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The Governance of the Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia: Integration of Local, National and International Levels
Abstract
The Tonle Sap water-related crisis mainly concerns governance, and at both the local and cross-boundary levels the crisis requires a more integrated and comprehensive solution than is the case at present. This paper addresses the institutional challenges of this basin from three levels: international collaborative facilitation and resource mobilization toward sustainable development of the Mekong region; national and local institutional matters; and participatory issues. The results show that new governance principles such as a holistic institutional approach and upstream–downstream relationship, transparency and accountability, public participation and decentralization, gender and equity, and separation of incompatible administrative functions, etc., are much needed in the Mekong and Tonle Sap Basins. The governance should have a greater emphasis on broader policy and planning, and more strategic approaches and attention to equity, sustainability and poverty alleviation.
... These challenges have significantly impacted food production and consumption throughout the country. Experts agree that proper water management is essential for Cambodia's continued development [1][2][3]. ...
... Despite the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology's (MOWRAM) efforts to support rice farming through large-scale irrigations, farmers continue to experience water scarcity issues and annual crop damage from floods. These challenges 2 can be attributed to the centralization of water management through large-scale irrigation development [2][3][4]. ...
... The creation of policies is intrinsically linked with power and politics, where power sustains politics and policy, and politics involves the processes of achieving, exercising, and resisting power [22]. Politics operate within institutions and sectors, while 3 power as a strategy involves controlling and organizing spaces and resources through forms of territoriality and the classification of precise geographic areas and boundaries. The organization of space is based on technical, scientific, economic, and political interests [23]. ...
Cambodia faces the challenge of managing excess water during the wet season and insufficient water during the dry season. This harms human life and endangers aquatic and natural resources, agricultural practices, and food security. In order to ensure the well-being of both people and food security, water governance is crucial. However, Cambodia's water governance is hindered by various obstacles, including sectoral and centralized influences, top-down and large-scale strategies, a lack of coordination among relevant agencies, and limited involvement of local communities. This study delves into water governance across different sectors, from centralized to community-based natural resources management to tackle these challenges. Through analyzing literature and case studies of farmer water user communities (FWUC), community fisheries (CFis), and community fish refuges (CFRs) in three Mekong Delta provinces in Cambodia, the study concludes that although water governance has improved, it has resulted in a decline in fishery resources from rivers and water bodies and an increase in water conflicts among farmers and sectors in the face of climate change. To enhance water governance in Cambodia, it is critical to integrate it at the district level. This will promote sustainable water use and management across the country and pave the way for a brighter future.
... Despite some interaction between all these different regional organizations, their cooperation remains limited, and some of them are actually seen more as rivals than as collaborators (Hirsch et al. 2006;Sokhem and Sunada 2006). Considering the limited capacity of the Mekong countries, the rapid pace of regional development and the tremendous possibilities and threats included in water development, this non-cooperation is unquestionably a remarkable opportunity wasted. ...
... In addition, the very structure of the MRC as a cooperative body between the riparian states means that the MRC considers the entire basin mainly as a transnational space (Sneddon and Fox 2006). Many see that this state-centrismparticularly when combined with persisting governance challenges in the member countries -means that the MRC does not comprehensively address the different temporal and spatial scales of water use, does not involve the non-state actors properly in its work and fails to reflect the actual needs and concerns at the local level (IUCN et al. 2007;Sneddon and Fox 2006;Sokhem and Sunada 2006;Dore 2003;Ö jendal 2000). At the basin-wide level, the absence of two upstream countries -China and Myanmar -is perhaps the biggest deficiency of the MRC, seriously restricting comprehensive management of the entire basin. ...
... Mekong cooperation is seen as important for bringing much-needed financial and technical assistance to the country. Although water resources management is high on the government's agenda (Chamroeun 2006), the governmental line agencies' weak capacity and a lack of coordination between the different ministries mean that Cambodia still lacks the means comprehensively to address the different aspects of the 1995 Mekong Agreement (Keskinen and Varis 2005;Sokhem and Sunada 2006). ...
... Many actors are concerned about the local social and environmental impacts of dams as well as their aggregate downstream impacts on natural flood regimes and sediment transport (Sokhem & Sunada 2006). The greatest concern is usually reserved for the seasonal flood pulse in Tonle Sap Lake which supports a fishery crucial to the diet and livelihoods of the population of Cambodia and the extent of sea-water intrusions in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. ...
... A knowledgebrokering and negotiation-consensus building role still appears more plausible . One way to strengthen the basin organization would be to fill it: a Mekong River basin authority involving full membership of the six riparian states (Sokhem and Sunada 2006). ...
... A third illustration of disconnects and challenges with the river basin organization model is the management regime for the ecologically and socially critical Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. The emerging Tonle Sap Basin Organization initially established with funding support of ADB while being set up closely with the Cambodian National Mekong Committee is not clearly well connected or supported by other key agencies in the Cambodian Government (Sokhem and Sunada 2006). The connections, however, matter greatly as processes triggered at the larger scale could easily have consequences that overwhelm its nascent management capacity and authority. ...
Models play a central tool in the development and implementation of management strategies. In this paper we identify four major modeling purposes that are important for understanding and managing complex socioenvironmental systems: prediction, exploratory analysis, communication and learning. Each of these purposes highlights different system characteristics, role of uncertainty, the properties of the model and its validation. We argue that uncertainty has no meaning in isolation, but only relative to a particular modeling activity and the purpose for which a model is developed (e.g., when a model is developed for predictive purposes uncertainty needs to be eliminated as much as possible, while when a model is developed for exploration uncertainty can be considered a source of creative thoughts). Here, we specifically investigate the implications different purposes have in dealing with uncertainties. We present a set of strategies modelers can use to guide their developments. In light of these concepts, the modeling activity is re-contextualized, from being a process that aims at representing objectively an external reality, to one that can only be defined according to the characteristics of the problem at hand: its level of complexity, the knowledge available, the purpose of the model and the modeling tools. We present an example from the adaptive management field.
... Following the listing of Tonle Sap lake as a Man and Biosphere site in 1997, the Royal Cambodian Government established a Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve secretariat within the CNMC in 2001 (Sokhem and Sunada 2006). The CNMC has the advantage of including representatives of many of the ministries with potential interests in the Lake, including MAFF, MoE and MOWRAM and seven others, but it has very limited financial and human resources (Sokhem and Sunada 2006). ...
... Following the listing of Tonle Sap lake as a Man and Biosphere site in 1997, the Royal Cambodian Government established a Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve secretariat within the CNMC in 2001 (Sokhem and Sunada 2006). The CNMC has the advantage of including representatives of many of the ministries with potential interests in the Lake, including MAFF, MoE and MOWRAM and seven others, but it has very limited financial and human resources (Sokhem and Sunada 2006). ...
... More recently the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has funded and supported the development of a lake basin management organization for Tonle Sap Lake under the Tonle Sap Initiative. There has been argument about whether the final structure should be as a coordinating organization working to encourage cooperation between other government agencies, or as an authority with overriding veto power (Sokhem and Sunada 2006). Not surprisingly the latter approach is strongly resisted by existing players but seems to have support of the Prime Minister (Hun Sen 2007). ...
Tonle Sap Great Lake, or Boeng Tonle Sap in Cambodian terminology, is the largest and most important natural freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. It plays a critical role in Cambodian Khmer culture, in the economy of Cambodia, and in the ecology and hydrology of the Mekong River basin. Boeng Tonle Sap comprises a permanent lake surrounded by an extensive floodplain. The permanent lake consists of two basins-a large northwest basin and a smaller southeast basin-linked by a relatively narrow strait. Tonle Sap Great Lake, like much of the rest of the Mekong River system of which it forms a component, is a monotonal flood-pulsed system. The dry season permanent lake begins to enlarge as floodwaters from the Mekong back up the Tonle Sap River. The sediment-laden water flows through channels in the low levees surrounding the dry season lake margins, and extends over the extensive surrounding floodplain, depositing its sediment as if flows. Tonle Sap Great Lake is of international significance culturally, hydrologically, and ecologically. Culturally it was the center of the great Khmer civilization from at least 800 AD to the 1440s. Hydrologically the lake provides a regulator for the flow of the Mekong River into the delta of Viet Nam. Ecologically it is a key component of one of the world's largest fisheries, and certainly the largest subsistence fishery.
... Cambodia's economic development policies, which are premised on commercialized agriculture and privatized natural resources, have affected access to water resources and reshaped the livelihood options of local communities, particularly of the poor and women. For example, water concessions to large-scale and private commercial fisheries deprive local communities, particularly poor subsistent and women fishers, from accessing their traditional fishing grounds [52,67]. To fulfill the country's ambition of becoming one of the leading rice exporters, the Cambodian government has invested in the construction of many large-scale irrigation schemes in the upper part of Tonle Sap basin and granted land concessions to private agribusinesses in the flood plains. ...
... The upstream construction of large-scale hydropower dams on the Mekong River and its tributaries has caused negative effects on the ecosystems and livelihoods of communities living on the Tonle Sap, potentially fueling further conflicts over water and aquatic resources [52,70]. Furthermore, impacts and benefits of hydropower development are not distributed equally [20,21,67]. For example, urban populations have higher access to electricity (97%) compared to rural populations (68%) [20] and rural communities typically experience the brunt of impacts of hydropower development, as dams are typically located in rural areas. ...
Achieving sustainable water resources management objectives can work in tandem with poverty reduction efforts. This study evidenced the strong social hydrological linkages that exist in Cambodia, which allowed for presenting a broader understanding of water resources challenges to better formulate and connect policies at the local and national levels. Models are often not developed with household- or community-level input, but rather with national- or coarse-level datasets. The method used in this study consisted of linking qualitative and quantitative social analysis with a previously developed technical water planning model. The results from the social inequalities analysis were examined for three water use types: domestic, rice production, and fishing in three parts of the watershed, namely, upstream, midstream, and downstream. Knowledge generated from the social analysis was used to refine previous water planning modeling. The model results indicate that without household data to consider social inequalities, the technical analysis for the Stung Chinit watershed was largely underrepresenting the shortages in irrigation supply seen by groups in the most downstream sections of the irrigation system. Without adding social considerations into the model, new policies or water infrastructure development suggested by the model could reinforce existing inequalities.
... A good fit is expected to strengthen the capacity of societies to manage resilience. The discourse on water security and water governance management in Cambodia and in the Tonle Sap subcatchments must consider numerous interests and differentiated perspectives, especially: multijurisdictional: responsibility gaps and overlaps between several • national ministries and line agencies; multiscale: multiple interests at household, village, community, • subcatchment, basin, national and regional levels; and multiperspective: different economic, political and social objectives, • unequal power relations and imbalances in financial and technological capacities between subnational agencies (Pech and Sunada 2006). ...
... In the context of climate change, water governance actors at national and subnational levels consist of two main bodies: state and non-state actors, and informal agencies. As seen in Figure 7.2, most of the ministries and agencies involved have provincial and district offices which should allow them to interact closely with the local communities they are supposed to serve (Pech and Sunada 2006 ...
... Governance of the Tonle Sap Lake is multi-jurisdictional and multi-scale (Sokhem and Sunada, 2006 (IUCN) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) -and international organizations, in particular ADB, are also active within the basin. Since the Tonle Sap Lake's flood regime is shaped by basinwide development upstream, including hydropower dam and irrigation schemes construction and other water uses, the long-term productivity of the Tonle Sap Lake cannot be decoupled from the wider region's development trajectory (Lamberts, 2008;Middleton, 2012;MRC, 2010a; MRC, 2010b). ...
... While there is a lot of research, assessment and debate on the impacts of large water infrastructure development (in particular hydropower dams) on hydrological regimes, ecosystems and people's livelihoods in the Mekong region (for example, see: MRC, 2010b; Dore, Lebel and Molle, 2012), the implications for migration is rarely, if ever directly, discussed. 19 Public policies on this relationship are also fragmented, even as there are numerous studies with recommendations on each issue in turn, namely: on fisheries and flooding (Keskinen et al., 2011;Lamberts, 2008;Middleton and Pen, 2005;Ministry of Planning and UNDP, 2007;Sokhem and Sunada, 2006); on land and agriculture (ADHOC, 2013;Bugalski, 2012;Subedi, 2012;Supreme National Economic Council, 2007); and on migration (Chan, 2009;IOM, 2006;Ministry of Planning, 2012;MLVT and ILO, 2010). Recognizing that integrated research is at an early stage, this chapter principally recommends, therefore, that the potential synergies of policies on agriculture, fisheries and migration need to be better understood and integrated to prioritize reducing the vulnerability of households by protecting and ensuring equitable access to fishery resources and farming land, and reducing the risks of domestic and international migration. ...
... Further, the Mekong is at the moment under extremely rapid economic development, which includes various water-resources-related projects, such as hydropower projects and irrigation schemes (see e.g. Keskinen, 2006 Keskinen, , 2008 Sokhem & Sunada, 2006, 2008 King et al., 2007; Varis et al., 2008). In terms of population growth, it is estimated that the population of the Mekong River basin will increase from 72 million (the estimate for the year 2000) to over 100 million by 2050 (Varis et al., 2012). ...
... There seems to be consensus on the region's increasing land cover changes and accelerating economic activities (e.g. White, 2002; MRC, 2003; Keskinen, 2006 Keskinen, , 2008 Sokhem & Sunada, 2006, 2008 Hart & Pollino, 2007; King et al., 2007; Varis et al., 2008). Little concern, however, exists in the Mekong regarding the possibility of future negative changes in the river's nutrient balances, although much literature clearly states that population growth and catchment level changes influence a river system's water quality (e.g. ...
Tropical regions are typically rather poorly covered by nutrient enrichment information, despite th eir soaring population, urbanization, industrialization, and intensifying agriculture. We provide an overview of nutrient fluxes and their temporal and spatial patterns in the Mekong River for 1985–2005. Total inorganic nitrogen fluxes increased significantly, while phosphorus fluxes increased less steeply. The majority of fluxes originated from agricultural and from forest and shrubland areas. Although the Mekong is not yet facing severe water quality problems, the concurrent rapid development can be expected to accelerate nutrient enrichment. There is thus an urgent need to improve water quality monitoring and pollution control measures, and to give water quality issues more weight at the policy level.
... Given the lake's significance to the livelihoods of millions of Cambodians, as well to the region's environmental conversation and resource management activities, a number of scholars have linked their research work to fisheries governance (Sok et al., 2014;Sokhem andKengo 2008, Thol andSato 2014), community fisheries and natural resource management around the lake (Bonheur and Lane, 2002;Sok et al., 2012), as well as declines in the lake's fisheries (Baran and Myschowoda, 2008), socio-economic development (Hap et al., 2006), and the impacts of livelihood and climate change in the area (Nuorteva, 2010). The central studies of Tonle Sap Great Lake have focused on conservation, management and livelihood development activities among the fishers there. ...
... However, Cambodia's water governance is hindered by various obstacles, including sectoral and centralized influences, top-down and large-scale strategies, weak coordination among relevant agencies, and limited involvement of local communities. This study examines water governance across different sectors, from centralized to community-based natural resources management, and explores the opportunities that can be done to improve water governance [1][2][3]. ...
Cambodia faces the challenge of managing excess water during the wet season and insufficient water during the dry season. This harms human life and endangers aquatic and natural resources, agricultural practices, and food security. Water governance is crucial to ensure the well-being of both people and their food security. However, Cambodia’s water governance is hindered by various obstacles, including sectoral and centralized influences, top-down and large-scale strategies, weak coordination among relevant agencies, and limited involvement of local communities. This study examines water governance across different sectors, from centralized to community-based natural resources management, and explores the opportunities that can be done to improve water governance. This study undertakes the literature and case studies of farmer water user communities (FWUCs), community fisheries (CFis), and community fish refuges (CFRs) in three Mekong Delta provinces in Cambodia. This study concludes that water governance has been challenged by FWUCs competing for water resources to intensify rice production at the expense of increased pesticides and fertilizer uses, which undermine the fishery productivity, degrade the natural resources in rivers and water bodies, and increase water conflicts among farmers and sectors in the face of climate change. To enhance water governance in Cambodia, it is critical to integrate it at the district level. This will promote sustainable water use and management across the country and pave the way for a brighter future.
... Water resources are essential for the socio-economic performance of Cambodia. However, long-term planning does not seem to be a vital element in Cambodian water management, locals do not seem to be able to effectively voice their interests when it comes to water use (Sokhem & Sunada, 2006). Although water resources have supported the livelihoods of people in Cambodia in the past, in recent decades, social challenges and natural resources decline have put access to water at risk. ...
This article explores climate change resilience in the water sector, and its relation to food security of poor farmers in rural of Cambodia. The research analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data by conducting a survey of 103 farmer households in Svay Chacheb and Tuol Sala communes of Basedth District, Kampong Speu province. Detailed interviews were conducted with poor households, village chiefs, commune councilors, and agriculture officials at the district level. The study found that the famers do not receive sufficient water for rice cultivation and daily consumption from the existing irrigation systems and wetlands. Additionally, storage equipment and mechanisms for resilience to the effects of climate change are limited. Most farmers spend in order to obtain sufficient water for agriculture activities such as growing crops and raising livestock. The farmers need to borrow from their neighbors and use their own existing resources when they are faced with a food shortage because support mechanisms from government agencies and Non-governmental Organization (NGOs) are limited.
... Water resources are essential for the socio-economic performance of Cambodia. However, long-term planning does not seem to be a vital element in Cambodian water management, locals do not seem to be able to effectively voice their interests when it comes to water use (Sokhem & Sunada, 2006). Although water resources have supported the livelihoods of people in Cambodia in the past, in recent decades, social challenges and natural resources decline have put access to water at risk. ...
This article explores climate change resilience in the water sector, and its relation to food security of poor farmers in rural of Cambodia. The research analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data by conducting a survey of 103 farmer households in Svay Chacheb and Tuol Sala communes of Basedth District, Kampong Speu province. Detailed interviews were conducted with poor households, village chiefs, commune councilors, and agriculture officials at the district level. The study found that the famers do not receive sufficient water for rice cultivation and daily consumption from the existing irrigation systems and wetlands. Additionally, storage equipment and mechanisms for resilience to the effects of climate change are limited. Most farmers spend in order to obtain sufficient water for agriculture activities such as growing crops and raising livestock. The farmers need to borrow from their neighbors and use their own existing resources when they are faced with a food shortage because support mechanisms from government agencies and Non-governmental Organization (NGOs) are limited.
... Fishing pressure, clearance of flooded forests, and industrial crop farming practices are indeed intensifying particularly in the TSL, threatening the TSL fish diversity and productivity [17,22,23,29,31,72,78]. These challenges were mainly attributed to the lack of effective legal and institutional instruments to implement the new fisheries policy and poor governance, e.g., lack of inter-sectoral coordination and cooperation among the government line agencies and other stakeholders at multiple levels, lack of knowledge on co-management regimes, and other basic means including funds to implement the policy, limited decentralization of roles and responsibilities from national to sub-national and community levels, overlapping stakeholders' roles and responsibilities among the government agencies to manage the TSL natural resources, pervasive illegal fishing activities, and strong livelihoods dependency of the local communities on fisheries, etc. [18,31,34,77,[79][80][81]. These pressing challenges are also recognized in the update Strategic Planning Framework for Fisheries 2015-2024 of the Fisheries Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries [82]. ...
Inland fisheries management in Cambodia has undergone two major policy reforms over the last two decades. These reforms led to the abolishment of a century-old commercial fishing lot system in 2012 and the establishment of new fish sanctuary and community fishing areas. However, the status of fisheries and fish assemblages following the reforms is not well understood. Here, we investigated the temporal changes in fish catch weight and fish assemblage structure for the period 1995-2000 before fishing lot abolishment (BLA) and for the period 2012-2015 after the removal of all fishing lots (after lot abolishment-ALA) using time-series fish catch data recorded from the Tonle Sap Lake (TSL), one of the world largest inland fisheries. We found (i) mean catch trends vary seasonally, with stable catch trends during the BLA and decreasing catch trends during the ALA and (ii) significant shifts in fish assemblage composition, notably a shift from large-bodied, migratory, and/or predatory species during the BLA toward more short-distance migratory and/or floodplain, small-bodied species during the ALA. Fishing lot abolishment coincided with substantial changes to floodplain habitats and increases in fishing pressure, threatening TSL fish stocks. Flow alterations caused by dams and climate change may exacerbate the problem. Therefore, to realize the fisheries reform objectives, it is imperative to strengthen the fisheries' governance and management system, including effective law enforcement, institutional strengthening, improved planning, cooperation, and coordination as well as clearly defined roles and responsibilities among concerned stakeholders at all levels.
... It primarily links to different expectations and understanding of stakeholders. The overlapping and conflicting institutional arrangements (Sokhem & Sunada, 2006) and the institutional rivalries in the Tonle Sap lead to promoting own agendas and interests, often at the expense of others (Keskinen & Varis, 2012). Moreover, The political affiliation of some CFC members with the commune councils and imbalance of power may lead to a compromise decision and in some cases making the co-management to become fragile (Ngor et al., 2010;Plummer & FitzGibbon, 2006). ...
The overall goal of this research was to assess the livelihood strategies in the Tonle Sap in the face of various drivers of change around the lake. Specifically, the study intended to investigate livelihood variations and determinants (both spatial and temporal), and the impact of future scenario changes and of the Community Fisheries (CFis) in the Tonle Sap's floodplain. By using multivariate approach, I am able to highlight the fol- lowing findings: - different ecological characteristics influencing livelihood strategies and the environmental resources are imperative in post-conflict Cambodia; - various human, natural and economic, social, and physical capitals have influenced household's choice and income. Land was the most significant; - net income loss is expected for under all future scenarios, with those engaged in single livelihoods experiencing an average loss of 18% across all scenarios compared to 9% for the multi-livelihood group; - an ideal size of community area is 2,310 hectares and the positive impact of CFis can be achieved by improving planning, operational process and conflict resolution mechanism, developing networks and reinforcing rule compliance. The findings suggest that livelihood is context specific and the choice of household's strategies is associated with a range of socio and ecological factors and we should avoid a one-size-fit prescription to tackle livelihood problems in the Tonle Sap. Policy impli- cations to improve livelihood participation and maximize the long-term economic and social benefits for household should consider special attention to resource poor house- holds, increase household's wealth and assets, design and implement effective resource conservation programs, improve households' adaptive capacity in response to unex- pected changes and continue strengthening and supporting the CFi organizations.
... Even the bounding or defining of what a 'community' is, or where the community level is on the social scale, are contested and, consequently, shaped by various discourses, decisions, and practices (Lebel et al., 2008). Many actors in the region are concerned about the aggregate implications of mainstream and tributary dams in all of the countries on the natural flood regimes important to productivity and proper functioning of wetlands, especially Tonle Sap Lake (Sokhem and Sunada, 2006). Managing Tonle Sap Basin without consideration of the mainstream of the Mekong is always going to be difficult, given that it is the seasonal reversal in flows arising from peak flows in the mainstream of the Mekong that drive the flood pulse within the Lake and its flood pulse dynamics. ...
... Even the bounding or defining of what a 'community' is, or where the community level is on the social scale, are contested and, consequently, shaped by various discourses, decisions, and practices (Lebel et al., 2008). Many actors in the region are concerned about the aggregate implications of mainstream and tributary dams in all of the countries on the natural flood regimes important to productivity and proper functioning of wetlands, especially Tonle Sap Lake (Sokhem and Sunada, 2006). Managing Tonle Sap Basin without consideration of the mainstream of the Mekong is always going to be difficult, given that it is the seasonal reversal in flows arising from peak flows in the mainstream of the Mekong that drive the flood pulse within the Lake and its flood pulse dynamics. ...
... The Tonle Sap is located in rural Cambodia, where people often live subsistence lifestyles, meaning they are highly dependent on the direct provisioning of ecosystem services to meet their livelihood needs (Keskinen 2006). Over one million Cambodians directly depend on the Tonle Sap system, where they fish and farm food resources for day to day consumption and livelihood generation (Sokhem and Sunada 2006;FAO 2017). The lake is particularly critical for the livelihoods of over 100 000 people who live in 'floating villages'; communities which consist of dwellings that permanently float on the water of the Tonle Sap [ Fig. 1; (Keskinen 2006)]. ...
Cambodian subsistence communities within the Tonle Sap Great Lake area rely on resource extraction from the lake to meet livelihood needs. These fishing communities—many of which consist of dwellings floating on the lake—face potentially profound livelihood challenges because of climate change and changing hydrology due to dam construction for hydroelectricity within the Mekong Basin. We conducted interviews across five village communities, with local subsistence fisher people in the Tonle Sap in 2015, and used thematic analysis methods to reveal a fishery system that is undergoing rapid ecological decline, with local fishing communities increasingly experiencing reductions in available fish stocks. As a result, over 100 000 people living in these communities are experiencing a direct loss of well-being and livelihood. We discuss these losses and consider their implications for the future viability of Cambodian floating village communities.
... One example presented here is the Mekong River Basin, where the Tonle Sap provides critical natural resources within the basin. With more than 1.2 million people living within its floodplain alone (Sokhem and Sunada 2006), there is clearly a great need for dayto-day monitoring of the Tonle Sap's hydrodynamics and variability. Nonetheless, there is currently a considerable shortage of hydrologic monitoring in the Tonle Sap Basin (Bonheur and Lane 2002) as well as other developing regions of the world. ...
Keys TA, Scott DT. 2017. Monitoring volumetric fluctuations in tropical lakes and reservoirs using satellite remote sensing. Lake Reserv Manage. 00:1–13.
Sustainable management of lakes and reservoirs is currently a major challenge in regions of the world with limited hydrologic data and monitoring equipment. Specifically, temporal variability of water storage is difficult to quantify and is often neglected in lake and reservoir management. Here, we present a high temporal resolution remote sensing technique for quantifying volumetric fluctuations in surface water bodies without any field data. For this study, we utilized Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery in conjunction with satellite radar altimetry from 2 altimetry databases to develop high frequency time series of storage variations in 10 large tropical surface water bodies. For 3 of the sites, altimetry-based water level (L) estimates were validated by in situ data from monitoring stations while estimates of surface area (A) and changes in water volume (ΔV) were validated by bathymetric maps with corresponding L–A and L–ΔV polynomial relationships. Results indicate that remotely sensed ΔV estimates agree well with in situ measurements for 2 of the 3 water bodies. For the third, A and ΔV estimates were greatly underestimated due to the coarse spatial resolution of MODIS. Our findings suggest that the presented methodology works well for lakes and reservoirs with well-defined boundaries and low shoreline to surface area (S:A) ratios, in contrast to reservoirs with dendritic geometry and high S:A ratios. Overall, this method provides a free, user-friendly platform for monitoring and managing lakes and reservoirs.
... The resultant fragmented, uncoordinated and piecemeal regulatory landscape arguably might do little to support over-arching conservation objectives. Such a conclusion is in line with other studies about ineffective governance in this country setting (see, for example, Sokhem & Sunada, 2006). ...
A challenge in the implementation of wetlands conservation targets lies in translating principles into practice in an array of different biophysical, social and regulatory settings. The interpretation of global protection objectives can become garbled if the institutional arrangements, particularly the regulatory ones, are ill suited to the task. When decision-making processes are complex and multi-layered, the regulatory regime can become ineffectual because it fails to take adequate account of the intricate connections between people, place and law. This dissonance compromises the effectiveness of law as a means of regulating human–environment interactions and may threaten the viability of critical wetlands. This paper draws attention to the need for more in-depth analysis of the effects of legal layering [following Roth et al. 2015 (The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 47 456–75) and the von Benda-Beckmann tradition] in conservation and environmental protection practice. Based on field data from the Ramsar listed wetlands of the Tonle Sap lake in central Cambodia, closer analysis of legal layering reveals regulations that appear to perpetuate existing power structures and decision-making dynamics through a process of bricolage (Rusca et al. 2015, European Journal of Development Research 27 777–92). In this context a legal geographical perspective proves a powerful lens to expose the dynamics of environmental use/protection decision-making.
... From 1982 to 1989, commercial fish-eries were controlled by solidarity groups called "Krom Samaki," which were formed by the communist regime to increase yields by collectivization of labor forces (Amakawa 1997). However, almost all fishery businesses failed because of a lack of management and fishing skills (Ly 2003;Rab et al. 2005;Sokhem and Sunada 2006). In 1989, Vietnamese troops left Cambodia, and four Cambodian parties and the secretary general of the United Nations agreed to a comprehensive settlement of the Cambodian civil war in 1990. ...
... People's participation which focuses on therevival of traditional drainage systems, banning of construction activity and prevention of wastes entering the compound will help ensure the area remains protected (Griffin, 1999). Clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of the people in-charge and the maximization of people participation has been identified as one of the solutions to tackle institutional impediments to effective basin governance management with context to the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia and can also be implemented in this region (Sokhem & Sunada, 2006). ...
Urban Indian cities are facing a water crisis due to loss of watershed, increasing pollution levels, deteriorating water balance, encroachment, illegal constructions and a dire lack of groundwater recharge. Although there are sufficient polices and acts for protection and restoration of water bodies they remain insufficient and ineffective in the face of such complexities. To meet the rising demand for water augmenting and improving the health of water bodies is of utmost importance. Revival and rejuvenation of water bodies in cities is especially important from a public health perspective as they provide various ecosystem services that are required to manage microclimate, biodiversity and nutrient cycling. This paper looks at Najafgarh Lake, in South-West Delhi that occupied more than 300 km2 in the 1960s and was a biodiversity hotspot. Currently it stands as a topographical depression brimming with overgrown grass and garbage. The lake’s disappearance has stolen a chunk of Delhi’s culture and its use as a dumping ground has raised health concerns for the local population. This can be countered by rejuvenating the Najafgarh Lake through rainwater harvesting and bio-intensive farming. Most of Delhi’s precipitation falls during the monsoon in July and August and can be harvested using simple, locally adoptable and eco-friendly low-cost technologies such as creation of ponds. Implementation of community water management schemes with maximum people’s participation is crucial to mitigate the ill effects of drought and urbanisation. Similar studies across India and the world lay precedent for such practices and can ameliorate the water shortages faced at a micro level.
... It's a messy bricolage of shadowy and complicated actors and relations. Players include both state and non-state actors (Pech and Sunada 2006 ) as depicted in Fig. 28.4 . It should be clearly noted that Fig. 28.4 does not capture the plethora of "black box" fl ows, or the many informal or "unoffi cial" tacit relations that exist in and between management actors and actions for small-scale fi sheries management. ...
For over 100 years, auctioned “fishing lots” dominated the fisheries in Cambodia’s Great Lake, Tonle Sap. As part of the world’s largest single managed freshwater fishery, these large scale pre-colonial aquatic resource concessions enabled elite stakeholders to strictly control access to lake resources and to extract large aquatic resource rents, paying little in tax, and not being subjected to any truly effective upward accountability to the Fisheries Administration. In 2012, in conjunction with past reforms, the Prime Minister of Cambodia finally removed all remaining lots via a unilateral sub-decree known locally as the “deep fisheries reforms”. Using the interactive governance framework and governability assessment methodology, the chapter first outlines the historical context of the fishing lot system and small-scale fishing, and the causes for their often tumultuous and violent relationship. It then begins to unpack the underlying raison d’etre for this profound top-down decree. We explore potential impacts and outcomes of what their rapid removal means for any real system reform and increase in aquatic system governability. We examine the important cross scale and organizational level challenges now facing the multiple stakeholders and players in lake management as they try to coordinate and implement these “deep reforms”.
... Hydropower development in the Mekong River Basin also threatens the regional inland capture fisheries, particularly in downstream countries such as Cambodia (Arthur & Friend, 2011). Complex transboundary and local governance challenges continue to threaten the natural resources of Tonle Sap and the livelihoods of the rural communities dependent on them, as, despite state and NGO interventions, resource conflicts persist (Sokhem & Sunada, 2006). ...
Aboriginal fisheries are distinct from commercial and recreational fisheries in their practice, management and governance, which reflect belief systems and cultural traditions specific to indigenous ways of life. Aboriginal fisheries constitute social–ecological systems governed by environmental ethics and reciprocity relations with local community and ecosystem members. The traditional ecological knowledge, fishing practices and resource-sharing protocols of indigenous fishers reflect cultural traditions, technologies and norms embedded in community-based management. The ethical principles of reciprocity, respect, and interconnectedness and the ensuing sense of place that distinguish many indigenous cultures supported cooperation within fisheries management and governance that sustained local resources and communities. An examination of aboriginal freshwater fisheries must thus consider not only the local ecology and fish population dynamics, but also the local culture and history of the indigenous peoples. Here, I survey the state of indigenous freshwater fisheries, both their ecology and governance, through case studies in New Zealand, Cambodia, Norway, Canada and the United States, before drawing some general conclusions.
... Fuente: Elaboración propia a partir de Eagles (2008Eagles ( , 2009 El análisis de la buena gobernanza (o de la calidad de la gobernanza) consiste en comprobar que las prácticas actuales se ajustan a los criterios aceptados (Weiss, 2000). Los criterios de gobernanza del PNUD se han utilizado en distintos estudios sobre la gestión de los recursos naturales, como por ejemplo la gestión del agua (Sokhem y Sunada, 2000) o de los bosques (Hayes, 2006;Agrawal et al., 2008). Pero hasta recientemente, tal como exponen Bovaird (2005) y Hannah (2006, ha existido un vacío en el ámbito de los espacios protegidos. ...
There is currently a wide diversity of management models for protected areas. As a result, there is a wide diversity of governance models too (who are the decision-makers, how are decisions taken, and how are various stakeholders involved in the decision making process). Governance within management models for parks and protected areas can be analysed and evaluated using the UNDP governance criteria. Evaluation of governance using these governance criteria has been proven effective through studies undertaken for the British Columbia and Ontario's provincial parks systems (Canada). Those studies not only compared both management models (combined public and for-profit, and parastatal, respectively), but also evaluated the different stakeholders' perception of governance within each management model. The Ontario model was the best valued of both, although different results were obtained depending on the type of the surveyed stakeholder.
... Fuente: Elaboración propia a partir de Eagles (2008Eagles ( , 2009 El análisis de la buena gobernanza (o de la calidad de la gobernanza) consiste en comprobar que las prácticas actuales se ajustan a los criterios aceptados (Weiss, 2000). Los criterios de gobernanza del PNUD se han utilizado en distintos estudios sobre la gestión de los recursos naturales, como por ejemplo la gestión del agua (Sokhem y Sunada, 2000) o de los bosques (Hayes, 2006;Agrawal et al., 2008). Pero hasta recientemente, tal como exponen Bovaird (2005) y Hannah (2006, ha existido un vacío en el ámbito de los espacios protegidos. ...
Actualmente existe una gran diversidad de modelos de gestión de espacios protegidos y, por consiguiente, de modelos de gobernanza (quién toma las decisiones, cómo las toma y qué nivel de participación tienen en el proceso los distintos agentes implicados). Para cada uno de los modelos de gestión se puede analizar y evaluar su respectivo modelo de gobernanza, utilizando los criterios de buena gobernanza del PNUD. Así se hizo en el estudio realizado para los parques naturales provinciales de la Columbia Británica y de Ontario en Canadá. Ese estudio no sólo permitió comparar dos modelos de gestión distintos (combinado público-privado y paraestatal, respectivamente), sino también evaluar la percepción de cada modelo de gobernanza y sus criterios por parte de los distintos agentes implicados. El modelo de Ontario resultó ser el mejor valorado de los dos, aunque con valoraciones distintas según el tipo de agente encuestado.
... The ADB further emphasized a lack of 'political' support for environmental protection (ibid.: 1) because of the 'reluctance of senior Government officials to delegate power and authority' (ibid.: 3). Similarly,Sokhem and Sunada (2006) argue that Cambodia's weak EIA institutions are a result of '[s]trong resistance by powerful and elite persons to reform', patronage, political deadlock, corruption, nepotism, intimidation, and complex financial interests (for in depth analyses on the link between patronage and natural resources see Le Billon 2000; Sneddon 2007; Un and So 2009. For an overview of Cambodia's neo-patrimonialism see Pak et al. 2007). ...
This paper studies environmental norm contestation in Cambodia's hydropower sector, exemplified by the Kamchay Dam. In Cambodia we can observe different discourses in relation to hydropower. These stem directly from a local contest over the path of Cambodia's development, but use global norms as reference points: one emphasizes environmental protection, using environmental impact assessment (EIA) as point of reference; and one emphasizes the utility of the clean development mechanism (CDM) to attract large-scale investment into the energy sector while downplaying the need for environmental protection. While EIA and CDM are complementary, key actors present them as contradictory. This produces a normative fragmentation of the field of environmental protection. The paper argues that the norm diffusion literature, by presenting norm conflicts as hierarchical local-global conflicts, has paid insufficient attention to the fact that local actors actively draw on global norms to justify domestic development policies. More emphasis on this phenomenon will lead to a better understanding of the role of global norms in domestic politics and will enhance our knowledge of how domestic development policies are contested.
... In terms of governance, the planning and decision-making processes in practically all riparian countries remain relatively non-participatory and non-transparent, hindering open discussion about the different development plans and their potential impacts. Due to the cross-cutting nature of water, water management also falls under several different ministries and institutes; both vertical and horizontal discontinuities and institutional rivalries follow, making water governance particularly challenging (Hirsch et al. 2006, Sokhem and Sunada 2006 EIA is generally focused on single, fully designed projects, in response to regulatory requirements, and near the end of the approval pipeline. EIAs are a potentially crucial step in project-level decision-making. ...
... In terms of governance, the planning and decision-making processes in practically all riparian countries remain relatively non-participatory and non-transparent, hindering open discussion about the different development plans and their potential impacts. Due to the crosscutting nature of water, water management also falls under several different ministries and institutes; both vertical and horizontal discontinuities and even institutional rivalries follow, making water governance particularly challenging to coordinate (Hirsch et al. 2006;Sokhem and Sunada 2006;Keskinen et al. 2007). ...
The Mekong River Basin is seeing big changes, including intensive plans for water development such as large-scale hydropower. While the water-related projects are considered important for the economic development of the riparian countries, the negative impacts that they are likely to cause for ecosystems and livelihoods are estimated to be remarkable. Assessing the likely impacts of such development at different geographical and temporal scales is therefore crucial for successful planning and decision-making. Yet, current impact assessment processes are providing relatively differing estimates for the predicted changes, partly due to their differing scopes and methods. The assessments are also predominantly expert-driven processes with a macro-scale view, leading easily to the neglect of local knowledge and contexts. Such contradictions indicate a need to increase the discussion about the different impact assessment approaches as well as the possibilities and limitations they have. This research paper looks at the impact assessment approaches that are used –and not– to advice the current water development in the Mekong River Basin. The focus of the paper is on two increasingly important assessment approaches, namely the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and the Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA). The research paper presents a summary of the most common assessment approaches used currently in the Mekong Region, together with a review of selected SEA and CIA processes carried out in the region. The paper highlights the remarkable potential that the two assessment approaches have in the current water development setting in the region. It is noted, however, that both approaches may easily be misused – intentionally or unintentionally – and that the actual motivations and methods used in the assessments should therefore be discussed much more openly than is done currently.
... The lake absorbs 20 per cent of annual flood water from the Mekong and then releases the water to the lower part of the river below Phnom Penh as the flood recedes. Its fisheries provide a major protein source to Cambodia's population (Sokhem and Sunada 2006). In 2001 the Cambodian government released 56 percent of commercial fishing lots to communities as community fishery lots with support of the Asian Development Bank. ...
This article analyzes the process and output of a cross-boundary peer learning exercise about policy and implementation on natural resource management in the Mekong. The exercise involved university students and academics from Cambodia, China, Thailand, and Australia. The pedagogic approach taken was student-centred learning, whereby students learned with and from their fellow students, and about their peers’ perspectives in other Mekong countries on similar issues. The article consists of four parts. The first part introduces the exercise and discusses conceptual frameworks including cross-cultural learning, peer-based learning, and experiential learning. The second part describes the Mekong Learning Initiative research exchange program, explaining the process by which students from different countries and different learning cultures engage in peer-based learning. The third part uses students’ own reflections to show ways in which learning outcomes from the student research exchange differ from conventional learning activities. The discussion section draws on the successes and challenges of the exercise to explain how we as teachers engage with adaptive learning for both research and pedagogic purposes, to identify elements critical to enhancing experiential learning in the cross-boundary peer based learning situation.
... " Programme integré de développement du bassin du Sénégal " – a 12-volume plan for the integrated management of the river – was introduced in the 1974 (PNUD-OMVS, 1994). Key development features included the construction of a hydropower dam in Mali (Manantali dam) and a salt-wedge fairly disconnected from the MRC and the GMS (Sokhem & Kuneda 2006, Mehtonen et al. 2008 ...
Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been strongly promoted in the major international events (such as Mar del Plata, Dublin, The Hague, Bonn, Johannesburg, and Kyoto conferences) during the last three decades. But IWRM plans do not automatically lead to success in water resources development and management, as the experience from the Mekong and Senegal River Basins clearly reveals. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been identifi ed as one of the basic water resources related policy approaches in several recent important commitments and recommendations such as those of the Rio and Johannesburg Summits, and the World Water Forums. In the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the preparation of IWRM and water effi ciency plans by 2005 for all major watersheds of the world was one of the two major water targets. The inclusion of IWRM as one of the standard components of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers has been discussed lately. That would still enhance the political role of IWRM, which aims at developing democratic governance and promotes balanced development of water resources for poverty reduction, social equity, economic growth and environmental sustainability. International rivers account for 60% of all the water that fl ows in world's rivers. 145 nations have shared waters with their neighbours (Giordano & Wolf, 2003). Thus, international basin organizations are one of the key actors in implementing IWRM in practice. International basins have found different solutions for managing their shared waters. This paper summarizes the history and present situation of IWRM as a theoretical concept, and contrasts this with the historical developments in the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia and in the Senegal River basin in West Africa.
... Integrative approaches appear crucial to informing negotiations over basin development, water resources management and flood risks (Kummu et al. 2006) where these are understood to be risks from changes to the natural flood regime. At the same time more monitoring, better models and more control structures won't necessarily lead on their own to better or fairer flood management (Sarkkula et al. 2007): improvements to governance are also needed (Lebel & Sinh 2007; Sokhem & Sunada 2006). ...
Floods, benign and destructive, are an important feature of the landscape, livelihood and culture of the greater Mekong region. In the main valleys and plains rapid economic and social development over the past several decades has altered the use of land and water in ways that profoundly affect vulnerability of households, firms and regional economies to flood events. Disaster risk reduction measures usually involve structural interventions in the form of walls, channel modification, diversions and storage dams. Institutional measures are designed to reduce risks to certain subsets of the population or places, like central business districts. The thesis explored in-depth this paper is that current flood management policies and practices in the Mekong region, often claimed to be about reducing risks, are often more about shifting risks onto already vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.
... Among the project aims are changes in designs of reservoirs and irrigation channels to reduce flood risks from higher peak flows (Biagani 2007). If this approach is pursued at larger scales then it could be at odds with other analyses that emphasize the value of seasonal floods to fisheries and fishers ( Kummu et al. 2006, Sokhem and Sunada 2006, Baran et al. 2007. Adaptation policies in Cambodia may need to be deliberated more widely. ...
... Due to the crosscutting nature of the water and its crucial importance for people's livelihoods, management of water resources also falls under several different ministries and institutes. Both vertical and horizontal discontinuities and even institutional rivalries follow, making water governance particularly challenging to coordinate Sokhem & Sunada 2006). ...
Mekong River in Southeast Asia is among the greatest rivers of the world. Altogether six countries -China, Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cam- bodia and Vietnam- fall partly within its basin. The river basin is currently facing rapid changes, including intensive plans for water development projects. While the different water development projects -most notably the construction of large hydropower dams- are considered important for countries' economic development, also the negative impacts that they are likely to cause for ecosystems as well as for livelihoods of millions of people are estimated to be huge. Despite the potentially remarkable envi- ronmental, social and economic impacts, the existing impact assessment processes in the basin are relatively poorly coordinated, and seem in many cases not really be able to capture properly the actual scale of the impacts at different levels. This article first looks at the different impact assessment processes in the basin, and then discusses the challenges related to them. Based on these existing challenges, it is argued that in this kind of dynamic and complex setting, there is a need to shift from pre-defined, top-down impact assessment approaches that currently dominate the basin towards a more flexible approach combining assessments from local level up to the re- gional level and applying truly interdisciplinary approach in its analysis.
... Various different organizations such as the Mekong River Commission, UN agencies, Asian Development Bank, the Greater Mekong Subregion Programme, the ASEAN, as well as many donor countries have a considerable influence to policies, institutional development, capacity building and other governance related matters in the Tonle Sap area. Their roles are, however, very complex and overlapping, and rivalries are more common than cooperation (Makkonen et al., 2006;Sokhem and Suneda, 2006). Further threats to Cambodia are due to the escalating commercial activities upstream the Mekong River. ...
... Besides the MRC, various other organizations such as Asian Development Bank, the Greater Mekong Subregion Programme, the ASEAN, UNESCAP and many other international organizations, with various, important donor countries have a considerable influence on policies, institutional development , capacity building and other governance related matters in the Tonle Sap area. Their roles are very complex and rivalries are common (Makkonen et al., 2006; Sokhem and Kunada, 2006). At the national level, the formal governance system suffers from horizontal and vertical discontinuities. ...
Integrated Water Resources Management has been identified as one of the basic water resources related policy approaches in several recent important commitments and recommendations including the Johannesburg Summit and World Water Forums. Recognizing that IWRM is largely still a theoretical concept with not much sound scientific research, our objective is to investigate how the IWRM process in the Mekong Basin is institutionalised, and implemented in practice. We focus on the Cambodia's Great Lake, the Tonle Sap. Of particular interest are the bottlenecks of IWRM, both those that are within the water sector and those that relate to various, more general development tendencies.
Tonle Sap Lake (TSL) is a unique freshwater lake, located in the heart of the Mekong region, which is rich in fisheries and biodiversity resources. However, the lake’s resources management has been challenging, changing over time from the management based on commercial fishing to the community and conservation. This chapter analyzes the governance of Tonle Sap Lake, by specifically examining the governance of the lake following the cancellation of fishing lots. This chapter is divided into two main parts: (i) the first part provides a general background of the governance of TSL, including the evolution of the governing system of the lake over time, and (ii) the second part analyzes the current governance system, focusing on (a) how the geography of the lake shapes the governance system and (b) how human–nature relation influences the governance practice in the lake.
Transboundary water governance is multiscale and multilevel, involving different actors with diverse powers and politics at different levels and scales. Levels and scales are key governance challenges in transboundary water governance. Although there is considerable literature on scale and level, there is very little on how to operationalize it in a transboundary river basin context. Accordingly, the present study analyses how scale and level complicate transboundary water governance, using a literature review and a case study of Tonle Sap Lake (TSL) in the Mekong River Basin to examine the level and scale affecting transboundary water governance. The present study describes the level of transboundary water governance in terms of global, regional and national implications. There are different functional spaces at each level, including agriculture, fisheries and biodiversity. Spaces are zoned into different spatial scales, based on technocratic interests, specialization, power and the politics of actors. The present study concludes that levels, spatial scales and zoning have made TSL governance more complex, leading to establishment of new institutional and legal arrangements for managing Tonle Sap, some of which compete with, conflict and overlap, meaning sound environmental management and good governance cannot be guaranteed.
The Tonle Sap Lake of Cambodia is one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, supporting millions of small‐scale fisher livelihoods. Women's contributions in these fisheries are often overlooked due to socio‐cultural expectations of roles and responsibilities. This is a crucial omission since climate and anthropogenic influences increasingly threaten lake inhabitants. Addressing these challenges requires the full participation of both men and women who use the lake, thus it is necessary to first understand the social dynamics of these communities. We investigated whether there were differences between men's and women's perceptions of (i) fishing and non‐fishing practices; (ii) power, access and control over fishing resources; and (iii) perceptions towards conservation and conservation areas in Pursat, Cambodia. We interviewed fishers and key informants, and found differences in perceptions of fishing and non‐fishing practices between fishermen and fisherwomen. Men more openly acknowledged unequal power dynamics, access to and control over fishing resources when compared with women. We found contrasting ideas of community fisheries and conservation between men and women, and health and safety challenges they faced in conservation areas. Findings suggest that community perspectives and unequal power relations established specific roles for women that limited their active participation in fisheries management.
Transboundary water rights are usually revered in the international political arena as it often results in a myriad of conflicts. The Mekong, an international river, flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Each of these basin countries has its own opinion, philosophy, and interests resulting in complex hydropolitics in the region. This has resulted in intense and acute water allocation, uses, and quality as well as social and environmental conflicts. In order to settle these conflicts amicably and to cooperate and exchange the information among constituent countries, three regional organizations, namely, Mekong River Commission (MRC), Greater Mekong Sub-region Program (GMS), and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are established. The purpose of these organizations is to meet the drinking water, food, energy, and other requirements as well as to support other economic activities in the basin on a sustainable basis. The changing flow pattern in the Mekong River has resulted in reshaping the societies and has added further pressure on natural resources on a regional basis. For example, the development and consequences of hydropower in the upper Mekong Basin have led to conflicts among Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam for agriculture, drinking water, and environmental flows. This has resulted in the civil unrest and violence in the region. Keeping these in mind, the present study highlights the complexities of water governance in the Mekong River Basin. It outlines the geography and the regional, political, economic, and environmental settings of the basin. It further explores the issues of sustainable development and briefly describes the opportunities to better utilize the available resources with an underlying philosophy of mutual co-operation, goodwill, and friendship.
Deliberating, negotiating, designing, and implementing water management policies are often disconnected activities. Different actors come together in separate arenas at different times, places and levels to gain support for their policies, programs and projects. Scale represents a class of key choices, commitments and constraints that actors contest or are forced to accept. In the Mekong region water governance is multi-level and multiscale with issues and actors that surge and ebb as they move from deliberation, negotiation and allocation of water and related services and back out again. The attributes and outcomes of multi-level governance — like fairness, equity and sustainability — depends not only on the interplay of institutions, but also the fortuitous and staged cross-level interactions among less rigid and formalized social networks and deliberative platforms. While attributing impacts to deliberative engagement is not a straight-forward exercise, our hypothesis remains that cross-level interactions in deliberations initially produce and later help influence negotiations and the robustness of structure of rules, agreements, policies and institutions.
Self-built settlements in water landscapes show constant mobility features resulting in the resilience of landscapes, which is simultaneously based on stages defined by hydrological cycles. The purpose of this research is to characterize local architectures as complex inhabitable systems, expanding the concept of sustainability by introducing scales of populations with low densities and a strategic level of cultural organization, linked to the case study. The method is based on field work in the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, identifying cultural, ecological and architectural scopes; specifically, an architectural approached is used in the analysis and description of the problem, considering the settlement's different occupation scales, and concluding in the characterization of the form and function of architecture. Hence, the outcomes focus on showing the values of permanence with urban/rural mobility of the case study; what the author calls a system's vulnerable balance.
Tonle Sap Lake is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia, being situated at the heart of the Mekong River Basin. Governance of the lake over the recent past has been weak and overly complex, and the basin governance structure has changed over time in terms of its fisheries management framework. The governance framework initially focused on the commercial exploitation of fish resources, but has more recently switched to a community-based fisheries management, biodiversity conservation and open access model. This study discusses how the water flows occurring between the Mekong River and Tonle Sap Lake complicate the governance of the lake, and particularly its fisheries, biodiversity, land and water management activities. The establishment of the Tonle Sap Authority (TSA) in 2007 sought to address the governance challenges facing the lake. The current study concludes, however, that the TSA alone is not sufficient and that global, regional and national stakeholders must make an effort to ensure the water flows between the lake and the Mekong River are themselves considered a core governance issue for the Tonle Sap.
In Life, Fish and Mangroves, Melissa Marschke explores the potential of resource governance, offering a case study of resource-dependent village life. Following six households and one village-based institution in coastal Cambodia over a twelve-year period, Marschke reveals the opportunities and constraints facing villagers and illustrates why local resource management practices remain delicate, even with a sustained effort. She highlights how government and business interests in community-based management and resource exploitation combine to produce a complex, highly uncertain dynamic. With this instructive study, she demonstrates that in spite of a significant effort, spanning many years and engaging many players, resource governance remains fragile and coastal livelihoods in Cambodia remain precarious.
Integrated Water Resources Management has been identified as one of the basic water resources related policy approaches in several recent important commitments and recommendations including the Johannesburg Summit and World Water Forums. Recognizing that IWRM is largely still a theoretical concept with not much sound scientific research, our objective is to investigate how the IWRM process in the Mekong Basin is institutionalised, and implemented in practice. We focus on the Cambodia's Great Lake, the Tonle Sap. Of particular interest are the bottlenecks of IWRM, both those that are within the water sector and those that relate to various, more general development tendencies.
This paper analyses key contributors to sustainable livelihoods in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB), Cambodia, by focusing upon villagers' access to assets, adaptation to shock and stress, and their degree of resilience to declines in natural resources. The study reveals that their access to the five assets for sustainable livelihoods is limited; that their capacity to adapt to shock and stress is low due to floods, drought and high food prices; and that their resilience to declines in natural resources is weak. Improvement in their capacity to adapt and in their resilience will be influenced by the degree to which they can access human, physical and social assets.
Résumé
Le Cambodge est souvent considéré comme une société postconflit et postsocialiste qui connaît des réformes économiques et politiques importantes : si des réformes administratives favorisant la démocratie locale décentralisée peuvent être observées dans tous les secteurs, ce que ces réformes signifient dans la vie quotidienne des villages cambodgiens n’est cependant pas clair. Cet article examine quel rôle ces réformes jouent au niveau local par le biais du secteur de la pêche. Bien que les réformes dans le secteur de la pêche soient décrites comme radicales, un examen plus approfondi montre que la gouvernance n’a pas changé de manière significative au cours des années. Les problèmes des petits pêcheurs ne sont en général pas pris en considération, et la politique de la pêche continue à ne pas les outiller de sorte à pouvoir régler leurs problèmes. Les conclusions de cette recherche proposent qu’une plus grande attention soit portée au fonctionnement de la vie rurale cambodgienne, associant cette analyse avec la compréhension de la rhétorique promue dans des cadres de gouvernance spécifiques.
The general tendency for states in South East Asia is to claim exclusive rights over natural resources at the cost of impoverishing the people who depend on them for subsistence. However, contrary to what one might expect, the government of Cambodia initiated unconventional intervention: it cancelled the fishing lots system, the de facto property rights that had granted exclusive access to certain aquatic resources to licence holders. These interventions, focused on Cambodia’s largest lake, question the rationale behind such state measures to forfeit control. This paper demonstrates that political interests such as garnering election votes and circumventing certain bureaucratic agencies explain this radical shift in policy. Opening up previously exclusive lot areas to the communities won immediate support from the poor fishermen. However, now that the lake is under a more diverse, if obscure, system of governance managed by multiple agencies, the environmental and social consequences of the policy shift deserve a fuller examination.
Singapore has recognized the importance of universal principles and paradigms in the management
of water resources whilst also acknowledging that they do not automatically lead to
improvement unless there is a strong emphasis on policy and programme implementation. As
a result, the city-state has developed a comprehensive, holistic vision for the overall management
of its water resources, making them essential elements for overall development, economic
growth and national security. This paper discusses the city-state’s long-term, comprehensive water
resources strategies including their policy-making, planning, management, governance and
development. It also argues that Singapore is one of the very few countries, if not the only one,
that has developed its water policies as part of the overall development goals of the city-state.
How water is managed is emerging as one of the core challenges of sustainable development and earth system governance (Pahl-Wostl, Gupta, & Petry, 2008a; Biermann et al., 2009). Floods and droughts already have a huge impact on human development and well-being. Adaptation to existing climate variability to reduce water insecurities is already a pressing need (Pielke, Prins, Rayner, & Sarewitz, 2007). Securing access to safe drinking water, allocating sufficient water to grow food, protecting life and property from floods, as well as maintaining river and floodplain ecosystems as countries develop economically, however, is a complex set of interlocking and dynamic challenges.
The opportunities for the six states that share the Mekong River to benefit directly from its joint management are more limited and the risks to the livelihoods of downstream communities from development schemes more important than the historic rhetoric of Mekong development has implied. Changes in the broader political and economic context have sidelined the Mekong River Commission, the one institution charged with regional cooperation to manage the river. Improved regional governance in the decades to come depends upon efforts by many actors to raise the incentives for intergovernmental cooperation, expand civil society engagement, and strengthen mechanisms for cross-border accountability.
"Transboundary Environmental Governance outlines some of the threats and opportunities to the natural environment of increased economic and political cooperation in the region. Integration risks creating more winners and losers among local people who depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. Integration also has the potential to promote greater environmental security and social equity when these concerns are incorporated in regional planning. The report assesses the effectiveness of existing regional institutions-the Mekong River Commission, Association of Southeast Asian nations and Asian Development Bank-in addressing transboundary environmental challenges and their social impacts. The report looks at how the institutions' structures, including their mandate, capacity, and membership, affect their ability to manage transboundary issues. The report argues that in addition to righting their structural shortcomings, the agencies must improve their governance practices. The three regional bodies must reach out and involve the public in a broader range of development planning, implementation and monitoring processes, and must strengthen their accountability to direct stakeholders, if they are to achieve sustainable development goals."
Achieving integrated river basin management in large multi-jurisdictional river basins is a difficult task. In the Mekong River basin some of the countries have begun to implement a cooperative framework, which indicates a desire to achieve a form of integrated management. Significant progress has been made but results still fall short of the ideal. The primary reasons for this includes the lack of institutional capacity of the multi-jurisdictional cooperative authority and its counterpart organizations in each of the participating countries, together with a lack of political drive to develop integrated management as a priority.
From the Introduction: "The present freshwater capture fisheries management of Cambodia is thought to be 'one of the most developed and extended systems of fisheries regulation found in the world' (IMC 1992: A5-42). It comprises regulations on large scale fishing operations in well defined 'fishing lots', and middle scale operations, which need official licenses handed out by the DoF, and the so-called family fisheries with minor gears which can be operated in all water bodies at every time, unless being subject to legally restricted areas. Threats to and pressures on fish stocks are increasing in the same way as conflicts increase between the relevant actors (Ahmed et al.1998:). For social peace' sake a long-term fishery resources availability providing food security, income generation, and employment has to be addressed within the context of an improved fisheries management structure. "This paper originates within a project context of international fisheries development cooperation, in which a regional organization provides advice to the fisheries authorities of the Cambodian Government on training staff in fishing related research, setting up data bases and developing options for sustainable freshwater capture fisheries management. The basis of data actually available allows only for some initial insights into these organizational systems and management practices. After more than a quarter of a century of civil war, in which most of historical documentation disappeared, and no research had been done, Government staff has to be trained in order to conduct research on relevant issues for fisheries management, meaning that every kind of data collection is virtually a pioneering work. "The process of gradually deepening insights also allows for gradually improving the operationalization of research questions that provide a clearer picture of the essentials for fisheries management. This paper tries to contribute to this process of refining research questions, clearing concepts and definitions needed for designing feasible options for fisheries management, that fit the very specific environmental, cultural and institutional-political conditions of Cambodia."
System Requirement Report Information requirements of the Cambodia Department of Fisheries for the co-management of fisheries (Bangkok: Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific)
- M Felsing
Felsing, M. (2004) System Requirement Report. Information requirements of the Cambodia Department of Fisheries for the co-management of fisheries (Bangkok: Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific).
Project Appraisal Document for a Water Utilization Project, Rural Development and Natural Resources Sector Unit
- World Bank
World Bank (2000) Project Appraisal Document for a Water Utilization Project, Rural Development and Natural Resources Sector Unit, East Asia and Pacific Region (Washington DC: World Bank Group).
Address at the 3rd Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Summit Triangle Development (Phnom Penh: Government of Cambodia)
- S Hun
Hun, S. (2004) Address at the 3rd Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Summit Triangle Development (Phnom Penh: Government of Cambodia).
Biodiversity Conservation and Social Justice in the Tonle Sap Watershed: The Tonle Sap Biosphere
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- B D Lane
Bonheur, N. & Lane, B. D. (2001) Biodiversity Conservation and Social Justice in the Tonle Sap Watershed: The Tonle Sap Biosphere, International Conference on Biodiversity and Society (New York: Columbia University Earth Institute/UNESCO).
Natural Resources-based Development Strategy for the Tonle Sap Area
- Mrcs Undp
MRCS/UNDP (1998) Natural Resources-based Development Strategy for the Tonle Sap Area. Report No. CMB/95/003 (Phnom Penh: Cambodia National Mekong Committee, NEDICO, MIDAS).
Major Foreign Policy—About ACMECS (Bangkok: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand)
- K Chongbunwatana
Chongbunwatana, K. (2005) Major Foreign Policy—About ACMECS (Bangkok: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand).
Downstream Ecological Implications of China's Lancang Hydropower and Mekong Navigation Project
- T Roberts
Roberts, T. (2001) Downstream Ecological Implications of China's Lancang Hydropower and Mekong Navigation Project (Berkeley, CA: International Rivers Network).
Water resources and hydropower in the Lancang River Basin, PRC Policies and Strategies for Sustainable Development of the Lancang River Basin
- D Plinston
- D He
Plinston, D. & He, D. (2000) Water resources and hydropower in the Lancang River Basin, PRC Policies and Strategies for Sustainable Development of the Lancang River Basin, Chapter 4 (Manila: Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd).
Evaluation of the EIA for the Proposed Upper Mekong Navigation Improvement Project
- C Cocklin
- M Hain
Cocklin, C. & Hain, M. (2001) Evaluation of the EIA for the Proposed Upper Mekong Navigation Improvement Project (Monash, Australia: Monash University).
GMS governance has been very much top-down and state driven. The operation of the GMS is fully guided by ADB (Guttal
- Just
Just like MRC and ASEAN, GMS governance has been very much top-down and state driven. The operation of the GMS is fully guided by ADB (Guttal, 2003).
Cambodia at the Crossroads—Strengthening Accountability to Reduce Poverty
- World Bank
World Bank (2004) Cambodia at the Crossroads—Strengthening Accountability to Reduce Poverty, East Asia and Pacific Region (Phnom Penh: World Bank Cambodia Office).
Mekong People's Council Planned
- W Piyaporn
- S Kultida
Piyaporn, W. & Kultida, S. (2004) Mekong People's Council Planned, Bangkok Post Daily News, 19 November, Section 1, p.
Mekong River Basin Diagnostic Study
- Mrcs Unep
MRCS/UNEP (1997) Mekong River Basin Diagnostic Study, Final Report (Bangkok: MRC Secretariat).
Conflict, Governance and Livelihoods: The Challenge of Community Fisheries on the Tonle Sap, Cambodia (Phnom Penh: Oxfam America Cambodia Office
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- B Sim
Pettit, B. & Sim, B. (2003) Conflict, Governance and Livelihoods: The Challenge of Community Fisheries on the Tonle Sap, Cambodia (Phnom Penh: Oxfam America Cambodia Office).
Marketing the Mekong: The Asian Development Bank and the Greater Mekong Sub-region Economic Cooperation Program (The Philippines: Jubilee South)
- S Guttal
Guttal, S. (2003) Marketing the Mekong: The Asian Development Bank and the Greater Mekong Sub-region Economic Cooperation Program (The Philippines: Jubilee South).
Establishment of the Tonle Sap Basin Management Organization (Phnom Penh: Asian Development Bank & Cambodia National Mekong Committee). 416 P. Sokhem & K
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Chaktomuk Area Environment, Hydraulics and Morphology, Phase 1
- Chaktomuk Project
Chaktomuk Project (2002) Chaktomuk Area Environment, Hydraulics and Morphology, Phase 1. Final Report, MRC Secretariat (Phnom Penh: Chaktomuk Project Management Unit).
Constructive analysis of the hydro-geographical, climatic, socio-economic set-ups, and historical and political trends of Mekong River Basin Report
- P Sokhem
- K Sunada