Overview In the past decade, infrastructure development has been a central focus of policymaking for countries in the Lower Mekong – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Financing these projects is a complicated and large undertaking. A multi-billion dollar airport project, for instance, may require loans ...

In 2015, the FAO’s Global Forest Resource Assessment estimated that the Greater Mekong Subregion had 88.4 million hectares of forest, equivalent to 46% of the region’s land area and shared by 237 million people.32. The WWF reports that between 1973 and 2009 the region lost ...

Thailand is a country rich in natural resources, which have played a significant role in supporting local livelihoods and driving economic growth. Forests, watersheds, marine environments, and mineral resources have all been instrumental in supporting the Thai manufacturing, export, and tourism industries. However, rapid economic development ...

Thailand’s Special Economic Zone policy is intended to contribute to the economic of the less developed border regions to improve the livelihoods of their citizens. However, the process of the acquisition and development of the public land acquired for SEZs in Thailand has been shown ...

In 2016, Thailand was ranked 20th globally in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, producing 0.9% of global emissions or 327 tons of CO2 annually. This corresponds to a per capita CO2 emission rate of 4.7 tons, which is slightly lower than the global rate ...

Sustainable Development Goal 14 aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development,” a goal which is important to a country such as Thailand, which is bordered by two oceans – the Pacific and the Indian.155 Progress towards SDG 14 ...

Thailand is currently implementing a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Development Plan to establish ten SEZs along the border regions of the country. However, the Special Economic Zone Act is still in draft form. It has been submitted to the National Legislative Assembly but is yet ...

SDG 15 aims to “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”. The goal has a monitoring framework with 12 targets and 14 indicators. It is seen as a ...

The Mekong River system maintains the world’s largest inland fishery. 2.2 million tonnes of fish were harvested from it in 2009, with an estimated retail market value between US$4.3 billion and US$7.8 billion. The value of the Mekong’s fish harvest is not simply economic, however, ...

The management of water resources is becoming a critical issue in the region as competition for water increases and climate change takes hold. At the same time, the rapid conversion of forests to other uses has diminished the environmental capacity to regulate water at the ...

There are many similarities in the structure and establishment of courts, laws and judiciaries across the Lower Mekong, despite their differences in types of government (republics, socialist, constitutional monarchy, etc). They also face some of the same challenges in adherence to rule of law, and ...

Forests and the forestry sector are linked to many aspects of the people and politics of the Lower Mekong Basin. In the current political and economical climates, the status of forests in the LMB is centered around governance, definitions, biodiversity, timber sector and production, forest ...

The industrial processes for extracting minerals include drilling and pumping, quarrying, and mining. Extractive industries are generally divided into two sectors: mining, and oil and gas. In addition to natural gas, oil and coal reserves, the Lower Mekong's mineral resources include gold, copper, jade, lead, ...

Thailand’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are regions recently designated by the Special Economic Zone Development Board of the Thai Government. In these zones, the state has planned to provide support for infrastructure development, investment incentives, and administrative services to enable access to foreign workers based to ...

Forests are an important ecosystem and key economic sector in Thailand, as well as being home to a large portion of the population.In 2018, forest products accounted for roughly 118 billion Thai Baht (3.9 billion USD) in exports298—or about 1.2% of all exported goods and ...

The projected energy demand in Lower Mekong countries will double from 157.8 Mtoe (million tons of oil equivalent) in 2010 to 319.6 Mtoe in 2035, with the demand concentrated heavily in Vietnam and Thailand. Fossil fuels remain the major energy source in all five Lower ...

Over the last two decades, the countries of the Lower Mekong Basin have all experienced economic development and social transformation. While results are encouraging over all, the improvements across development indicators are not always equal, and as the disparity between the growing urban classes and ...

The region has been heavily reliant on the readily available supplies of forest timber, non-timber forest products and minerals to boost their economies. Various organizations and government agencies are responsible for over-seeing this usage and management, and how they respond to current environmental concerns. ...