UPCOMING EVENT: Virtual Conference on Sustainable Development and the Future of the Mekong [Online, 27 October 2020]

13.30-15.30, Tuesday, 27th October 2020 via Zoom

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

The Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) is going to organize a virtual conference on "Sustainable Development and the Future of the Mekong". For those participants who wish to attend in this virtual event, please complete the reply form in link here: http://bit.ly/FutureMekong

Panel IV: Human Security Issues in the Mekong Context: Agriculture, Energy, Water and Environment

The topics of rising energy demand, food and water security as well as environment have become increasingly salient in recent years and interact directly both at present and in future with the sustainability of the Mekong. Panelists from the Lower Mekong states, drawing on their particular areas of expertise, will address one or more of these human security issues and examine what policy frameworks can be developed in order to avoid humanitarian and development crises in the subregion.

Panelists:

Instigator: H.E. Amb. Pou Sothirak, CICP Executive Director

• Dr. Mak Sithirith, Water Governance Specialist and Senior Research Fellow at CICP

• Mr. Lê Trung Kiên, Senior Researcher, Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam

• Dr. Han Phoumin, Senior Energy Economist, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, Jakarta

• Ms. Solinn Lim, Country Director, Oxfam Cambodia

• Dr. Carl Middleton, Deputy Director, Center for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Carl’s presentation will be on ”Water data democratization in the Mekong-Lancang basin”. For more information about this event, please visit the organizer’s webpage here.

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE PAPER: Demarcating the public and private in hydropower in the Mekong Region

Virtual conference: The third biennial conference of the Political Ecology Network (POLLEN) - Contested Natures: Power, Possibility, Prefiguration

22-25 September 2020 , Virtual Conference at https://event.pollen2020.exordo.com/

Abstract for: Demarcating the public and private in hydropower in the Mekong Region

By Carl Middleton*

In this paper, I critically analyze the generation of plural demarcations of 'public' and 'private' through large hydropower projects in the Mekong region. Different conceptual and material meanings of public are considered, including the public sphere, the public interest, public goods, public knowledge, and various 'publics' as group identity, and in each instance how they relate to – or merge with – notions of private. I show that the meaning of public and private is contextual, relational, and often hybrid rather than distinct, for example regarding: the corporatization of state-owned enterprises; the construction and operation of large dams as various types of public-private partnerships; the merging of public and private sources of finance; and in the definition and legitimation of resource and property rights. These plural meanings of public and private hold consequences for water governance that requires critical problematization, including in relation to: the configurations of state and non-state actors and their power relations that shape how collective and individual interests are defined and acted upon; the types of knowledge that are generated, by who, and for what purpose; the spaces/ places within which projects, plans and policies are discussed, contested and governed; and how benefits, costs and risks are ultimately distributed amongst different groups within society. The paper will present case studies from large hydropower projects within the Lancang-Mekong basin, analyzed in the context of partially-fulfilled plans for economic regionalization and cross-border electricity trade.

* Center of Excellence on Resource Politics for Social Development, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (Carl.Chulalongkorn@gmail.com)

This paper will be presented as a pre-recorded presentation. View more details on the conference here: https://pollen2020.wordpress.com/.

UPCOMING EVENT: The 2nd CU SDGs Platform Forum “จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัยกับการร่วมขับเคลื่อนความยั่งยืน: อนาคตโลกหลัง COVID-19” [Bangkok, 26 August 2020]

09.00-16.00, Wednesday, 26th August 2020 at Meeting Room 801 (Floor 8th), Chaloem Rajakumari 60 Building (Chamchuri 10), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

Strategic management, Chief Transformation and Strategic Office (CTS) is inviting Chula staff to join the 2nd CU SDGs Platform Forum on “Chulalongkorn University in partnership of driving sustainability: the future of the Post-COVID-19” with the aim to develop CU SDGs Platform, an open mechanism for building a network of people working on Sustainable Develo0pment Goals (SDGs), which is the starting point for further collaboration in the future of the Chulalongkorn community.

Carl will present on “The Political Ecology of Public Resources and Competition : The Future Challenges".

For those who interested please register online within 24th August 2020 via QR Code or https://qrgo.page.link/7o9FV

For further information, please contact Strategic management, Chief Transformation and Strategic Office (CTS). Tel: 02-218-0461

For the full schedule, please see below:

UPCOMING ONLINE EVENT: Low Flows, Drought, Data and Geopolitics on the Mekong-Lancang [Online, 6 August 2020]

14.00-16.00, Thursday, 6th August 2020 at Institute of East Asian Studies, Thammasat University Facebook Page

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

Institute of East Asian Studies, Thammasat University, invites everyone to listen to a talk via online media (Facebook Live) to keep an eye on the movement of the situation of East Asia and Southeast Asia on the issue.

Speaker:
Asst. Prof. Dr. Carl Middleton
Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

Moderator:
Asst. Prof. Dr. Soimart Rungmanee from Puey Ungpakorn Institute of Development Studies, Thammasat University

For more information about this event, please visit the event page here.

UPCOMING ONLINE PANEL DISCUSSION: New Research on COVID 19 and its Consequences: People, Planet and Inclusive Society

Public Session organized for the International Conference on New research in international development, human rights, and international relations at a time of disruption

Institute of Asian Studies and Center of Excellence in Resource Politics for Social Development, Chulalongkorn University

Thursday 30 July 2020, start from 09:00-10:45 GMT+7/Thailand Time

Speakers:

• “COVID-19: Risks of Lives and Emerging of Social Movement of Migrant Workers in Chiang Rai Borderland” by Suebsakul Kidnukorn, Area-based Social Innovation Research Center (Ab-SIRC), Mae Fah Luang University [Read Abstract]

• “Tamsang-Tamsong: Social Distancing Promotion and Job Security for Motorcycle Taxi and Food Vendors during the Covid-19 Crisis” by Akkanut Wantanasombut, Mekong Studies Center, Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University [Read Abstract]

• “Rethinking the Future of Thai Fisheries: COVID-19 and Vulnerable Groups in Thai Fisheries Sector” by Nithis Thammaseangadipa, Asian Research Center for Migration, Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University [Read Abstract]

• “COVID- 19, Civil Society in Thailand’s Deep South and the Weak State” by Alisa Hasamoh, Faculty of Humanities and Social Development, Prince of Songkla University [Read Abstract]

Moderator: Naruemon Thabchumpon, Institute of Asian Studies and Center for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University

THIS PANEL WILL BE HOSTED ON ZOOM

This panel will be an online panel discussion hosted via Zoom and you can join by clicking on the link below:

ZOOM MEETING LINK

You can also join using the details below:

• Meeting ID: 916 1843 6974

• Password: 166390

For any inquiries about this event, please contact Anisa Widyasari at communications.csds@gmail.com.

UPCOMING ONLINE PANEL DISCUSSION: Haze and Social (In)Justice in Southeast Asia: Past Experience and What Next?

Public Session organized for the International Conference on New research in international development, human rights, and international relations at a time of disruption

Organized by the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) as part of the Political Ecology in Asia Seminar Series.

Wednesday 29 July 2020, start from 13:00-14:30 GMT+7/Thailand Time

Over the past couple of decades, various sources of air pollution have become major issues of public concern in Southeast Asia and risen to the highest levels of public policy and politics. For example, annual forest fires were especially severe in Northern Thailand this year and raised tensions between vocal urban residents and rural ethnic communities who are regularly blamed due to their use of fire in agricultural practices. Yet, the latter have tried to demonstrate that they themselves are some of the most severely affected and, far from being to blame, are actually at the front line of trying to manage the wildfires risking their lives in the process.  Meanwhile, transboundary haze linked to burning peatlands in palm oil plantations in Indonesia causes harm – and frustration - in Singapore and Malaysia, also stoking inter-governmental tensions and blame games even as at least part of the responsibility links back to transnational companies based in Singapore and Malaysia. Also significant across the region is air pollution in expanding major and secondary urban areas produced by vehicles and other economic activities within them, including in Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, Vientiane, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Whilst it is commonly narrated that urban air pollution affects all residents, in practice there is a strong social justice dimension as those who work outdoors– such as motorcycle taxi riders or street vendors – are significantly more exposed and with less resources to protect their health. The recent pandemic, and resultant lockdowns, resulted in some respite for the typically harmful pollution even as it is only temporary, and at great cost to livelihoods in general. Within these heated public discussions, many types of knowledge are produced and circulated influencing contesting discourses – including scientific studies, monitoring apps, media analysis, and community knowledge. Whilst a range of divergent solutions are regularly proposed by government agencies, politicians, academics, civil society, and community leaders, year after year air pollution continues to remain a challenge.

In this our first Political Ecology in Asia Seminar, coinciding with the International Conference on New Research in International Development, Human Rights, and International Relations at a Time of Disruption, we focus on the issue of social justice and air pollution. The discussion will examine how various economic, social and political inequalities intersect in relation to air pollution in terms of its creation and exposure, and the consequences for individuals, families and society as-a-whole. We situate the seminar in relation to the past experiences of air pollution and the heated debates that have ensued, but also look to the future given that the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting and has the possibility to transform many aspects of future society-environment relations.

Speakers:

• Daniel Hayward, Regional Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University

• Dr. Helena Varkkey, Department of Strategic and International Studies, University of Malaya

• Benjamin Tay, PM Haze

• Tara Buakamsri, Greenpeace Southeast Asia

Chair: Asst. Prof. Dr. Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

THIS PANEL WILL BE HOSTED ON ZOOM

This panel will be an online panel discussion hosted via Zoom and you can join by clicking on the link below:

ZOOM MEETING LINK

You can also join using the details below:

• Meeting ID: 988 1750 8760

• Password: 418715

For any inquiries about this event, please contact Anisa Widyasari at communications.csds@gmail.com.

UPCOMING PANEL DISCUSSION: The Mekong runs dry? Governance in transition: A close look at current rules and geopolitics at play

17.00 - 19.30, Wednesday, 29th july 2020 at the SEA-Junction, 4th Floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

Development in the Mekong region, especially development trends and projects on the mainstream Mekong River itself, has long been a critical challenge and complicated issue for concerned parties and the public at large, and needs much understanding so that people can help one another find the way to share resources and live together in harmony. The attempt was first challenged since China started to develop the upper part of the river by building a cascade of dams on the river in early 1990s.

The challenge has become far critical especially in regard to the aspect concerning transboundary impacts as the Mekong countries become ambitious too and wish to build a cascade of dams, 11 so far, on the lower part of the river. At this point, they have been more than half way, as the sixth dam project, Sanakham, is subject to the regional prior consultation process, The question is; in times when development of the river has accelerated and posed a more serious threat, whether existing mechanisms to regulate water uses and mitigate impacts are efficient enough and catch up with such the speeding trend, and more critically, whether geopolitics in the region is still much at play and influences decisions made in regard to development in the region.

List of expert panelists: 

• Dr.Somkiat Prajamwong, Chairperson of the MRC Joint Committee for 2020 and Secretary General of the Office of National Water Resources

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

• Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaign Coordinator, International Rivers

• Premrudee Daoroung, Coordinator, Lao Dam Investment Monitor (LDIM)

• Orapin Lilitvisitwong, Editor, Thai PBS’s website, Decode

THE SESSIONS WILL BE PRESENTED IN THAI

In accordance with the COVID-19 regulation, please confirm your participation ahead of the event (limited seats available). You can confirm your participation through Bangkok Tribune News FB Messenger here.

You can also watch the event live at FB Live: Bangkok Tribune News FB Page.

For more information, please visit the event’s website here.

UPCOMING ONLINE PANEL DISCUSSION: Confronting the Triple Trap in the Mekong Region: The Pandemic, Economic Downturn, and Climate Crisis

This panel is convened by the Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University for the Seventh South-South Forum on Sustainability (SSFS7) hosted by Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

Thursday 16 July 2020, start from 14:00-16:00 GMT+7/Thailand Time

In this session, we will discuss how the ‘triple trap’ - the pandemic, economic downturn, and climate crisis – have affected communities across the Mekong region, and how these challenges have been responded to by them, as well as by civil society and state. We also examine the long-term implications of the triple trap, asking what transformations have already occurred and what could happen in the future.

Speakers:

• "The Implications of Covid 19's Disruption of Global Supply Chains for Southeast Asia" by Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South

• "Inequality, migration and Covid 19 in Thailand and the Mekong Region" by Naruemon Thabchumpon, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• "The pandemic in Northeast Thailand and implications for communities and (post)development” by Kanokwan Manorom, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathani University

• "The impact of Covid 19 in rural Myanmar: Community, civil society, and state responses" by Nwet Kay Khine, Paung Ku, Myanmar

Discussant: Pianporn Deetes, International Rivers, Thailand

Moderator: Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.

This panel will be an online panel discussion hosted via Zoom and is a public session of the SSFS7 conference. Registration is required on the link below:

ZOOM WEBINAR REGISTRATION

On the registration page, please choose 'No Registration Fee Required' and 'Invited Participant' and choose the ’16 July: Workshops on Venezuela, Mexico and Mekong Region‘ to receive the Zoom link for this session.

For more information about this conference, please visit the conference website here.

IN THE NEWS: Book Review 'Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River' from Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography

By Coleen Fox [Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography]

In the last chapter of Knowing the Salween River, Nang Shining, a Shan woman living and working near the site of a proposed dam in Myanmar, writes of the frustration that communities feel when they are not consulted about projects affecting their lives and livelihoods. She discusses her efforts to create networks of young people across borders and basins, which is part of an effort to bring more voices to the decision-making process in the pursuit of social justice and sustainable development. Nang Shining’s story captures well the tensions that characterize resource politics in the Salween—while powerful national and regional actors push development and exclude local communities from meaningful participation, those same communities, supported by academics and civil society, work tirelessly to have their concerns acknowledged.

Knowing the Salween River sheds light on exactly these sorts of dynamics, revealing the multiple ways that institutions, academics, communities, and civil society organizations research and understand the river basin.

***

Read the full review here.

Carl Middleton of CSDS is co-editor and co-author of this book (see here)

Get the book: Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River (Springer Open, 2019)

NEWS: Submission of the Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement to the UN High Level Panel on Internal Displacement

In 2017, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law initiated a regional thematic study on internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate change across Asia and the Pacific as part of its wider programme on human rights and environment. Focusing on law, policy and practice in ten countries, and collaborating with academic partners from China, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, the study adopted an expressly human rightsbased approach grounded in the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

Academics involved in the regional thematic study have formed the Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement, in whose name this submission is made. The following submission is based on insights gained from the study, including through consultations with international, regional and national actors. Some of the insights highlighted in this submission were also presented in various regional and national fora to validate them and gather feedback.

Center for Social Development Studies is part of the "Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement" and is a co-signatory of this submission. To read the Academic Submission, please visit the link here.

You can also visit the research project related to this submission, “Flooding disaster, people’s displacement and state response in Hat Yai”.

IN THE NEWS: Rethinking Climate Change Adaptation for the Mekong River

A new article by Carl Middleton from CSDS is published by iD4D (Ideas for Development) on their website. The article is titled “Rethinking Climate Change Adaptation for the Mekong River”.

The Mekong Region is facing a serious drought that places at risk ecosystems, fishing and farming livelihoods, wider food security, and even drinking water supply. The extent to which climate change is acting upon the basin is an increasingly debated question, and subject to a growing number of studies. It has also been vigorously debated whether large dam infrastructure has exacerbated the impact of drought or could have been operated differently to better mitigate its impacts. As the impacts of climate change deepen, severe drought threatens to become the new normal. The challenge of equitably ensuring water, food and energy security in the context of climate change underscores the importance of improving transboundary water governance and considering the most appropriate approaches to adaptation.

For the full article, please click the link here.

IN THE NEWS: Vietnam puts Mekong's fate on ASEAN's agenda

by Marwaan Macan-Markar [NIkkei Asian Review]

In a nod to green diplomacy, Vietnam is raising the geopolitical stakes over the Mekong River, Southeast Asia's largest body of water, which has dropped to record lows due to a severe drought and construction of large dams.

Hanoi has signaled its intent to raise the issue this year as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. By putting the Mekong, which is shared by five riparian countries in the river's basin and China, on the 10-nation regional bloc's agenda, Vietnam has transformed the waterway from a subregional issue to one of greater international concern.

....

But development analysts question China's hydro-diplomacy. Although China argues that "one of the benefits of the LMC is it can mitigate droughts by operating dams, it is clear that infrastructure solutions alone are not the answer," said Carl Middleton, deputy director for international research at the Center for Social Development Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "The drought should force a rethink since it lays bare the river as more than an economic enterprise."

For the full article, please click the link 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: Mekong Downstream Blues [Bangkok, 1 February 2020]

BANGKOK EDGE 2020

Change and Resistance: Future Directions of Southeast Asia

1-2 February 2020, grounds of Museum Siam and Chakrabongse Villas, Bangkok, Thailand

Talks 2: Mekong Downstream Blues

Saturday, 1 February 2020, 13:30-14:30, Main Building Museum Siam

The 4,350 km Mekong River rises in China and is the world’s 12th longest. Current unsustainable practices are a severe environmental threat to the livelihoods of tens of millions in downstream countries. Unegulated mega-dam projects and water extraction on the upper Mekong will cause untold hardship for downstream countries in all aspects of life - agriculture, fishing, and everyday living. Already negative impacts are being observed. The panel will examine the future of this mighty river.

Speakers:

• Carl Middleton, Director of Center of Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University

• Pianporn Deetes, activist and campaigns director International Rivers

• Sean Chadwell, Executive Director Luang Prabang Film Festival

Moderated by Jonathan Head, Southeast Asia Correspondent for the BBC.

For more information about the event, please visit this link here.

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Migration and SDGs: ASEAN and Beyond: A Pathway to 2030 Agenda: Episode II [Bangkok, 17-18 December 2019]

International Conference to Commemorate International Migrants’ Day

“Migration and SDGs: ASEAN and Beyond: A Pathway to the 2030 Agenda: Episode II”

Tuesday - Wednesday, 17-18 December 2019

Room 105, Maha Chulalongkorn Building, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Session Two: “Environment: Climate Change and Migration”

Tuesday, 17 December 2019, 15:50 - 17:25

Chair: Professor Surichai Wun’gaeo

Panelists:

• “Migration in the Context of Climate Change” by Ms. Chompoonute Nakornthap, Member of Human Rights Committee, Democrat Party, and HRD Advisor to the Minister of Social Development and Security.

• “Shall we go or shall we stay? Environmental Migration in Mekong and Irrawaddy Delta” by Representative from Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

• “title tbc” by Representative from Northern Region, Thailand

• “Flooding disaster, people’s displacement and state response: A case study of Hat Yai Municipality, Thailand” by Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS)

For more information about the conference, please visit this link here.

Abstract for Flooding disaster, people’s displacement and state response: A case study of Hat Yai Municipality, Thailand

by Carl Middleton, Orapan Pratomlek*

Hat Yai City in Songkhla Province, Southern Thailand has regularly experienced flooding, with major floods most recently in 1988, 2000 and 2010. Each flood caused loss of life, as well as significant economic damage and disruption to people’s lives, including displacement. The government’s response has evolved over time, as has its capacity to respond. Recovery responses in 1988 and 2000 emphasized investment in hard infrastructure (canals and embankments) to redirect flood water around the city, and to manage flood water better within it. The 2010 flood, however, led to the realization that it was not possible to fully “flood-proof” the city, leading to investment in soft infrastructure in an approach that has become known as the ‘Hat Yai model.’ This includes: improved flood warning; and strengthening local government, community, civil society and business capacity to live with floods and manage displacement locally over the several days that flooding occurs.

In this presentation, we critically evaluate the Hat Yai model, with a focus on how it has progressively reduced the extent that displacement occurs during flooding, and how preparedness measures have addressed displacement when it does occur. Our research is based on key informant interviews and indepth community interviews conducted in 2018. Overall, we find that the Hat Yai model demonstrates the positive efforts of the government and non-state actors to improve community resilience and address flood-induced displacement through hard and soft infrastructure means. Yet, there are still unresolved issues including: how the protection of Hat Yai city comes at the expense of prolonged or exacerbated flooding in other areas nearby to the city (i.e. risk redistribution); and that there remain especially marginalized communities in the city who regularly experience flooding with displacement with little state support or prospect for durable solutions.

*Center of Excellence on Resource Politics for Social Development, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (Carl.Chulalongkorn@gmail.com)

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE PAPER: How East Asian regionalism connects ecologies and societies through global commodity-commons chains

7TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY IN EAST ASIA (ISESEA)

Social Actions to Climate Change and Energy Transition in East Asia: Toward A Sustainable Planet

26-28 October 2019, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul, Korea

Session 4.3: Commons and Sustainability Transition (2)

Sunday, 27 October 2019, 10:50 AM ~ 12:20 PM, Room 305, moderated by Carl Middleton

Speakers:

• The Conservation of SATOYAMA and Reforming of Commons: the Actors and Activities of Producing Firewood, Takahashi Satoka (Tohoku University)

• Sustainable Development through the Lens of Historical Environmental Conservation: From the Case of Urban Regeneration in Daegu, Korea, Rie Matsui (Atomi University)

• How East Asian Regionalism Connects Ecologies and Societies through Global Commodity-commons Chains, Carl Middleton (Chulalongkorn University); Takeshi Ito (Sophia University)

For more information about the conference, please visit this link here.

Abstract for How East Asian regionalism connects ecologies and societies through global commodity-commons chains

by Carl Middleton* and Takeshi Ito**

East Asia has a long history of regionalism, at least since the 16th Century. The age of economic modernization since the mid-19th Century profoundly transformed the region economically, socially, and ecologically. Japan rapidly industrialized since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which was a precursor to Japan’s imperial expansion, and latter reconstruction after World War II. Thailand, meanwhile, at first was a commodity exporter, but since the 1950s industrialized initially with a focus on domestic markets, and later for export. Over this period, Thailand and Japan deepened their political and economic relations, perhaps most profoundly since the 1980s when the Plaza Accord catalyzed large flows of investment from Japan into Thailand leading to rapid industrialization.

In this paper, with a focus on Japan and Thailand, we outline an environmental and economic history of East Asian regionalism to reveal how rapid economic modernization and social and ecological change are intimately connected and transform each other. We examine how the evolving political economy of East Asian regionalism, including flows of trade, investment, and aid, has reworked ecology-society relations in distant yet connected sites of investment and divestment, and the implications for community vulnerabilities. Our study is based on empirical fieldwork and archival research. In Thailand, our research focuses on industrial estates in Ayutthaya and Map Tha Phut, and peri-urban areas of Bangkok. In Japan, we focus on the watershed surrounding Tokyo, including former and current industrial zones and the Watarase conservation area, as well as Tokyo city itself.

We argue that the continual and connected reworking of ecologies and ecology-society relations in numerous localities in Thailand and Japan is an underappreciated foundation that has underpinned the expansion of capitalism in East Asia, including as it has responded to changing geopolitical, economic, and environmental contexts. We explore these connections through proposing the concept of ‘global commodity-commons chains’ to detail the dynamic ecology-society relations embedded in all global commodity chains. Through this concept we aim to understand the relational processes between Japan and Thailand that have led to the enclosure and recreation of commons, and changes to communities’ economic, social and ecological vulnerabilities in both positive and negative ways.

*Center of Excellence on Resource Politics for Social Development, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (Carl.Chulalongkorn@gmail.com)

**Faculty of Liberal Arts and Graduate School of Global Studies, Sophia University (takeshi.ito@sophia.ac.jp)

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.

FULL AGENDA: "Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World" [Bangkok, 10-11 October 2019]

Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World

Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October 2019, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (CSDS); Chula Global Network (CGN); French Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC); French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD); French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP); IRN-SustainAsia; Patrimoines Locaux, Environnement et Mondialisation (PALOC); POLLEN Political Ecology Network

With the support of Chula Global Network (CGN); The French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS); French Embassy in Bangkok; Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

Keynote Speakers:

• “Reflection on Vijñana of Religion: New Animism in the Age of the Anthropocene” - Thanes Wongyannava, Retired Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University

• “The Political Ecology of Climate Change, Uncertainty and Transformation in Marginal Environments” - Lyla Mehta, Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex.

Conference Venue:

• Venue A (Main Plenary, Sessions A): Chumpot-Pantip Conference Room, 4th floor, Prajadhipok-Ramphai Barni Building, Chulalongkorn University

• Venue B (Sessions B): Alumni Meeting Room, 12th Floor, Kasem Authayanin Building (Building 3), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

List of Programs:

DAY 1: Thursday, 10 October 2019

08:30-09:00 Registration

09:00-09:30 Welcome Remarks

• Prof. Dr. Pironrong Ramasoota, Vice President for Social Outreach and Global Engagement, Chulalongkorn University

• H.E. Jacques Lapouge, French Ambassador to Thailand

• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ake Tangsupvattana, Dean, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

09:30-10:30 Keynote Speech: “Reflection on Vijñana of Religion: New Animism in the Age of the Anthropocene” by Thanes Wongyannava, Retired Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University

• Chair: Jakkrit Sangkhamanee, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• Stephane Rennesson, CNRS-LESC

10:30-11:00 Coffee break

11:00-12:30 Session 1

Session 1A: Particulate matters: The emergence of a political ecology of haze in Asia

Chair: Karine Léger, AirParif.

• “Making an 'Indian' Air Pollution Technoscience” by Rohit Negi, Urban Studies, Ambedkar University (with Prerna Srigyan, University of California-Irvine)

• “Positioning Indonesia’s Oil Palm Smallholders in the Anthropocene Debates” by Rini Yuni Astuti, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (with Andrew Mc Gregor, Macquary University and David Taylor, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore )

• “How to break the political barrier to act on air pollution control with open information?” by Sarath Guttikunda, urbanemission.info

• “Haze crisis and upland/lowland relationships in Chiang Mai” by Olivier Evrard, French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (with Mary Mostafanezhad, University of Hawai’i at Manoa).

Session 1B: Feminist political ecology in Asia

Chairs: Bernadette P. Resurrección and Kanokwan Manorom

• “Gender professionals in environment and development. Theory and praxis through feminist political ecology” by Bernadette P. Resurrección, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

• “Feminism Political Ecology and Land broker State in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the Mekong: A case study of Thailand” by Kanokwan Manorom, Mekong Sub-region Social Research Center (MSSRC), Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathani University

• “Beyond Recognition of Adat Forest: Feminist Political Ecology and Resource Frontier on Customary Forest in Indonesia.” by Siti Maimunah, Marie Sklodowska-Currie Fellow/ WEGO-ITN, University of Passau

• “Towards a Feminist Geopolitical Ecology of Environmental Change, Land Grabs, and Migration” by Sara Vigil, Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-15:00 Session 2

Session 2A: Resource politics and the public sphere

Chair: Naruemon Thabchumpon, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• “Demarcating the public and private in land and environmental governance in the Mekong Region” by Philip Hirsch, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney

• “The hybrid public sphere in Myanmar and implications for civil society” by Tay Zar Myo Win, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• “A Rising Indifference To Law: environmental reporting in the age of Narendra Modi” by M. Rajshekhar, Independent journalist, Delhi.

Session 2B: Asia’s urban political ecologies

Chair: Olivier Chrétien, Head of Department Environmental Impacts Prevention, Paris Municipality

• “Water Management in Bangkok and Uneven Vulnerabilities”by Niramon Serisakul, Urban Design and Development Centre (UddC) / Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Chulalongkorn University

• “Managing the (sinking) City of Jakarta” by Irvan Pulungan, Coastal Committee Member, Governor's Delivery Unit, Jakarta Capital City Government

• “Marginalizing policies: rethinking the modernization of the waste sector in Delhi” by Rémi de Bercegol, Center for Social Sciences and Humanities / French National Center for Scientific Research – CNRS; and Shankare Gowda, Associate to Centre for Policy Research (CPR) New Delhi (by Skype)

• “Governance of seaside tourist resorts areas confronted with environmental challenges in Southeast Asia” by Christine Cabasset, French Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia – IRASEC

15:00-15:30 Coffee break

15:30-17:00 Session 3

Session 3A: Political ecologies of land in Southeast Asia: Beyond the technical-regulatory gaze

Chair: Miles Kenney-Lazar

• “The maize boom in northern Laos: Impacts on land use and access” by Robert Cole, Global Production Networks Centre and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore;and Centre for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University

• “The Relational Governance of Land: Contested Plantation Concessions in Laos” by Miles Kenney-Lazar, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

• “Migration and women’s land tenure rights and security in the Greater Mekong sub-region” by Soimart Rungmanee, Puey Ungphakorn School of Development Studies, Thammasat University

• “Alternative Land Management in Thailand: a Case study of the Southern Peasants’ Federation of Thailand (SPFT)” by Supatsak Pobsuk, Thailand Programme Officer, Focus on the Global South

Session 3B: People and the biodiversity crisis: reshaping governance and justice in conservation

Chair: Sarah Benabou

• "Indigenous Resurgence, Relational Ontologies, and the Salween Peace Park" by Robert A Farnan, The Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Chiang Mai University

• “Putting conservation in local hands? The Khasi Hills Redd+ project” by Sarah Benabou, French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD- Patrimoines locaux, Environnement et Globalisation) and French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP)

• “How many tigers are enough? The biopolitics of tiger conservation in India” by Nitin Rai, Ashoka Trust in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore

DAY 2: Friday, 11 October 2019

09:00-10:00 Keynote Speech: “The Political ecology of climate change, uncertainty and transformation in marginal environments” by Lyla Mehta, Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex

• Chair: Bharat Dahiya, Research Center for Integrated Sustainable Development, College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Thammasat University and Urban Youth Academy, Seoul

• Discussant: Prof. Surichai Wungaeo, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University

10:00-10:30 Coffee break

10:30-12:00 Session 4

Session 4A: Industrialization and ecological justice

Chair: Shaun Lin, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

• “How Japan’s Aid and Investment ‘Offshore’ Flood Management to Reduce Flood Risks in Thailand” by Takeshi Ito, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Graduate School of Global Studies, Sophia University

• ”Political Ecology of Thailand’s Marine Plastic Pollution Crisis” by Danny Marks, Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong

• “The failed promise of industrialization and of justice, Coromandel coast” by Senthil Babu, French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP)

• “Flash points- Exploring conflict and justice issues in economic zone of Myanmar under BRI investment” by Myint Zaw, Paung Ku

Session 4B: Ontologies of infrastructure

Chair: Jakkrit Sangkhamanee

• “Infrastructure in the Making: The Chao Phraya Dam and the Dance of Agency” by Jakkrit Sangkhamanee, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• “Aggregate Ecologies: On the environmental effects of city surfaces” by Eli Elinoff, Victoria University of Wellington

• “Urban Kaleidoscopes: Chinese Construction, Scale-Making, and the Re-Design of Cambodian Cities” by Casper Bruun Jensen, Independent Researcher

• “Re-defining, Re-imagining and Re-particularising Thailand's Climate Knowledge(s): The case of climate actors and their knowledge infrastructures” by Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University

12:00-13:00 Lunch

13:00-14:30 Session 5

Session 5A: Hydrosocial rivers and their politics

Chair: Kenji Otsuka, Interdisciplinary Studies Center, Institute of Developing Economies

• “Ontological politics of hydrosocial territories in the Salween River basin, Myanmar/Burma” by Carl Middleton (with Johanna Gotz), Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• “Politics of urban riverbank development: the contested Chao Phraya River Promenade project in Bangkok” by Thanawat Bremard, G-EAU (Water Management, Actors, Territories), Montpellier/ IRD (French Research Institute for Development), France

• “Flows, fragments and futures: Rethinking biophysical geopolitics in the Lower Mekong wetlands and Tonle Sap” by Carl Grundy-Warr, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

• “Rewilding the commons: Community Led Restoration in the Penna River Basin” by Siddharth Rao, Adavi Trust, and Timbaktu Collective, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Session 5B: Representations of nature and political engagements

Chair: Frédéric Landy, French Institute of Pondicherry, University of Paris-Nanterre/LAVUE

• “Nature reshaped: Diffracted political engagements for recovering grabbed land in Cambodia” by Frédéric Bourdier, CNRS, UMR DEVSOC, IRD/University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne

• “Politics of water management in the Koshi plain (Nepal and North India) : Modern economics versus extreme environmental factors” by Marie-Amélie Candau, Post-doc, University of Paris Nanterre/LAVUE

• “Nature and Human in Sino-Vietnamese conceptions and practices. Articulations between Asian vernacular ‘analogism’ and Western modern ‘naturalism’ modes of identification” by Christian Culas, CNRS, ART-DEV Institute

14:30-15:00 Coffee break

15:00-ุ16:30 Session 6

Session 6A: Interspecies cohabitations in Asia: Non-human animals and political ecology

Chair: Olivier Evrard

• “Lizards and other Ancestors: wildlife conservation and the moral ecology of Komodo” by Annette Hornbacher, Institute for Ethnology, Heidelberg University

• “Modern Nomadism among Thai Mahouts: a social consequence of human - elephant relations evolution in Thailand’s tourism industry” by Wasan Panyagaew, Sociology and Anthropology Faculty, Chiang Mai University

• “Are some managers of Indian national parks corrupted or analogist? Relationships to nature and wildlife in Hindu India” by Frédéric Landy, French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP)/LAVUE

• “The coproduction of ecologies with more than human animals: playing with beetles, birds and fish in Thailand” by Stephane Rennesson, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)/French National Centre for Scientific Research, IRASEC Department

Session 6B: Post-development and systemic alternatives from Asia (round table)

Chair: Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University.

• Kyaw Thu, Paung Ku 

• K.J. Joy, Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM) 

• Suphakit Nuntavorakarn, Healthy Public Policy Foundation (HPPF)

• Wora Sukraroek, EarthRights International and Member of Thailand Extraterritorial Obligations Watch Coalition

16:30-17:00 Concluding Remarks

To register for this forum, please e-mail us your name, organisation, and position to Anisa Widyasari (CSDS) at PoliticalEcologyinAsia@gmail.com. Registering participants are requested to pay 400 THB per day for lunch and coffee breaks. Students may join for free.

FULLY BOOKED - REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: "Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World" [Bangkok, 10-11 October 2019]

Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World

Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October 2019, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS); Chula Global Network (CGN); Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC); French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD); French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP); IRN-SustainAsia; POLLEN Political Ecology Network

Keynote Speakers:

• “Reflection on Vijñana of Religion: New Animism in the Age of the Anthropocene” - Thanes Wongyannava, Retired Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University

• “The Political Ecology of Climate Change, Uncertainty and Transformation in Marginal Environments” - Lyla Mehta, Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex.

Panel topics include:

• Resource politics and the public sphere;

• Particulate matters: the emergence of a political ecology of haze in Asia;

• Hydrosocial rivers and their politics;

• Ontologies of infrastructure;

• Post-development and systemic alternatives from Asia;

• People and the biodiversity crisis: reshaping governance and justice in conservation;

• Industrialization and ecological justice;

• Asia’s urban political ecologies;

• Feminist political ecology in Asia;

• Interspecies cohabitations in Asia: non-human animals and political ecology;

• Representations of nature and political engagements;

• Political ecologies of land in Southeast Asia: Beyond the technical-regulatory gaze.

To register for this forum, please e-mail us your name, organisation, and position to Anisa Widyasari (CSDS) at PoliticalEcologyinAsia@gmail.com. Registering participants are requested to pay 400 THB per day for lunch and coffee breaks. Students may join for free.

IN THE NEWS: แม่น้ำโขงที่ผันผวน และกลไกรับวิกฤต

[BangkokBizNews, 1 September 2019]

ดร.คาร์ล มิดเดิลตัน นักวิชาการผู้ติดตามภูมิศาสตร์การเมืองของแม่น้ำโขงมาอย่างยาวนานจากศูนย์ศึกษาการพัฒนาสังคม (Center for Social Development Studies) คณะรัฐศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย กล่าวว่า สถานการณ์ความแห้งแล้งและความผันผวนของแม่น้ำโขงปีนี้ และข้อกล่าวหาที่พุ่งตรงไปที่บทบาทของเขื่อนของจีน ทำให้รัฐบาลและสาธารณะที่เกี่ยวข้องให้ความสนใจกับความสำคัญของแม่น้ำโขงในมุมของความร่วมมือและสันติภาพมากเป็นพิเศษ

นอกจากนี้ กรอบความร่วมมือแม่โขง-ล้านช้าง ซึ่งริ่เริ่มโดยจีนเองในช่วงสองสามปีที่ผ่านมา ก็ยิ่งขับเน้นบทบาทของจีนในภูมิศาสตร์การเมือง (Geo-politics) ของภูมิภาคมากยิ่งขึ้น ดร.คาร์ล กล่าว

เป็นความจริงที่ว่าหลากหลายรัฐบาลไม่ว่าจะเป็นจากญี่ปุ่น เกาหลี หรืออินเดีย ต่างก็พยายามโปรโมทความร่วมมือในระดับภูมิภาค แต่ ข้อริเริ่มลุ่มน้ำโขงตอนล่างของสหรัฐฯ (Lower Mekong Initiative) ซึ่งไม่ได้รวมจีนเข้าไว้ด้วยนี่เอง ที่ดูเหมือนจะกลายมาเป็นยุทธศาสตร์ที่ถูกตั้งใจให้มาช่วยคานอำนาจให้สมดุลย์ในภูมิภาคนี้ เมื่อพิจารณาถึงอิทธิพลทางการเมืองของสหรัฐฯ และการเผชิญหน้าอย่างเปิดเผยกับจีน ดร.คาร์ล กล่าว

ดร.คาร์ล กล่าวว่า เมื่อพิจารณาถึงกลไกในภูมิภาคที่มีอยู่อย่าง MRC, การได้ข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับสภาพน้ำจากจีนที่สมบูรณ์มากกว่านี้ รวมทั้งข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับระดับน้ำของแต่ละเขื่อนตลอดทั้งปี จะช่วยลดปัญหาและการตั้งข้อความสงสัยเกี่ยวกับเขื่อนของจีนลงไปได้มาก

ในช่วงสองสามปีที่ผ่านมา ดร.คาร์ล กล่าวว่า เขาเห็นพัฒนาการการทำงานของ MRC ในการติดต่อประสานงานกับจีนเกี่ยวกับการแลกเปลี่ยนข้อมูลข่าวสารเกี่ยวกับสภาพน้ำได้ครบถ้วนขึ้น ซึ่งงานด้านนี้ควรเป็นสิ่งที่องค์กรดำเนินการอย่างต่อเนื่องต่อไปเป็นส่วนหนึ่งของภาระกิจหลัก

ดร. คาร์ล ยังกล่าวอีกว่า มันเป็นเรื่องที่สำคัญที่ประเทศต้นน้ำอย่างจีนและประเทศปลายน้ำของแม่น้ำโขงจะช่วยกันผลักดันกฎระเบียบที่ “ชัดเจนและเป็นธรรม” (Clear and Fair) ในการใช้ประโยชน์ร่วมกันของแม่น้ำโขง-ล้านช้าง รวมทั้งการแลกเปลี่ยนข่าวสารข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับสภาพน้ำ โดยเฉพาะในช่วงหน้าแล้ง และการดำเนินการของเขื่อนจีน

ในการดำเนินการของเขื่อน สมควรที่จะให้คล้ายสภาพธรรมชาติมากที่สุดเพื่อให้ประเทศท้ายน้ำได้รักษาสมดุลย์ของระบบนิเวศและวิถีชีวิตที่ต้องพึ่งพาวงจรธรรมชาติเหล่านั้น ดร. คาร์ล แนะนำ

ที่สำคัญ กฎเกณฑ์ต่างๆ เหล่านี้ควรต้องให้ประชาชนได้มีส่วนร่วมออกแบบ และเป็นที่ยอมรับของชุมชนในลุ่มน้ำ ถึงจะเป็นแนวทางที่จะช่วยแก้ปัญหาความขัดแย้งที่มีอยู่ของลุ่มน้ำได้ ดร. คาร์ล สรุป

Read more at this link here.