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Abstract
Environmental challenges are often transnational and affect the daily lives of people as well as broader national interests. This research paper focuses on the challenge of finding a balance between economic development and environmental degradation in the Mekong subregion and assesses the role of regional institutions in dealing with this issue. Finding a balance is important, because more than 70 million people live on the river banks and the subregion is crucial for the economic development of its six riparian countries. Concentrating on two organizations – the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) – this article argues that regional attempts to find a balance have so far largely failed. Reasons for this lack of success include the MRC's failure to include all riparian countries, and the fact that the GMS has only recently widened its focus from economic development to also include environmental and social issues.
Notes
1 This ranking is controversial since it depends on which method is used to measure the river. Different methods include the mean annual discharge and the length of the river. Ian C. Campbell, ‘Chapter 1: Introduction’, in The Mekong – Biophysical Environment of an International River Basin, ed. Ian C. Campbell (New York: Elsevier, 2009).
2 Milton Osborne, ‘The Strategic Significance of the Mekong’, Contemporary Southeast Asia 22, no. 3 (2000): 429–44; and Evelyn Goh, ‘China in the Mekong River Basin: The Regional Security Implications of Resource Development on the Lancang Jiang’, in Non-Traditonal Security in Asia, ed. Mely Caballero-Anthony, Ralf Emmers and Amitav Acharya (Aldershot, Hampshire and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006).
3 Katri Mehtonen, Marko Keskinen, and Olli Varis, ‘Chapter 8: The Mekong: IWRM and Institutions’, in Management of Transboundary Rivers and Lakes, ed. Olli Varis, Asti K. Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada (Berlin: Springer, 2008); CIA, ‘Cambodia’, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cb.html (accessed July 16, 2011); and CIA, ‘Laos’, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/la.html (accessed July 16, 2011).
4 Campbell, ‘Chapter 1: Introduction’.
5 Environmental degradation is here defined according to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISRD) as ‘the reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives and needs’, http://www.unisdr.org/ we/inform/terminology (accessed June 15, 2012).
6 Richard Mattew, ‘Climate Change and Environmental Impact’, in Strategic Asia 2010–11: Asia's Rising Power and America's Continued Purpose, ed. Ashley Tellis, Andrew Marble and Travis Tanner (Seattle, WA: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2011).
7 Lorraine Elliott, ‘Environmental Challenges, Policy Failure and Regional Dynamics in Southeast Asia’, in Contemporary Southeast Asia, ed. Mark Beeson (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); Mattew, ‘Climate Change and Environmental Impact’; and Goh, ‘China in the Mekong River Basin’.
8 Lorraine Elliott, ‘ASEAN and Environmental Cooperation: Norms, Interests and Identity’, The Pacific Review 16, no. 1 (2003): 47.
9 PRC Information Office of State Council, China's National Defense in 2002, December 9, 2002, http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/20021209/index.htm (accessed July 19, 2012).
10 Oliver Hensengerth, ‘Money and Security: China's Strategic Interests in the Mekong River Basin’, Chatman House (2009), http://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/papers/view/109076 (accessed March 10, 2012).
11 Campbell, ‘Chapter 1: Introduction’.
12 Oliver Hensengerth, ‘Transboundary River Cooperation and the Regional Public Good: The Case of the Mekong River’, Contemporary Southeast Asia 31, no. 2 (2009): 326–49.
13 Osborne, ‘Strategic Significance of the Mekong’, 429–44.
14 WWF, ‘River of Giants: Giant Fish of the Mekong’ (2010), http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/ 2010/WWFPresitem17475.html (accessed June 22, 2011); and David Arase, ‘Non-Traditional Security in China-Asean Cooperation’, Asian Survey 50, no. 4 (2010): 808–33.
15 For more detail see Evelyn Goh, ‘China in the Mekong River Basin: The Regional Security Implications of Resource Development on the Lancang Jiang’, Working Paper No. 69, Insitute for Defence and Strategic Studies Singapore (2004): 4–7.
16 Chris Sneddon and Coleen Fox, ‘Rethinking Transboundary Waters: A Critical Hydropolitics of the Mekong Basin’, Political Geography 25, no. 2 (2006): 181–202.
17 Marc A Levy et al., ‘Institutions for the Earth: Promoting International Environmental Protection’, Environment 34, no. 4 (1992): 13.
18 John Ikenberry and Michael Mastandumo, ‘International Relations Theory and the Search for Regional Stability’, in International Relations Theory and the Asia-Pacific, ed. John Ikenberry and Michael Mastandumo (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).
19 Owen Greene, ‘Environmental Issues’, in The Globalization of World Politics, ed. John Baylis and Steve Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). A part of this section appeared as a work-in-progress paper in the Griffith Asia Institute – Regional Outlook Series. Andrea Haefner, ‘The Mekong Subregion: Environmental Cooperation, Challenges and their Implication’, 2011 Australia–China Futures Dialogues: Emerging Leaders Dialogue: Non-traditional Security Challenges and Regional Cooperation in Asia, Regional Outlook Paper 31 (2011): 2–7.
20 ASEAN, ‘ASEAN-Strategic Plan of Action on the Environment’, ASEAN web (1994), http://www.aseansec.org/8950.htm (accessed June 28, 2011).
21 ASEAN, ‘Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on ASEAN–China Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity’, ASEAN web (2010), http://www.aseansec.org/25554.htm (accessed June 28, 2011).
22 ASEAN, ‘ASEAN and China Officially Launch the Establishment of the China–Asean Environmental Cooperation Centre’ (2011), http://www.asean.org/26324.htm (accessed June 28, 2011); and ASEAN, ‘Joint Declaration on ASEAN–China’.
23 Mehtonen, Keskinen and Varis, ‘Mekong: IWRM and Institutions’.
24 Also called the Golden Quadrangle or Economic Quadrangle.
25 Mya Than and George Abonyi, ‘The Greater Mekong Subregion: Co-operation in Infrastructure and Finance’, in ASEAN Enlargement: Impacts and Implications, ed. Mya Than and Carolyn Gates (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2001).
26 Ibid.
27 Medhi Krongkaew, ‘The Development of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS): Real Promise or False Hope?’, Journal of Asian Economics 15 (2004): 977–98; and Joern Dosch and Oliver Hensengerth, ‘Sub-Regional Cooperation in Southeast Asia: The Mekong Basin’, European Journal of East Asian Studies 4, no. 2 (2005): 263–85.
28 ADB, ‘Asian Development Bank-Projects’ (2011), http://www.adb.org/Projects/project.asp?id=40253 (accessed June 23, 2011).
29 Dosch and Hensengerth, ‘Sub-Regional Cooperation’.
30 Alfred Oehlers, ‘A Critique of ADB Policies Towards the Greater Mekong Sub-Region’, Journal of Contemporary Asia 36, no. 4 (2006): 467.
31 Andrew Rosser, ‘Risk Management, Neo-Liberalism and Coercion: The Asian Development Bank's Approach to “Fragile States”’, Australian Journal of International Affairs 63, no. 3 (2009): 376–89.
32 Philip Hirsch and Kurt Morck Jensen, ‘National Interests and Transboundary Water Governance in the Mekong’ (Copenhagen: Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2006), http://sydney.edu.au/mekong/documents/mekwatgov_mainreport.pdf.
33 Krongkaew, ‘GMS: Real Promise or False Hope?’
34 Campbell, ‘Chapter 1: Introduction’, 6.
35 Osborne, ‘Strategic Significance of the Mekong’.
36 Abigail Makim, ‘Resources for Security and Stability? The Politics of Regional Cooperation on the Mekong, 1957–2001’, Journal of Environment and Development 11, no. 1 (2002): 5–52; and Osborne, ‘Strategic Significance of the Mekong’.
37 Makim, ‘Resources for Security and Stability’, 18.
38 Mekong Interim Committee, Declaration Concerning the Interim Committee for Coordination of Investigations of the Lower Mekong Basin (1978), http://ocid.nacse.org/tfdd/tfdddocs/396ENG.pdf (accessed July 12, 2012).
39 MRC, ‘Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin’ (1995), http://www.mrcmekong.org/ agreement_95/agreement_95.htm (accessed September 9, 2011).
40 Ibid.
41 MRC, ‘Organisational Structure’ (2012), http://www.mrcmekong.org/about-the-mrc/organisational-structure/ (accessed November 9, 2012).
42 Oliver Hensengerth, ‘Mekong Basin Cooperation – Current Development and Institutional Arrangements’, in Regionalism in China–Vietnam Relations: Institution-Building in the Greater Mekong Subregion, ed. Oliver Hensengerth (Florence, KY: Routledge, 2009).
43 MRC, Annual Report 2001 – Mekong River Commission (Vientiane: MRC, 2002), 2.
44 Ibid.
45 MRC, Hydropower Strategy Development (Phnom Penh: MRC, 2001), http://www.tnmckc.org/upload/document/hydropower/0/MRCHydropowerDevelopment Strategy.pdf (accessed November 5, 2011).
46 Hensengerth, ‘Money and Security’.
47 MRC, ‘Mekong Prime Ministers Agree to Prioritise Climate Change as Summit Ends’ (2010), http://www.mrcsummit2010.org/pr-end-of-summit-5-apr-10.pdf (accessed November 4, 2011).
48 Mehtonen, Keskinen and Varis, ‘Mekong: IWRM and Institutions’; Sneddon and Fox, ‘Rethinking Transboundary Waters’, 7.
49 Sneddon and Fox, ‘Rethinking Transboundary Waters’; Philip Hirsch, ‘Coming Full Circle: New Trends, Same Old Plans’, Watershed 12, no. 3 (2008): 38–43.
50 MRC, Mekong River Commission – Annual Report 2004 (Vientiane: MRC, 2005) .
51 MRC, Mekong River Commission – Audited Financial Statements (Hanoi: MRC, 2012).
52 Hirsch, ‘Coming Full Circle’.
53 Jacob Hook, Susan Novak, and Robyn Johnston, Social Atlas of the Lower Mekong Basin (Phnom Penh: MRC 2003), http://www.mrcmekong.org/download/free_download/Social-Atlas/introduction.pdf (accessed November 20, 2011).
54 Oliver Cogel, ‘Mekong Hydropower Development Is Good’, Bangkok Post, January 9, 2007, http://www.greengrants.org.cn/ read.php?id = 1353 (accessed September 8, 2001).
55 MRC, ‘MRC Appoints New Chief Executive Officer’ (2011), http://www.mrcmekong.org/news-and-events/news/mrc-appoints-new-chief-executive-officer/ (accessed July 5, 2012).
56 Mai-Lan Ha, ‘The Role of Regional Institutions in Sustainable Development: A Review of the Mekong River Commission's First 15 Years’, Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development 5, no. 1 (2011): 125–40; and International Center for Environmental Management (ICEM), Strategic Environmental Assessment of Hydropower on the Mekong Mainstream (2010), http://lux-development.lu/ workshop/ summerAcademy/docs/part1/Module_ 5c_Act_2_SEA_example_Mekong.pdf (accessed April 15, 2012).
57 Children of Mekong, ‘Mr Jeremy Bird’, http://www.childrenofmekong.org/mr-jeremy-bird (accessed November 4, 2011).
58 MRC, ‘MRC Appoints New Chief Executive Officer’.
59 MRC, ‘Sweden Provides US $8.5 Million to Strengthen Sustainable Development and Management of Mekong Resources’ (2012), http://www.mrcmekong.org/news-and-events/news/sweden-provides-us-8-5-million-to-strengthen-sustainable-development-and-management-of-mekong-resources/ (accessed July 25, 2012).
60 Oliver Hensengerth, ‘Vietnam's Security Objectives in Mekong Basin Governance’, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 3, no. 2 (2008): 101–27.
61 Milton Osborne, ‘The Mekong: River under Threat’, Lowy Institute Paper 27 (2009): 48.
62 Mehtonen, Keskinen, and Varis, ‘Mekong: IWRM and Institutions’, 215.
63 ADB, ‘Greater Mekong Subregion’ (2012), http://www.adb.org/countries/gms/main (accessed June 26, 2012).
64 ADB, ‘Asian Development Bank – Greater Mekong Subregion’, http://www.adb.org/gms/ (accessed September 13, 2011).
65 The GMS is divided into nine corridors, which are transforming from transport corridors into economic corridors. The corridors are supported through the Economic Corridors Forum, which supports and improves interactions between the public and private sector and between local and central governments. ADB, ‘Greater Mekon Subregion’.
66 Mehtonen, Keskinen, and Varis, ‘Mekong: IWRM and Institutions’.
67 ADB, Annual Report 2010 – Volume 1 (2011), http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/adb-ar2010-v1.pdf (accessed October 18, 2011), 110.
68 Ibid.
69 Hensengerth, ‘Mekong Basin Cooperation’. Also similarly defined by Krongkaew ‘GMS: Real Promise or False Hope?’
70 Jize Qin, ‘Summit to Enhance Co-Ops Along Mekong’, China Daily, May 7, 2005, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-07/05/content_457155.htm (accessed September 13, 2011).
71 Mehtonen, Keskinen, and Varis, ‘Mekong: IWRM and Institutions’.
72 Krongkaew, ‘GMS: Real Promise or False Hope?’
75 ADB, ‘Greater Mekong Subregion Ministers to Move to New Phase of Environmental Cooperation’ (2011), http://www.adb.org/news/cambodia/greater-mekong-subregion-ministers-move-new-phase-environmental-cooperation (accessed July 26, 2011).
73 Hensengerth, ‘Vietnam's Security Objectives’.
74 Krongkaew, ‘GMS: Real Promise or False Hope?’.
76 GMS Environment Operations Centre, ‘Fast Facts – the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Environment Program and Biodiversity Conservation Corridor Initiative (Cep-Bci)’ (2010), http://www.adb.org/projects/39025-012/main (accessed July 26, 2011).
77 ADB, ‘Greater Mekong Subregion Ministers to Move to New Phase of Environmental Cooperation’.
78 GMS, ‘Fast Facts – the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Environment Program and Biodiversity Conservation Corridor Initiative (Cep-Bci)’.
79 ADB, ‘Greater Mekong Subregion Ministers to Move to New Phase of Environmental Cooperation’.
80 Hensengerth, ‘Vietnam's Security Objectives’.
81 Hirsch and Jensen, ‘National Interests and Transboundary Water Governance’.
82 Elliott, ‘Environmental Challenges’.
83 The La Plata Intergovernmental Coordinating Committee (CIC) is financed one-third by Brazil, one-third by Argentina and one-third together by Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay. The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) is funded by the riparian members' countries equally, which means that all the countries provide the same amount of money annually to run the ICPDR, independent of the GDP and size of the countries. However, due to financial difficulties there are currently four countries suspended from paying the whole amount, which pay only 1% of the total budget and will increase over time with the goal of equal payment among the riparian states.
84 Thin Lei Win, ‘Climate Conversations – Can Regional Organisations Prevent Future Water Conflicts?’, AlertNet, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/climate-conversations/can-regional-organisations-prevent-future-water-conflicts/ (accessed November 15, 2012).
85 Keith Bradsher, ‘“Social Risk” Test Ordered by China for Big Projects’, The New York Times, November 13, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/world/asia/china-mandates-social-risk-reviews-for-big-projects.html?hp&_r=0 (accessed November 15, 2012).