Friday, May 9, 2008

Issues at El Faro

The Degradation of Aquatic
Ecosystems: The Mekong River Basin

Within a few decades we have destroyed coastlines, wetlands, and woodlands, and destroyed the wellbeing and the sustainability of the water cycle in islands and on continents. The case study of the Mekong River Basin’s destruction illustrates the importance of paying attention to water biodiversity.

By: Luis Tirado, SEO/Birdlife

Aquatic ecosystems have the highest levels of biodiversity. At the same time they are the most fragile. Many people see the value of stable biodiversity as a distant value, similar to how they view the economic, social and cultural values created by society. However, this could not be further from the truth. When we study the challenges of the new millennium, it becomes increasingly clear just how dependent humans are on both water and natural resources provided by aquatic ecosystems.

Throughout history, different societies and cultures have settled beside rivers, lakes and wetlands. Water and the life that surrounds it have always been fundamental reasons for human settlement. The interaction between nature and society due to settlement on riverbanks, lakes and coasts has given rise to the landscape, vegetation and fauna of our land today.

Exploiting Nature

By the twentieth century, however, water practices had changed dramatically. Within a few decades, we destroyed kilometres of precious coast rivers, we dried out the majority of wetlands, destroyed woodlands and riverside forests, rectified, narrowed and walled riverbanks. We broke the cycle of river habitats with tens of thousands of dams. We overexploited water and ruined large rivers that had not yet reached the sea. In the name of progress, we have destroyed the security and the sustainability of the water cycle on islands and in continents. Sadly, today the average continental aquatic ecosystem has the greatest number of extinct species or species facing extinction in the biosphere.

The Mekong River: Biodiversity and Livelihoods

The Mekong River is the heart of Southeast Asia. It is 4800 km in length. From the Tibetan Plateau, it runs through China, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sixty million people depend on the Mekong River and its tributaries for food sources, drinking water, to transport goods and to travel. Its yearly floods are vital for rice and vegetable production and they result in one of the largest and most diverse fishing productions in the world, only followed by the Amazon.

The construction of hundreds of large dams threatens this source of life. The construction plan of eight dams in the upper Mekong/Lancang in China is just one of the dams to be constructed.

Dams and Disaster

The Hydroelectrical dam Pak Mun drastically reduced fishing activity with serious effects on the food supply for tens of thousands of people. In 1999, dozens of affected people took a stand at the dam. They intended to remain there until the sluice gates were permanently opened and fish would return to their river. Similar campaigns have been organised for the restoration of the river and against the Rasi-Salai dam. In Laos, activists are fighting to demand loses suffered by the affected communities of the Nam Theun-Hinboun and Nam Leuk dams. In Vietnam and Cambodia damaging effects that the Yali Falls dam has had on various riverside villages are being studied.

For more information on aquatic biodiversity and other issues at El Faro, visit www.elfaro2008.org.