Hydropower Development in the Mekong Region ─ Political, Socio-Economic and Environmental Perspectives

"This book aims to provide a basin wide analysis of the political, socio economic and environmental perspectives of hydropower development in the Mekong Basin. The Mekong Basin is one of the world's most important areas of biodiversity and home to over 70 million people, significant proportions of whom rely directly on these ecosystems for their livelihoods. It is also currently undergoing enormous social, economic, and ecological change of which hydropower development is one of the most significant components. The book includes chapters from China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The book draws from local experts at the region's premier academic institutions to provide a holistic analysis of the shifting socio-political contexts within which hydropower is being framed, legitimised and executed. The book's basin wide approach illuminates how hydropower development, and its benefits and impacts, are linked multilaterally across the basin. The book draws heavily on political ecologies and political economics to examine the economic, social, political and ecological drivers and enablers of hydropower. The research in the book is derived from empirical research conducted from 2012-2013 as part of the CPWF project"--

Nathanial Matthews is Global Research Coordinator of the CGIAR Consortium Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. Previously, he was a lecturer in the geography department at King’s College London, UK.

Kim Geheb is the Mekong Regional Coordinator for the CGIAR Consortium Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems, and is based in Vientiane, Lao PDR.