Mekong

In the remote eastern region of Myanmar, ethnic communities in Karenni State are conserving and protecting their forests using customary rules and cultural beliefs.

This is the conversation between Reporting ASEAN’s editor and founder, Johanna Son, and Stimson Centre’s Brian Eyler, edited for length and clarity.

The  Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) was revived in 2018 in part to provide its members with an alternative source of funding to enhance connectivity in mainland Southeast Asia. Within an area congested with multilateral frameworks, overlapping agendas and an abundance of funding, ACMECS faces formidable challenges ahead to stay relevant. 

Amidst the promising economic prosperity and development in the Southeast Asian region, the growing energy demands to sustain it comes with a price. In this article, we reveal how securitizing environmental issues and promoting policy dialogues can lead to sustainable environmental governance in the Mekong region.

Like two sides to every coin, hydropower development offers benefits and disadvantages. Lao PDR has been constructing many dams, with assorted projects in various stages of completion. But what is the legal framework to ensure proper compensation for affected residents?  

Hydropower dams on the Mekong mainstream have resulted in many negative impacts on riverine communities who depend on the river’s transboundary ecological web for their livelihoods. Ongoing plans for development continue to impact people’s lives – can it be halted before it reaches a tipping point? 

Nược Đua’ is how Vietnamese living in the Mekong Delta used to call out to the dolphins ‘to help them out when they were fishing. That was decades ago, when the Irrawaddy dolphin could still be seen in Vietnam.