Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Corridors

The Greater Mekong Subregion, (GMS) or just Greater Mekong, is a trans-national region of the

Mekong River The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annual ...

basin in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

. The region is home to more than 300 million people. It came into being with the launch of a development program in 1992 by the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field of ...

that brought together the six Asian countries of

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

(specifically

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

and the

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Guangxi (; ; alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ( ...

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...

Myanmar (Burma) Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

. The Greater Mekong holds irreplaceable natural and cultural riches and is considered one of the world's most significant

biodiversity hotspot A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the c ...

s. The region is an important food provider and the site of many large-scale construction projects with social and economic implications.

Regional cooperation

For more than two decades, the six countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion have been working together under an economic cooperation program to realize their vision of a prosperous, integrated, and harmonious subregion. The GMS Program has adopted a three-pronged strategy (the three Cs): # Strengthening ''connectivity'' through physical infrastructure and the development of economic corridors. # Improving ''competitiveness'' through market integration and the facilitation of cross-border trade and travel. # Building a sense of ''community'' by addressing shared social and environmental concerns. The GMS Program, with the support of development partners, helps identify and implement high-priority subregional projects in a wide range of sectors: agriculture, energy, environment, health and human resource development, information and communication technology, tourism, transport, transport and trade facilitation, and urban development. More than US$20 billion in investments have been directly channeled through the program. Since 1998, the GMS program has been using economic corridors to promote economic growth and development. Economic corridors are investment areas, usually running along major highways, which connect centers of economic activity. Three main economic corridors are being developed in the Greater Mekong Subregion: the North-South Economic Corridor, the Southern Economic Corridor, and the

East-West Economic Corridor East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *''East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salma ...

. In September 2017, the 22nd Ministerial Conference in

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi i ...

endorsed th
medium-term pipeline of priority projects from 2018 to 2022
The rolling pipeline includes more than 200 investment and technical assistance projects, which will require more than US$80 billion in financing. On 31 March 2018, the Sixth GMS Summit of Leaders in Hanoi adopted the Hanoi Action Plan and the Regional Investment Framework 2022.

Landscape and biodiversity

The region has a diverse landscape including

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

s, and limestone

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, Dolomite (rock), dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathe ...

lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of p ...

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s and deltas,

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s (

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

and semi-evergreen,

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

, dipterocarp,

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

s, and

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

), and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

s. Water environments include fast-flowing mountain

stream A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ...

s and

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

s such as

Tonlé Sap Tonlé Sap (; km, ទន្លេសាប, ; or commonly translated as 'Great Lake'; vi, Biển Hồ, Chữ Hán: 湖海/壺海) is a lake in the northwest of Cambodia. It belongs to the Mekong River system. It is the largest freshwater l ...

in Cambodia. The region's geographic variety and consequent variety of

climatic zone Climate classifications are systems that categorize the world's climates. A climate classification may correlate closely with a biome classification, as climate is a major influence on life in a region. One of the most used is the Köppen climat ...

s supports significant

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...

, with more than a thousand new species discovered in the first decade of the 2000s. The geographic region encapsulates 16 of the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the W ...

's (WWF)

Global 200 The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or w ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

s, and habitats for an estimated 20,000 plant species, 1,300 fish species, 1,200 bird species, 800 reptile and amphibian species, and 430 mammalian species (according to WWF, 44 of these are

primates Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

, 19 of which are endemic). Notable species include the Javan rhino,

Irrawaddy dolphin The Irrawaddy dolphin (''Orcaella brevirostris'') is a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin found in scattered subpopulations near sea coasts and in estuaries and rivers in parts of the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia. It closely resembles the ...

s, and

Mekong giant catfish The Mekong giant catfish (''Pangasianodon gigas''; th, ปลาบึก, , ; km, ត្រីរាជ /''trəy riec''/; vi, cá tra dầu), is a large, threatened species of catfish ( order Siluriformes) in the shark catfish family (Pan ...

, one of the largest extant freshwater fish. The WWF reported that in 2016, 115 new species were discovered in the region, including three mammals, two fish, 11 reptiles, 11 amphibians, and 88 plants. This brings the total number of newly-discovered species in the Greater Mekong Subregion from 1997 to 2016 to 2,524. The region's biodiversity is ranked as a top-five most threatened hotspot by

Conservation International Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. CI's work focuses on science, policy and partnership with businesses, governments and communities. The org ...

. The WWF cites accelerating economic development, population growth, and increased consumption patterns as primary causes, including agricultural

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply cha ...

and illegal timber trade, wildlife trade,

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in t ...

, dam and road construction, and mining. The WWF also states that the region is particularly vulnerable to global climate change.

Conservation

With the rapid development in the region, conservation efforts to protect natural resources, habitats, biodiversity and local cultures in the Greater Mekong have become urgent. The most pressing current threats are

hydropower Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of ...

development,

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

illegal wildlife trade Wildlife trade refers to the of products that are derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, ti ...

, and

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

Environmental threats

The harvesting and production of natural resources in the Greater Mekong Subregion is of significant economic importance, with the retail value of Mekong river fisheries alone estimated at more than US$4 billion annually. The Greater Mekong Subregion has become the site of large-scale construction projects and rapid economic development, including hydropower dams, mining, forestry, and industrial production. These factors have raised environmental concerns internationally since the mid-2000s. For now, it has resulted in formulation of environmental programs and strategy proposals and strategy developments of a

sustainable Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

green growth Green growth is a term to describe a hypothetical path of economic growth that is environmentally sustainable. It is based on the understanding that as long as economic growth remains a predominant goal, a decoupling of economic growth from resou ...

economy for this region. It has been attained by influential organizations like the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

(

UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on ...

and FAO), WWF, PROFOR and others, in high-level collaboration with the governmental ministries of the countries comprising the Greater Mekong Subregion.

Deforestation

In the 1970s, the Greater Mekong Subregion was one of the world's most densely forested areas. However, deforestation has reduced its forests by a third and is on a trajectory to lose another third by 2030.Caroll, J. (2018). Pulse of the Forest: The State of The Greater Mekong’s Forests and the Everyday People Working to Protect Them. WWF. The highest rates of deforestation in the GMS are found in

, and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. Deforestation in the GMS has many causes, including the expansion of unsustainable rubber and palm oil plantations, dam development, infrastructure development, illegal and unsustainable logging, forest fires, and natural resource exploitation. In effect, deforestation has impacted the environment, biodiversity, and inhabitants of the region. The increased pollution due to run-off has made the water of the Mekong unhealthy for the fish and for human consumption, while riverbanks have become more susceptible to the pressures of climate change and flash flooding because of missing protection tree roots provide. The loss of flooded forests has also impacted the aquatic food chain, putting further pressures on the fishing industry and the 40 million people who take part in fishing-related activities in the GMS. The GMS is a hotspot for vector-borne diseases along its watershed, including malaria, but environmental changes such as deforestation have begun to change this reality. A study that compared malaria rates in the northern and southern regions of Laos found that deforestation increases malaria rates in the short term (1-3 years), but lessens them dramatically in the long term. Deforestation in the GMS has the potential to become irreversible unless actions are taken and policy is implemented. Local community-supported initiatives, such as the many Community Protected Areas (CPAs) in Cambodia’s Phnom Kulen National Park, have been established to stop illegal logging and poaching.

Organizations

Organizations involved in the Greater Mekong Subregion include: * Mekong River Commission (MRC)
Asian Development Bank
(ADB) * Greater Mekong Subregion Academic and Research Network (GMSARN) * Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET) * United Nations **

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

(FAO) ** United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) **

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC; French: ''Office des Nations unies contre la drogue et le crime'') is a United Nations office that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the ...

(UNODC) *

(WWF)
Programme on Forests
(PROFOR)
Open Development Mekong
founded by the EastWest Institute

References

External links

Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program official website

Greater Mekong Subregion Core Environment Program (GMS-EOC)

United Nations map of the Mekong Subregion

World Wildlife Federation's GMS website

Greater Mekong Subregion Environment Operations Center
* Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Greater Mekong Subregion
*
Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program
*
Countries of the Mekong River: The Greater Mekong Subregion

Greater Mekong Subregion Studies Center , Nakhon Phanom University

Thailand's Learning Across Boundaries in the GMS
{{GMSARN Mekong River Ecoregions of Asia Environment of Southeast Asia Geography of Southeast Asia Regions of Southeast Asia Geography of Laos Geography of Myanmar Geography of Thailand Geography of Vietnam Geography of Guangxi Geography of Yunnan Indomalayan realm

Regional cooperation

Landscape and biodiversity

Conservation

Environmental threats

Deforestation

Organizations

See also

References

External links