The role of science and local knowledge in tackling the threats facing Mekong ecosystems & communities
The Mekong River Basin is a source of food and livelihood for around 70 million people living in the Mekong region and beyond. While development has produced economic growth in countries bordering the river, the environmental impacts of infrastructure projects, land-use change and extreme flooding and drought exacerbated by climate change have damaged many of the basin’s complex natural ecosystems and habitats.
This webinar, by EJN and the Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET), explores the growing debates around the impacts of hydropower and other economic activities in the Mekong River Basin and whether the waterway, its ecology and the people whose lives and cultures depend upon them can absorb these human interventions without disruption to the system’s delicate social and ecological balance.
Guest speakers
- Chea Seila - Project Manager and Coordinator, Wonders of the Mekong Project, Cambodia
- Dr. Thanapon Piman - Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Asia
- Dr. Anoulak Kittikhoun - Chief Strategy and Partnership Officer, Mekong River Commission (MRC)
Moderated by Dr. Louis Lebel - Director, Unit for Social and Environmental Research, Faculty of Social Science, Chiang Mai University
With an introduction by Rajesh Daniel, Communications, SEI Asia
Banner image: The Mekong River as it flows through Laos / Credit: Simon Berger via Unsplash