient truth

This paper examines the political intricacies inherent in the management of Southeast Asia's transboundary haze pollution. It argues for a scalar perspective in understanding the complexities of the haze problem. The so‐called ‘inconvenient truth’ is unravelled by teasing out some issues in the national and regional political ecologies, and the challenges of synchronising co‐operation at the national, regional and global scales. Discussion shows that the ‘environment’ takes on different meanings at each scale, and both Indonesia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) need to recognise this in order to engage more effectively with the transboundary environmental issue. Specifically, inadequate management of forest resources in Indonesia, ASEAN's principle of ‘non‐interference’ and a lack of a holistic ecosystem perspective are amongst some of the interconnected issues addressed. The paper calls for a greater awareness of structural weaknesses in the management of forest resources and a change in ASEAN's environmental paradigm to a more holistic ecosystem perspective that prioritises not just environmental and human health, but also a healthy and sustainable ecosystem.     

岷江上游生态农业建设与可持续发展研究

岷江上游地区属典型的高山峡谷区,气候干旱,土壤瘠薄,农业环境恶化,经济基础薄弱,农业增产和农民增收的幅度较小。由于特殊的地质构造、特定的自然地理环境及社会经济条件,岷江上游地区农业发展适宜走生态农业的道路,实施合理的资源利用和生态环境保护建设,使农、林、牧业良性循环,综合协调发展,实现生态、经济、社会效益的统一。     

Community Characteristics of Phytoplankton in Ecological Restoration of Rural Polluted Rivers

The T-type submerged dam based on zeolite and ecological floating bed was set up in Zhujiabang River, a tributary of the Zhihugang River(north of the Taihu Lake), together with ecological restoration measures such as aeration and slope wetland. From the perspective of phytoplankton community, the restorative effect of ecological restoration project on rural contaminated rivers was investigated. The results showed that(i) ecological restoration changed the community structure and succession tendency of phytoplankton, the dominant state of Cyanophyta and Cryptophyta was replaced by some species of Bacillariophyta, Chlorophyta and Pyrrophyta;(ii) ecological engineering restrained the standing stock of phytoplankton community greatly, total biomass of phytoplankton during the restoration period was less than 6 mg/L;(iii) biodiversity of phytoplankton during the ecological restoration maintained at a higher level(mean Shannon-Weiner index was 2.32). Considering the correlation between efficiency of ecological restoration project in purifying water, standing stock of phytoplankton and nutrient level of water, removal of nutrients by ecological restoration project was one of the major factors triggering the change of phytoplankton community characteristics.