EVENT [RESOURCES]: The Belt and Road Initiative, hydropolitics, and hydropower [Online, 7 June 2021]

On june 7, Carl Middleton from CSDS was invited as one of the speakers for the webinar "Contrasting China's Relationship with South and Southeast Asia: the Belt and Road Initiative, Hydropolitics, and Hydropower."

Carl was speaking on ‘Reworking the Mekong River Regime: The Geopolitics and Hydropolitics of Competing Regionalisms’.

The full panelists of the event are:

• Prof Jiejin Zhu, School of International Relations and Public Affairs and center for UN and International Organizations studies at Fudan University

• Dr Ruth Gamble, La Trobe University, Melbourne

• Dr Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) in the Faculty of Political Science of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

• Rohan D’Souza, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University

Chair: Prof Lyla Mehta, Institute of Development Studies

For more information about the event, you can visit the organizer’s website here. You can also watch the full panel below:

EVENT [REPORT]: Book Launch "Dead in the Water: Global Lessons from the World Bank's Model Hydropower Project in Laos" [Bangkok, 19 October 2018]

On 19 October 2018, the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) hosted a book launch for "Dead in the Water: Global Lessons from the World Bank's Model Hydropower Project in Laos". The book launch event discussed several topics related to the book's themes, inviting four panelists who also contributed chapters to the book.

Bruce Shoemaker, the co-editor of the book who is an independent researcher on natural resource conflict issues with a focus on the Mekong region, presented an overview of the book highlighting amongst other issues the impact that Nam Theun 2 has had on biodiversity in the Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area. Glenn Hunt, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Bern, Switzerland followed by discussing the livelihoods resettlement program on the Nakai Plateau and analysed it using the five pillars of livelihood restoration program which includes commercial forestry, fisheries, agriculture, livestock and off-farm.

Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, discussed the legacy of the Nam Theun 2 project in the discourse on sustainable hydropower and the need to re-frame the debate from sustainable hydropower towards comprehensive forms of energy options assessments. Kanokwan Manorom from the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathani University, discussed the downstream impacts of the Nam Theun 2 project on the Xe Bang Fai river basin, focusing on women and the ethnic minorities living around the area and how the project affected their livelihoods negatively in their everyday life. The book launch was moderated by Kasira Cheeppensook from CSDS.

The shared presentations from this discussion can be accessed here. The discussion was broadcast on Facebook Live and can be viewed at the above link.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: Book Launch "Dead in the Water: Global Lessons from the World Bank's Model Hydropower Project in Laos" [Bangkok, 19 October 2018]

Program and List of Panelists

Moderated by Kasira Cheeppensook (Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University)

Panelists:

• Bruce Shoemaker (Independent Researcher) - “Dead in the Water: An Overview of the Book”

• Glenn Hunt (Ph.D candidate at the University of Bern, Senior Land Advisor on the OneMap Myanmar project) - “Broken Pillars: The Failure of the Nakai Plateau Livelihood Resettlement Program”

• Carl Middleton (Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University) - “Nam Theun 2 and the Discourse of Sustainable Hydropower”

• Kanokwan Manorom (Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathani University) - “Gender Invisibility and the Nam Theun 2 Dam”

EVENT: Discovering Local Adaptation Strategies to Flooding: Third Pole Media Workshop Heads to Koh Kret

By Robert Irven

Tucked away just north of Bangkok proper sits a tiny island on the Chao Phraya River, home to both local Thai and decedents of ethnic Mon communities who have shared this location for over 200 years. Koh Kret was the site of the second day of the CSDS/ MAIDS/ Third Pole media workshop, where our visiting journalists and new MAIDS students were taken for a day of observation and hands-on learning on 21 August 2017. Corresponding with the workshop’s main themes, the day focused on learning the island’s history and current responses to regular and severe floods, the utility of local/traditional knowledge, sustainable tourism and community cooperation and activism.  

ur group was first greeted and briefed by the islands main administrators, who gave a brief history of the island, and generously answered in detail many of the group’s questions relating to flood prevention and how urban and environmental changes were affecting the island. They emphasized a ranged of challenges, including river bank erosion, managing pollution, and the impacts of flooding.

Wasting no time, the group was then whisked away to a farming area, where a tour of a traditional fruit farm was given, allowing for a glimpse into Thailand’s agricultural practices and the challenges this sector now faces. Koh Kret island is famous for its durian fruit, which can cost up to THB 10,000 per kilogram. The farmer explained that whilst the durian trees are vulnerable to flooding, some farms build dykes to protect their trees, and there was a wider desire for more comprehensive flood protection dyke infrastructure for the whole island.

After cooling off away from the brutal midday monsoon heat, the group arrived at the community center for some traditional Thai snacks and sweets, alongside an introduction of community life and how the seven moo’s [villages] interact and work together to keep traditions alive and teach its many daily tourists about their lives on Koh Kret.

After a relaxing lunch alongside the river, the group broke up, with the MAIDS graduate students going off to practice some of their newly learned research methods and the journalists continuing their tour of the island, ending at the island’s famous pottery handicraft center, where traditional clay techniques were displayed and explained.

Overall, the field trip to Koh Kret was an opportunity to learn firsthand the experiences of communities who regularly experience flooding of the Chao Phraya River. We discovered that whilst the floods are regularly disruptive, the communities and the local authorities collaborate together to prepare for floods as much as possible, and minimize the harm should flooding occur. Access to information is key to enable preparation, alongside a sense of community solidarity that ensures mutual support when flooding creates difficulties.

EVENT: 'Water and the Neighborhood': A Diversity of Ideas Flow Through Media Workshops at Chulalongkorn University

By Robert Irven

This week, the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) at Chulalongkorn University, in partnership with The Third Pole, welcomed journalists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and India for a three-day media workshop entitled “Water and the Neighborhood.” Discussion centered on the social and ecological issues surrounding the major transboundary rivers of South and Southeast Asia, including the Brahmaputra, Mekong and Salween Rivers. 

Also in attendance was the new class of graduate students from the Faculty of Political Science’s Master of Arts in International Development Studies (MAIDS). They took the opportunity to kick off their studies and discuss development in action. They also had a chance for some initial fieldwork with a visit to Koh Kret Island on the Chaophraya River on the second day of the workshop. 

Participants and guests from the first day of the media workshop (Photo by Robert Irven, 2017)

The speakers held a vast array of experiences and backgrounds, including from international organizations such as UN Environment. the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and the Mekong River Commission, academics such as from the Indian Institute of Technology (Guwahati), as well as media organizations such as the Mekong Eye and civil society groups such as International Rivers. They engaged in a variety of presentations and discussions with the goal of sharing knowledge, exploring the context of transboundary river contestation and cooperation, and providing journalism-specific insights to benefit those in the field on the front lines of these often highly contentious, transboundary issues.  

While presentations ranged in scope and topic, common themes and questions helped focus debate that allowed for meaningful interactions in a multicultural gathering and saw academics, civil society organizations and journalists all learning from one another. One commonly discussed theme, for example, was the importance of placing riparian communities central to decision-making, including through engagement with River Basin Organizations (RBO’s). Whether in the form of formal networks, as represented by inter-governmental RBOs, or via informal arrangements, networks are now seen as vital to the regional conservation and sustainable development of these delicate ecologies, where humans and the natural world intersect in a variety of ways. From the Salween River, shared between China, Myanmar and Thailand, to the Brahmaputra/Jamuna River that starts in China and flows through four countries in South Asia, accelerated and often poorly planned large water infrastructure projects are threatening the existing ways of life of tens of millions of people that depend on the life-giving qualities of these waterways, where communities that have built their lives around nature for centuries. RBO’s at their best may act as a focal point for community, government and non-state actors to gather knowledge and a platform to encourage conversation and decision-making from all sides. 

Field trip to Ko Kret to learn about traditional life and flood adaptation (Photo by Robert Irven, 2017) 

As the Director of the MAIDS Program, Assistant Professor Dr. Naruemon Thabchumpon, reiterated during the kickoff of the event, the fate of the region’s rivers and basins and the communities that depend on them hang in the balance, so it is the type of cooperation and knowledge sharing undertaken at this event that becomes crucial for all nations to succeed in their conservation efforts. Saw John Bright, speaking for the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN), pointed out that given the variety of challenges faced throughout the region, it will take equally innovative solutions and management to fix many of the long-term problems that are faced, including community based natural resource management and in the case of the Salween River, he proposed support for the establishment of a “Salween Peace Park.” 

Without the discovery and documenting of new and lesser-known stories by the media and academics alike, inclusive and fair decision-making around transboundary rivers is highly unlikely. With the tools and knowledge gained over the past week, journalists and experts alike left not only better prepared to continue their work on these issues, but more energized and galvanized for the challenges ahead.

EVENT: "Thailand’s Overseas Investment in Southeast Asia and Transnational (In)Justice"

Session organized at the 13th International Conference on Thai Studies
"Globalized Thailand?" Connectivity, Conflict, and Conundrums of Thai Studies 

15:15-16:45, 16th July 2017, Chiang Mai International Exhibition and Convention Center

Session convened by the Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

Our panel critically discussed Thailand’s investment role in the region through the lens of transnational social and environmental justice. Through empirical case studies on agribusiness, hydropower and special economic zones, we explored the political economy of these investments in order to understand the production of injustice and human rights violations.  The panel addressed the following questions: what are the roles, opportunities and challenges for public interest law, national/ regional human rights institutions, other transnational soft law mechanisms, and civil society to protect and promote human rights on Thailand’s investments?

The paper presentations can be downloaded below.

• Paper 1: Accountability Beyond the State: Extra territorial obligations in the case of the Koh Kong Sugar Industry Concession, Cambodia by Michelle D’cruz

• Paper 2: Redressing transboundary environmental injustice at the Dawei Special Economic Zone and Roadlink Project by Naruemon Thabchumpon

• Paper 3: Arenas of Water Justice on Transboundary Rivers: Human Rights and Hydropower Dams on the Salween and Mekong Rivers by Carl Middleton

We would like to thank the panel discussant, Walden Bellow, and chair, Daniel King, for their insightful contributions to the panel.

Chair: Daniel King