UPCOMING EVENT: ARI E-Workshop on Transboundary Environmental Governance in Southeast Asia [Online, 4 December 2020]

15.40-17.30, Friday, 4 December 2020 via Zoom

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

The Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, is going to organize an inter-disciplinary workshop on "Transboundary Environmental Governance in Southeast Asia" to explore how, why, when and what forms of transboundary environmental governance are emerging in Southeast Asia.

The workshop will be conducted online via Zoom. To register, please visit this link here and the organizer will reply prior to the event with the Zoom link.

Panel IV. Hybrid Governance of Transboundary Commons

Chairperson: Zu Dienle Tan, National University of Singapore

Panelists:

• Beyond the Commons/Commodity Dichotomy in the Lancang-Mekong Basin: Implications for Transboundary Water Governance by Carl Middleton, Chulalongkorn University

• Unruly Fires: Nonhumans as Transboundary Actants in Governing Indonesia’s Wildfires by Rini Astuti, National University of Singapore and Yuti Ariani Fatimah, Nanyang Technological University

• A Multi-Scalar Political Economy Analysis of Thailand’s Widespread Urban Air Pollution by Danny Marks, Dublin City University

• Path Dependency of Land Use in Southeast Asian Peatlands by Lahiru Wijedasa, National University of Singapore

Abstract:

Beyond the Commons/Commodity Dichotomy in the Lancang-Mekong Basin: Implications for Transboundary Water Governance

Extensive hydropower construction across the Lancang-Mekong basin is changing the river’s hydrology and ecology, with implications for the availability and governance of common pool resources, as well as for riparian livelihoods. In this paper, I assess how the transboundary commons are being reworked as the river is transformed by large dam operation. The paper applies an analytical lens that seeks to move beyond a commons-commodity dichotomy in water related resource governance (Paerregaard and Andersen, 2019) to argue that at the present time the Lancang-Mekong River is neither fully commodified nor fully a commons, but rather a hybrid of the two. The paper will examine how transboundary hybrid governance regimes are reworking the hybrid commons, drawing attention to how states, communities, and even private actors, seek to maintain particular types of commons, whilst simultaneously either furthering or resisting commodification of some properties of the river. The paper will discuss the implications of this hybrid governance perspective for recent hydropolitics in the river basin and existing and new transboundary water governance institutions, namely the Mekong River Commission and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework.

For more information about this event, please visit the organizer’s webpage here.

UPCOMING PANEL DISCUSSION: Saving the Mekong [Bangkok, 19 February 2020]

19.00 - 21.00, Wednesday, 19th February 2020 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT), Penthouse, Maneeya Center, 518/5 Ploenchit Road, Patumwan, Bangkok, Thailand

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

Will the “mighty Mekong” be the first of the planet’s great rivers to be destroyed by development?

Dramatic changes to the Mekong’s water flow, caused by dozens of dams built over the past 30 years on its upstream reaches in China, Laos and Cambodia, are threatening an ecosystem of unrivalled diversity outside the Amazon basin. More dam projects are underway or in planning stages, even as fish stocks are falling sharply. In late 2019 the lack of sediment, held back by the dams, turned the river from its usual brown to a startling blue colour, a worrying indication of further environmental degradation. China insists it manages the flow from its dams responsibly, but Chinese companies continue to fund and/or build new dams in Laos and Cambodia, with agreement from regional governments.

Leading environmental experts believe the true economic impact of over-development on the river and its resources has not been properly calculated. A recent decision by the Thai government to scrap approval for a Chinese proposal to blast and dredge a 90km kilometre stretch of the river to enable access for larger vessels is a rare victory for civil society groups opposing destructive development, but may point to greater resistance by affected communities in the future.
 
List of expert panelists: 

• Brian Eyler, author of Last Days of the Mekong and director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia program, who traveled along the river from China’s Yunnan province to its delta in southern Vietnam to explore its modern evolution. (via Skype)

• Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaigner for International Rivers, which led the campaign against blasting rock shoals in the Mekong.

• Pou Sothirak, Executive director of Phnom Penh-based CICP, a think tank focusing on regional issues, and a former Cambodian ambassador to Japan.

• Carl Middleton, lecturer in International Development Studies and deputy director for international research in the Center for Social Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University, where he focuses on environmental issues in Southeast Asia.

For more information, please visit FCCT’s website here.

UPCOMING PANEL DISCUSSION: Silencing the Mekong The making of Xayaburi dam from commencement to operations [Bangkok, 22 October 2019]

18.00 - 20.00, Tuesday, 22nd October, 2019 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT), Penthouse, Maneeya Center, 518/5 Ploenchit Road, Patumwan, Bangkok, Thailand

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

On 29th October 2019, the Xayaburi Hydropower Project on the Mekong in Laos will formally commence operations. As the first dam on the lower Mekong mainstream, this marks a turning point for the Mekong River.

From the outset, the Xayaburi dam was a highly controversial project due to widespread concerns over its expected impacts on the river system, including transboundary impacts in neighboring countries. Major predicted impacts include the destruction of Mekong migratory fisheries and trapping of sediment, preventing it from traveling downstream. The dam’s environmental impacts in turn threaten the food, livelihoods and socio-cultural systems of populations residing within the river basin.

During the Xayaburi dam consultation process, many stakeholders raised concerns over the project and questioned the adequacy of the data and studies. The Vietnamese government called for a project suspension and a ten-year moratorium on all mainstream dams pending further study to better understand the river system and the impacts of planned dams. In Thailand, community representatives along the Mekong River filed a landmark lawsuit in the Thai Administrative Court challenging Thailand’s power purchase from the project. Originally filed in 2012, following several appeals, the lawsuit remains pending over 7 years later.

Despite this, the Xayaburi dam moved forward, with the developers undertaking a redesign in an effort to mitigate concerns. Subsequent projects have followed. This month, the MRC announced the commencement of Prior Consultation for Luang Prabang, the fifth lower Mekong mainstream dam to undergo the process.

In the lead up to the commissioning of Xayaburi dam, this event will include a panel discussion with academic, community and civil society speakers. The panel will share comments on the project’s history, its flawed decision-making process, and the ongoing campaigns, and Xayaburi’s implications for the ecosystems and people of the Mekong basin.

The event will feature the launch of a new report. International Rivers commissioned two independent experts to provide comments on the MRC’s review of the Xayaburi redesign, released earlier this year. The expert commentary examines the legacy of Xayaburi in setting a benchmark for decisions on mainstream dams and highlights the urgent need for a truly regional approach to safeguard the Mekong’s future.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Dr Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University

• Ormbun Thipsuna, Thai People’s Network in Eight Mekong Provinces

• Sarinee Achavanuntakul, Salforest

• Professor Le Anh Tuan, Research Institute for Climate Change, Can Tho University

• Maureen Harris, International Rivers

For more information, please visit FCCT’s website here.