David J.H. Blake
Wetlands ecosystems are at the heart of sustaining local livelihoods across the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB). They provide highly valuable provisioning services such as food through agriculture and wild capture or harvest, fresh water, fibres and fuel, medicinal plants and a wide range of genetic material important to millions locally and living outside the immediate basin, as well as provide a wide range of other regulating, cultural and supporting services. The LMB riverine wetlands underpin the most productive inland fishery in the world, yielding about 4.5 million tonnes of fish and other aquatic animals in total from capture and aquaculture, estimated to be worth about US$ 3.9 to US$ 7 billion per year according to the Mekong River Commission a decade ago. This value would increase considerably when the multiplier effects of processing and other value adding are considered along the supply
chain to consumers.
According to the World Wildlife Fund’s recent Living Planet Report, 90% of global wetlands have been destroyed since 1970. Likewise, the LMB wetlands are coming under increasing threats and stresses from a range of anthropogenic sources, including but not limited to: dam construction, channelization and dredging, agricultural intensification, water abstraction, aquatic and terrestrial habitat degradation and simplification, urban and industrial pollution, climate change and over-extraction of resources. The vast transboundary wetlands of the Mekong Delta are at the front line of these threats and communities are experiencing profound change, as numerous rural households’ livelihoods directly depend on healthy and vibrant wetlands, whether for capture fisheries, agriculture, aquaculture or gathering a wide range of beneficial wild products. There is also a growing eco-tourism industry, underpinned by iconic migratory bird species such as the Eastern Sarus crane, the rich fisheries and other local eco-cultural attractions.
Against this challenging backdrop of a high dependency of riparians on degrading regional wetlands resources is the question of equity of different stakeholder groups in management, or more precisely, who decides how the resources are managed and to what extent do resource users participate meaningfully in management institutions, whether at the local, provincial, national or regional levels? There has been increasing emphasis in recent years in policy dialogues on the importance of womens’ participation in water and wetlands management institutions, as well as other minority or traditionally marginalised groups, such as ethnic minorities and poorer households. Gender disparity in all forms of natural resource management is now a major focal point of concern in the Mekong region. But how much of this development narrative remains just rhetorical and are the voices of these “subaltern” groups being fairly represented or heard in practice at the meeting tables and fora where decisions are made?
A new research project supported by the Stockholm Environment Institute’s SUMERNET 4 All programme intends to address this question in the context of the complex wetlands of the upper Mekong Delta, straddling the border between Takeo province of Cambodia and An
Giang province of Vietnam. It involves a collaboration between the Faculty of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kien Giang University, Vietnam and the Faculty of Development Studies, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Most research to date has focused on evaluating the importance of the ecosystem services in the Mekong Delta, but relatively little attention has been placed on water governance issues, especially the crucial questions of access, justice, equality and fairness in wetlands resource management. The new initiative is titled, “Bringing More than Food to the Table: precipitating meaningful change in gender and social-equity focused participation in transboundary Mekong Delta wetlands management” (acronym: BRIMOFOT), will carefully consider the barriers and obstacles faced by marginalised groups within various management institutions and strive to improve their representation by the end of the two year study through active engagement with a range of stakeholders. This collaborative, inter-disciplinary “participatory action research” approach has the potential to improve access to resources and equity in management of vital wetlands shared across porous borders in the LMB.
(NB: All photos taken by author)
Read more at the official website of the BRIMOFOT project: https://brimofot.wixsite.com/offical
the BRIMOFOT: Bringing more than food to the table: precipitating meaningful change in gender and social equity-focused participation in trans-boundary Mekong Delta wetlands management.