The first-ever acoustic telemetry network in the Mekong River has tracked key migration corridors critical to the survival of fish in Cambodia and Laos.

To conduct the study, researchers caught fish from a dozen species and implanted them with small electric transmitters before releasing them back into the river. A network of receivers allowed the researchers to follow the migration movements of 81 of these tagged fish during both the dry and wet seasons.

The findings, published in a recent study, provide empirical data reinforcing local ecological knowledge that underlines the importance of a free-flowing Mekong. With dozens of dams built, planned and proposed across the basin, researchers say the exact data points detailing the Mekong’s massive fish migration underline the risks of cutting off these vital migratory corridors with hydropower.

Keep reading

The post Mekong fish corridors mapped for the first time but funding cuts threaten research first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The University of Stirling in Scotland is leading a £3.5 million ($4.5m) project to support sustainable aquaculture in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

The AquaSoS initiative aims to tackle key challenges like pollution, climate change, and disease through a new digital tool that uses satellite data, water sensors, and lab analysis to provide critical ecosystem insights.

The project is expected to help policymakers, scientists, and industry leaders balance food production with environmental protection. It is one of four projects launched under a £12m program by UK Research and Innovation to enhance sustainable aquaculture practices across Southeast Asia.

The funding is provided by the UK government’s International Science Partnership Fund.

Keep reading

The post Vietnam’s Mekong Delta benefits from UK-led £3.5m project on sustainable aquaculture first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

Watchara Kumpai, 68, spends most of his time in boots, stomping through coastal mangrove forests in southern Thailand.

He used to work in the tin mining and logging industries that contributed to mangrove loss, until all concessions in mangrove areas were cancelled in 1991. Today, Watchara is dedicated to restoring and protecting these vital ecosystems in Ranong province, as Thailand aims to restore 500,000 rai (80,000 hectares) for carbon credits by 2031.

The Bang Rin sub-district, where Watchara lives, was among the first of 98 communities to join Thailand’s Coastal Community Mangrove for Carbon Credit programme in March 2023. His conservation group protects mangrove patches scattered around three villages in the sub-district, and has so far registered 1,881 rai (301 hectares) of mangrove to generate carbon credits.

“The project is good because we receive additional money for the communities to spend on mangrove restoration,” says Watchara.

Keep reading

The post Thailand turns to mangrove carbon credits despite scepticism first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The Funan Techo canal, a 180km (112-mile) project to link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand, is a flagship project expected to reduce Cambodia’s transport dependence on Vietnam.

However, according to recent correspondence in the journal Nature, the canal’s passage through various habitats crucial to biodiversity will cause ecological harm and could impact agriculture.

The post Cambodia’s China-backed canal on Mekong may threaten ‘fragile ecosystems’ first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The Mekong was once a river teeming with fish, providing food security for millions of poor farmers as well urban centers. These days, that river of abundance has disappeared, replaced by forlorn fishers who say they’re lucky if they can secure a catch at all, as more and more hydropower dams are being installed.

A peer-reviewed academic paper by Richard Friend et al, “Hydropower Development and the Neglect of Inland Capture Fisheries,” looks at how the importance of freshwater fisheries has been sadly overlooked and marginalized by Mekong policymakers.

Friend, an associate professor at the University of York and a former Mekong River Commission (MRC) consultant told The Diplomat, “Despite the substantial scientific evidence on the critical importance of fisheries to food security, nutrition and the devastating impact of dams on fisheries, there has been no shift in hydropower policy.” 

Keep reading

The post Where Have All the Mekong River’s Fish Gone? first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The post One-fifth of Mekong river fish species face extinction, report says first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

‍Regrow Ag today shared details of its participation in the “Transforming Rice Value Chains for Climate Resilient and Sustainable Development in the Mekong Delta” project known as TRVC. Funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the project manager, the Netherlands Development Organization SNV, is collaborating with stakeholders in Vietnam to design the five-year project with the goal of shifting to low-carbon, climate resilient food systems in three provinces in the Upper Mekong River Delta: An Giang, Dong Thap and Kien Giang. Regrow’s Agriculture Resilience Platform has been selected as the program’s measurement, reporting, verification (MRV) technology.

Keep reading

The post Regrow Selected as Independent Verifier for Mekong River Delta Emissions Reduction Initiative in Rice Production first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

He happily informed that his winter-spring, summer-fall, and fall-winter rice crops yield 8 tonnes, 7.5 tonnes, and 6 tonnes respectively, reaching a total of 21.5 tonnes per hectare in 2023. He earns a profit of VND100 million ($4,125) a hectare a year. Observing the province’s model of ‘No-Footprint Farming Techniques’, his field produces a much higher output than others following traditional growing methods.

On his field, nearly all planting steps from sowing seeds to spraying fertilizer, pumping water are the responsibilities of machines, including his five drones, each of which is worth VND200-500 million ($8,250-20,630).

Keep reading

The post Mekong Delta farmers implementing high technologies in crop planting first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

PHNOM PENH — Cambodian leader Hun Sen on Thursday cancelled a law he created just two months ago to protect critically endangered Mekong dolphins as the mammals continue to die from illegal fishing activities.

The population of Irrawaddy dolphins in the river Mekong has dwindled from 200, when the first census was taken in 1997, to just 89 in 2020 largely due to illegal fishing and habitat loss.

Hun Sen issued a new decree in February creating protection zones in a 120-kilometre (75-mile) stretch of the Mekong, in which fishing is banned, following the death of three dolphins in a week.

Conservationists have also stepped up efforts to protect the mammals — small, shy creatures with domed foreheads and short beaks that once swam through much of the river, all the way to the delta in Vietnam.

Keep reading

The post Cambodian Leader U-Turns on Rare Dolphin Conservation Law first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The Mekong Delta is seeing land subsidence faster than the sea level rise and is at risk of sinking, PM Pham Minh Chinh said as he visited the region on Saturday.

The post PM addresses Mekong Delta’s environment crisis first appeared on Open Development Mekong.