World Wildlife Fund

The Mekong region is undergoing a massive transformation through the Asian Development Bank’s Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) plan. Initiated in 1992, the plan seeks to promote economic cooperation among the six countries of the region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China) through infrastructure projects enabling the development and sharing of resources and the free flow of goods and services. Projects include construction and expansion of existing roads, hydropower dams for energy transmission, rail and port construction. Resource development is focused mainly on mining and agricultural products for export. 

Infrastructure development
The development of infrastructure across the Greater Mekong region is one of the major drivers for inter-regional economic growth. Currently, there are over 250 hydropower dams planned for the Mekong River. If not properly planned and implemented using sustainable environmental and social criteria, these dams will lead to the degradation of ecosystem services, reduced fisheries and the irreversible loss of fish species.

Roads are being planned at a similar scale - from the steep slopes of Tibet Qinghai at the source of the Mekong, to its floodplains in Vietnam. Many of these roads will transect priority conservation areas –degrading biodiversity, fragmenting critical landscapes and impairing the integrity of ecosystem functions such as watersheds. With the building of roads come unintended but devastating impacts: increased access facilitates illegal timber and wildlife trade, agricultural conversion, mass migration and related conflict.

Illegal timber and wildlife trade
Driven by the global demand for wood and pulp, the illegal timber and illegal wildlife trade continues to thrive in the Mekong region - breaching tax rules, circumventing government-granted timber concessions, and threatening both biodiversity and human livelihoods. The development trends of GMS, particularly regional transport, communication networks and simplified cross-border commerce are also facilitating the wildlife trade.

Agriculture
Thailand and Vietnam are among the world’s leading exporters of rice and rubber. Vietnam is the world’s second largest exporter of coffee and Thailand is the world’s second largest exporter of sugar. The region’s transition over the past decade from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture has led to large-scale forest conversion in the Mekong region. Interestingly, export crops such as sugar, coffee and rubber meant to boost economic growth sometimes have the opposite effect. In the Mekong region countries where land tenure systems are weak, there is a resulting rise in migration, conflict and social unrest, leading to the increased marginalization of subsistence and small holder agriculture.

Climate change
The Mekong region is expecting severe impacts from Climate Change. In the delta, scientists foresee a rise in sea levels which will lead to saltwater intrusion, and increase the risks of floods and natural disasters. This would result in displacement of local communities and their livelihoods. People are not the only community that will be on the move. As temperatures rise, wildlife species will also begin to migrate in search of cooler habitats. This could lead to isolation of their populations and human wildlife conflict. 

For the Mekong River we know that if the water temperature changes there will be a direct impact on the fish species, leading to a decline in fisheries.