Southeast Asia Environments: The Mekong River Project

Join us in Southeast Asia as we trace the course of the Mekong River upstream through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and northern Thailand. Here we experience first hand the extraordinary wildlife this ancient river supports, the diversity of water use among the Mekong river peoples, and the conservation challenges faced in each region.

Little known until recent years, the Mekong River watershed supports some of tropical Asia’s richest biological and cultural diversity. Between 1997 and 2007, more than a thousand new species of plants and animals were discovered in this region. Unlike almost any other river in the world, the Mekong—“Mother River”—ebbs and floods spectacularly over the course of a year, and these seasonal rhythms are profoundly important to the people who depend on the Mekong for their livelihood, harvesting migratory fish, farming the riverbank soils, and plying its waters for transport. Encircling mountains are covered in tropical monsoon forest, providing some of the most species-rich habitats on earth. The Truong Son Range, for example, which separates the Mekong from the coastal plains of Vietnam, has yielded several new species of mammals in recent years, including the goatlike Saola and a unique limestone-dwelling rodent. The Mekong River is rich in aquatic species as well. Its complex flow patterns support large migratory fish whose life cycles are just beginning to be understood. One species, the Mekong giant catfish, is one of the largest of all freshwater fish.

Today, rapid, largely uncontrolled economic development threatens many aspects of the Mekong River ecosystem. Dams built upriver in China have begun to interfere with the seasonal flow patterns required by local residents. Blasting rapids to facilitate navigation is also having a severe downstream effect. Development in the Delta region has isolated populations of Irrawady dolphins that once migrated to the South China Sea. Join us as we explore the vast Mekong River Basin, with its diverse landscapes and cultures, situated in a socially and economically dynamic region, an ideal case-study for understanding conservation challenges throughout the developing world. 

THE PROJECT

Our journey upriver will visit four of the countries through which the Mekong passes: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. Focal areas include Vietnam’s Mekong Delta; the great lake of Tonle Sap, a singularly dynamic natural feature of the Mekong ecosystem whose basin fills, floods and drains with annual changes in the level of the river; the temple complex of Angkor Wat, whose economic failure centuries ago holds lessons for modern environmental management; Sipandon (“Four-thousand Islands”) and Dong Phou Vieng Biodiversity Conservation Area in Southern Laos; and Pangmapha, a region of sharply eroded, densely forested limestone hills in northern Thailand. The Mekong ecosystem also includes a number of important cities with their own ecological stories to tell. Those we intend to visit include Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, and Chiang Mai in the adjacent Ping River Basin of northern Thailand.

Several times during the program, we plan to trek on foot into the remote backcountry where we may stay as guests of the local villagers. Our prospective hosts include the Katang people of southern Laos and the tribal highlanders of Pangmapha, northern Thailand. Our activities throughout the program are meant to address three fundamental questions. First, “what is the natural history of this place and what ecological processes are most important now?” Second, “who lives here, how long have they been here, and have they adapted well to the local environment?” And finally, “Is the environment being managed intelligently for the long term?” Wherever possible, in consultation with the local people, we will consider the implications of various ecosystem management alternatives. Throughout the program we will make careful, personal observations of what’s going on around us as well as exchange ideas and gain input rom local experts and long-term residents. At the end of the program, we hope to publish our findings online. Participants will gain direct experience conducting ecological field studies in a magnificent part of Southeast Asia, and a new appreciation for the lives and challenges of the peoples of the Mekong River Basin.

Our activities throughout the program are meant to confront three fundamental questions. First, “what is the natural history of this place and what ecological processes are most important now?” Second, “who lives here, how long have they been here, and are they well-adapted to the place?” If so, how has the environment shaped their traditions and culture? If not, what is the disconnection, and how is it explained? Finally, we will ask, “is the environment being managed intelligently for the long term?” Quite often, we will see evidence that it is not. Wherever possible, in consultation with the local people, we will consider the implications of various ecosystem management alternatives.  In-country Fee: $1950.

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PROJECT LEADERS