While ELCs do have some positive impacts, like employment opportunities, new technologies, access to health and improved infrastructure, the negative impacts outweigh these and local communities as well as forest and wildlife are threatened by loss of land, culture and traditions.
International Rivers believes that recent comments attributed in the media to the CEO of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) raise serious concerns about the role and positioning of the MRC Secretariat and the future of decision-making over hydropower development in the Mekong.
Dialogue, transparency and foreign support could help rebuild local trust
US-based Viet Ecology Foundation responds to MRC CEO recent media interview on the future of the Pak Beng dam project.
Large-scale plantations have resulted in Cambodia exhibiting one of the world’s highest rates of deforestation. The major driver of forest policy during the 1990s, and now, concerns elites who deploy the state to manage and exploit Cambodia’s natural resources.
What happens when the change in work comes about due to more major livelihood changes that transform the gender dynamics of work and decision-making in whole communities?
Cheers went up at the protest site when it was announced that Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha had promised to “set zero” the coal-fired power plant project in Krabi.
But the elation proved to be premature.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha last week asked reporters why non-governmental organisations (NGOs), environmental activists and academics continue to protest against the planned blasting of rapids in the Mekong River.
He said many of these protesters are outsiders, meaning people who do not live by the riverside, do not fish its waters or make a living from the river and do not, in fact, have any stake in the river at all.
In view of various climate change phenomena, how can economies develop sustainably? Specifically, can economies grow while giving equal consideration to the tri-nexus of economy, environment and society? It is a question confronting policymakers in Southeast Asia on a recurring basis.
Asean is 50 years old this year. It is a true milestone for a loosely constructed regional organization created by five countries at the height of the Cold War to have come this far. Since its conception, its member countries have transformed Asean into a rules-based entity encompassing all the countries in Southeast Asia.
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