Infrastructural development

The Ho Chi Minh Highway runs along the western edge of the Central Trong Son priority area.
© WWF Greater Mekong

The development of infrastructure across the Greater Mekong region is one of the major drivers of regional environmental change.

While these changes will have some positive impacts on the livelihoods of the poor, there will also be negative impacts as the availability of environmental goods and services is reduced.

These changes are also likely to affect many of the places of concern to the WWF Greater Mekong Programme including the three priority ecoregions.

The main threats to the Mekong River Basin are hydropower dams and road construction in floodplains.

The natural movement of water throughout the Basin is being heavily modified by flood control schemes, water diversions, and a vast array of hydropower projects, both big and small.

These developments block the movement of numerous migratory fish species and create upstream erosion.

The creation of dams is due to the high demand for energy, particularly in Thailand. New dams are proposed along the Salween River in Myanmar, as well as on the Nam Theun River in Lao PDR.

The main impact to date are dams in China.

More on hydro-electricity projects along the Mekong River and its tributaries >>

Economic Corridors

In 1992, with the coordination of the Asian Development Bank, a grouping of six countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam; as well as Yunnan and Guangxi provinces in China), formed the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and entered into a programme of subregional economic cooperation.

This new initiative has the potential both to lift the region’s rural populations out of poverty but also to exacerbate existing threats, ultimately depleting the natural resource base upon which long-term development of the region depends.

The Greater Mekong Subregion is manifested in economic activity and associated investments in infrastructure development, to be concentrated along three “economic corridors” that criss-cross the subregion e.g. from Mawlamyine, Myanmar to Danang, Vietnam; from Kunming, China to Bangkok, Thailand; and from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (see map).

Recognizing the potential negative impacts of corridor development on biodiversity and natural resources, the GMS has established a Working Group on Environment (WGE), comprising senior government officials from environment and natural resource ministries. WWF is an observer to the WGE and provides technical and policy input.

WWF has also contributed to the WGE's Core Environment Programme with extensive technical input and advice from five offices and three landscape-level programmes (or “ecoregion programmes”) within the subregion, as well as expertise from the wider WWF global network into the Biodiversity Corridor Conservation Initiatives (BCI). The BCI is a “flagship” programme within the CEP.

WWF Project: Core Environmental Programme and Biodiversity Conservation Initiative (BCI) - Phase I