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Abstract
The changing notion of state territoriality highlights overlapping power structures at international, national, and local scales and reveals how states can be “differently” powerful. This article analyzes how the interplay of these power structures shapes the dynamics of natural resource management in one of the world's fastest changing transboundary basins, the Mekong. Taking the Lao People's Democratic Republic as a case study, we highlight the existing inconsistency and institutional discrepancies in land, water, and environmental policy related to hydropower and illustrate how they are manifested in multiple decision-making frameworks and overlapping legal orders. The resulting legal plurality reveals the inherently contested terrain of hydropower but, more important, it illustrates how the central state has been able to use contradictory mandates and interests to further its goals. The specific Mekong hydropower case demonstrates that an understanding of power geometries and scale dynamics is crucial to meaningful application of social and environmental safeguards for sustainable dam development. More broadly, the case sheds light on the important role of states’ various agents and their multiple connections, partially explaining how the achievement of the central state's goals can be derived from legal plurality rather than hindered by it.
国家领域性概念的改变, 凸显出国际, 国家以及地方尺度之间部分重叠的权力结构, 并揭露各国如何能够具有 “不同的” 权力。本文分析这些权力结构的互动, 如何在世界上改变最快的跨国盆地之一——湄公河之中, 形塑自然资源管理的动态。我们以老挝共和国 (寮国) 为案例研究, 凸显与水力发电有关的土地, 水与环境中存在的不一致性和制度差异, 并描绘它们如何展现在多重决策架构与重叠的法律秩序中。其所导致的法律多重性, 展现出水力发电的内在争夺领域, 但更重要的是, 它描绘出中央政府如何能够运用相互矛盾的授权及利益来推进其目标。湄公河水力发电的特殊案例, 证实理解权力几何和尺度动态, 对于将社会及环境保护有意义地应用至可持续发展的水坝建设的重要性。更广泛而言, 该案例阐明国家的各种代理人及其多重连结的重要角色, 并部分解释中央政府目标的达成, 如何可从法律的多重性衍生而来, 而非受到法律多重性的阻碍。
El cambio en la noción de territorialidad estatal hace énfasis sobre el traslape de las estructuras de poder a escalas internacional, nacional y local, y revela cómo los estados pueden ser “diferentemente” poderosos. Este artículo analiza cómo la interacción de estas estructuras de poder configura la dinámica del manejo natural de los recursos en el Mekong, una de las cuencas fluviales de ámbito internacional de más rápida transformación. Adoptando la República Democrática Popular de Laos como caso de estudio, destacamos las actuales inconsistencia y discrepancias institucionales sobre tierra, agua y política ambiental relacionada con energía hidroeléctrica, e ilustramos cómo se manifiestan todas estas condiciones en multitud de esquemas para la toma de decisiones y ordenamientos legales traslapados. La pluralidad legal resultante revela el entorno inherentemente disputado de la energía hidroeléctrica, pero, más importante, ilustra cómo el estado central ha sido capaz de utilizar mandatos e intereses contradictorios en favor de sus metas. El caso específico de la energía hidroeléctrica del Mekong demuestra que un entendimiento de las geometrías de la energía y la dinámica de escala es crucial para la sensata aplicación de salvaguardias sociales y ambientales en el desarrollo sustentable de reservorios. Con mayor trascendencia, el caso arroja luz sobre el importante papel de varios de los agentes estatales y sus múltiples conexiones, que explican parcialmente cómo el logro de las altos metas del estado puede derivarse más de la pluralidad legal que ser obstaculizado por ésta.
Notes
Unlike before, hydropower projects are built and operated by private developers in collaboration with key government agencies, with little or no involvement from international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the ADB.
Twelve of these planned dams are on the Mekong mainstream. For discussion and analysis of the overall power interplay and decision-making landscape for these twelve mainstream dams, see Suhardiman, Giordano, and Molle (forthcoming).
In general, the viability of this plan both in terms of actual electricity generation and revenues and with regard to regional power trade infrastructure has been questioned (Greachen and Palettu Citation2007; Glassman 2010).
In 2012 was NLMA is merged under MoNRE.
The program started in 2004 and is still currently ongoing.
Currently, the government of Laos is in the process of renewing its water law. Yet, how the new law will address the issue of sectoral versus integrated water resource management remains unclear.
See also Carruthers and Halliday (Citation2006) on the question of global convergence versus national divergence in legal frameworks and practices.
Economically it is not feasible to connect all households to the grid system due to potential technical complexity and low potential economic return.
To proceed with the proposed hydropower projects, both government utilities and IPPs have to follow step-wise government procedure. First, (private) investors have to negotiate a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to conduct a feasibility study. Second, the company will conduct a feasibility study and an EIA after the signing of the MoU between the company and the MPI. The company will submit the feasibility study report to the Department of Electricity at MEM for approval, and send the EIA report to the Department of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment at MoNRE for review. Parallel to this process, the company will discuss concession agreements within the overall context of the project development agreement with the Department of Energy Promotion and Development (DEPD) at MEM and involving the NLMA, other relevant ministries (i.e., MAF), and relevant local authorities (provincial and district governments). The current hydropower development procedure highlights the need to involve all relevant ministries in the hydropower decision-making processes. In theory, the proposed hydropower projects can only commence after all relevant government agencies approve the plans.