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Some Key Transboundary Issues Identified in the Thematic Papers
Environmental Challenges of the Tonle Sap
- Need for stronger knowledge base on riverine fisheries, especially given possible impacts from hydropower development in the subregion
- Need for more precise information on loss of critical habitats (e.g., pristine forests, flooded forests, other wetlands) of direct applicability to management issues
- Potential regional cooperation in implementing international conventions
- Need for close donor coordination in addressing transboundary issues
Compilation of Environmental Standards
- Began establishment of standards at the point when PRC began major industrial expansion
- Development of standards is an evolutionary process
- Basis for environmental planning compilation
- Tool for promoting scientific advance
- Effective dissemination of information on standards
- Potential for assistance and cooperation from within GMS countries
Lessons to be Learned from Hydropower Projects in the GMS
- Regional trend toward IPP development requires a similar move toward adequate legal and regulatory framework to manage IPP development
- Need for a stronger regional data gathering/analysis system - gauging stations, etc.
- Need for coordinated water resource/watershed/river basin management (policies, management bodies, legal and regulatory framework)
- Building strong national capacity in environmental planning, mitigation and monitoring for hydropower
- Cumulative impacts, especially on fisheries and river flow
- Developing standardized operational procedures for compensation/resettlement issues
- Best practices manuals of regional application
- Early public consultation and public information dissemination
Effectiveness of Donor-Assisted Environmental Training Programs
- Sustainability of training programs, nationally and regionally
- Promoting donor coordination across the subregion
- Follow-up to SETIS?
- Standardized environmental curricula for primary and secondary schools
- Compilation and dissemination of list of existing centers for environmental training
- Regional training center
Public Participation and NGOs: Involving Civil Society in Environmental Management
- Developing and disseminating tools/guidelines for public participation in the GMS
- Use of internet as a forum for WGE action
- GMS environmental newsletter translated into six languages
- Informing and cooperating with "subregional" NGOs
- Training/awareness raising for GMS environmental journalists
- Opportunities for assistance and cooperation from within the GMS countries
Environmental Challenges in the Red River and Lower Mekong Delta
- Possible regional cooperation in addressing population issues as they affect environmental values
- Subregional cooperation in addressing water quality of rivers that cross country boundaries
- Cooperation in the protection of watersheds in upstream countries that affect water supply in downstream countries
Experience in River Basin Management
- Interdisciplinary training
- Definition and implementation arrangements for inter-country notification and consultation in water resources development and rules for water use and inter-basin diversion under the Mekong Agreement
- Public information dissemination
- WGE-National Mekong Committee links
- Cooperation on international conventions
- Subregional standardization of EIA (regional, programmatic, sectoral, project, cumulative, etc.)
Environmental Information: Bridging the Accessibility Gap
- Using the Internet for information dissemination and networking
- Regional and national lists of key users and producers of information
- Develop sample environmental information policy(s)
- State of Environment reporting
Transboundary Trade in Timber and Wildlife
- Cooperative management of protected areas that are adjacent to one another across borders
- Increased information sharing, dialogue, and cooperation regarding the trade in timber, non-timber forest products, and wildlife. This is especially needed for (i) Myanmar/Thailand; (ii) Thailand/Cambodia; (iii) Thailand/Lao PDR; (iv) Viet Nam/Cambodia; (v) Viet Nam/Lao PDR; (vi) P.R. China/Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar
- Subregion-wide cooperation in monitoring of trade, for example as a component of subregional Agreements on the flow of goods and services across borders
- Subregional awareness campaigns and training on the general trade situation, CITES, enforcement techniques, and systematic recording of monitoring and seizure data
- Complete subregional compliance with CITES, meaning that Lao PDR should join CITES
- Financial support to the TRAFFIC office that covers Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam; support for a new TRAFFIC office in Bangkok
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