The Mekong: Protecting Biodiversity and Innovating Sustainable Use

The Mekong river
The Mekong River is one of the great river systems of the world. Rising in the Tibetan Plateau and disgorging into the South China Sea some 4,800 kilometres later, it is ranked as the twelfth longest of the world’s rivers, draining 795,000 km2 of six countries – China, Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Viet Nam.

The river’s natural wealth
The biodiversity of the Mekong River Basin is immense, and of truly exceptional significance to international biodiversity conservation even in comparison with other parts of tropical Asia. The river and its numerous tributaries, backwaters, lakes, and swamps supports many unique ecosystems and a wide array of globally-threatened species such as the Irrawaddy Dolphin, Siamese Crocodile, Giant Catfish and birds such as the Giant Ibis and Sarus Crane. The diversity of the river fauna itself is surpassed only by that of the Amazon and the Congo, with over 1,300 species of fish inhabiting the main channels, tributaries, and associated wetlands. This biodiversity is fundamental to the viability of natural resource-based rural livelihoods of a population of 55 million people living in the Lower Mekong Basin. Rural livelihoods are founded on the integrated use of a wide range of natural resources, adapting to the seasonal changes of flooding and recession. The significance of this diversity of economic activity and therefore the importance of wetland ecosystems has often been overlooked in national development strategies. Increasingly, evidence indicates that wetland resources are of particular importance to poorer groups, with significant implications for poverty reduction strategies, food security planning and rural to urban migration and employment. These will become even more significant if wetland resources are reduced.

Increasing development pressures
High levels of human population and usage have also led to increasing unplanned development pressures within the basin, causing many direct threats to most of the important ecosystems and endangered species for which the region is renowned. This poses a significant threat to biodiversity and environmental sustainability, and thereby to the livelihoods of the Mekong peoples.

Disappearing species
Only 1.3 per cent of the once biodiversity-rich Mekong Delta now remains in a semi-natural condition and the few remaining wetland species are wholly reliant on these remnant patches. Degradation of wetland habitats and hydrological regimes poses perhaps the greatest threat to the viability of one of the most important freshwater fisheries in the world, and the most important source of animal protein in rural diets. Widespread hunting and over-fishing, inflated by a massive illicit wildlife trade, has brought many species to the brink of imminent extinction, and development of river infrastructure is believed to have caused the extinction of a number of endemic fish species.

The Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use Programme (MWBP) -The MWBP has been developed to address the critical issues of the Lower Mekong River Basin for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in the Mekong wetlands. It is a joint programme of the four riparian governments of the Lower Mekong Basin – Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam – managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Mekong River Commission (MRC), and funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). MWBP aims to strengthen the capacity of organisations and people to develop sustainable livelihoods and manage wetland biodiversity resources wisely. It is a five-year (2004-2009) intervention at three levels – regional, national and local – with demonstration wetland areas in each of the four countries: in the Songkhram river basin, Thailand; in Attapeu province in southern Lao PDR; in Stung Treng, Cambodia; and in the Plain of Reeds in the Mekong Delta, Viet Nam.