Nexus narratives and resource insecurities in the Mekong Region

Lebel, Louis; Lebel, Boripat

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2017.08.015

Cited by 29 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…While a vast number of WEF nexus frameworks have emerged within less than a decade, agreement on key ingredients of this socioecological system has not been achieved (Albrecht et al, ; Allan et al, ; Allouche et al, ; Villamayor‐Tomas et al, ). In this respect, low consensus on methods (Kaddoura & El Khatib, ), conflicting interests (Fox & Sneddon, ; Lebel & Lebel, ), and scientific uncertainty make the WEF nexus a paradigmatic case for sustainability science (Boyd et al, ; Cash et al, ; Hurlbert & Gupta, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Navigating this WEF nexus has been an ongoing challenge for the transboundary governance of this globally significant river basin. The CGIAR WLE (CGIAR's Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems) Challenge program on water and food (2002–2013) and subsequent research investments on various dimensions of the Mekong WEF nexus (Gallagher et al, ; Foran, ; Grafton et al, ; Lebel & Lebel, ; Molle, ; Middleton et al, ; Orr et al, ; Pittock et al, ; Smajgl & Ward, ; Smajgl et al, ; Villamayor‐Tomas et al, ) mean this is one of the best researched WEF nexus cases globally. Our Mekong WEF nexus case study is a WEF situation in Kratie Province, Cambodia (Liu et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We chose to select participants from villages in communes within Kratie Province that are in proximate distance to the Mekong River channel to assure that a majority of our participants were involved in the local manifestation of complex intersectoral issues and involved at the scale of which response planning will likely take place. Drawing on the Cambodian Commune Council Database (National Committee for Sub‐National Democratic Development, ), we instrumentally selected (Gerring, ) two villages along the Mekong in Cambodia where some of the WEF nexus dynamics are paramount (Allouche et al, ; Lebel & Lebel, ; Pittock et al, ) based on criteria that made it more likely we would capture WEF nexus dimensions in the models. Dependence on natural resources and proximity to water bodies had to be high.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Participatory Modeling Updates Expectations forIndividuals and Groups, Catalyzing BehaviorChange and Collective Action inWater‐Energy‐Food NexusGovernance

et al. 2019

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Participatory modeling is a potentially high-impact approach for catalyzing fundamental sustainability transformations. We test if participation in a group system dynamics modeling exercise increases participants' agency through a novel method to evaluate potential behavioral change using expectation measures. A water-energy-food nexus-a functionally interdependent but underconceptualized system with low consensus and high scientific uncertainty-was mapped, and its evolution simulated by 46 participants in three interventions in a region undergoing hydropower infrastructure development in Northeastern Cambodia. Participants' system-related expectations were measured before and after the interventions. Our results suggest that participants became significantly more optimistic about their individual agency to increase agricultural and fishing income and, interestingly, less likely to participate in local government development planning procedures. Findings also reveal how some uncertainties for multiple variables were reduced within and across the groups. Such converging expectations suggest that participatory modeling could contribute to making collective solutions and institutionalized agreements more likely. This research contributes to innovation in sustainability because it unpacks some underlying mechanics of how participatory processes can lead to new adaptive capacities, shared perspectives, and collective actions. Plain Language SummaryOur research contributes to understanding actionable knowledge for sustainability using a before-after intervention with fishing and farming community representatives in a situation of conflicting water, energy, food, and livelihoods priorities in rural Cambodia. We explain why reducing uncertainty and building consensus on action through participatory research could potentially catalyze new behavior that promotes sustainability and test how this happens in our intervention. The result is a new and much needed evaluation framework and method for behavioral change outcomes in sustainability interventions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Participatory Modeling Updates Expectations forIndividuals and Groups, Catalyzing BehaviorChange and Collective Action inWater‐Energy‐Food NexusGovernance

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As pointed out by Cairns and Krzywoszynska (2016), questions of power have been inadequately addressed in FEWs thinking. The social, political, and decision-making power embedded in FEW systems are siloed just as technology and science are (Lebel and Lebel, 2017). Trade-offs within the FEW nexus force a negotiation between objectives and stakeholders.…”

Section: Creating Actionable Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovating at the food, water, and energy interface

Helmstedt

Stokes-Draut

Larsen

et al. 2018

Journal of Environmental Management

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Food, energy, and water (FEW) systems are inexorably linked. Earth's changing climate and increasing competition for finite land resources are creating and amplifying challenges at the FEW nexus. Managing FEW systems to mitigate these negative impacts and stresses is a pressing policy issue. The FEW interface is often managed as three independent systems, missing disruptive opportunities for streamlined integrated management. We contend that existing technologies can be reframed and emerging technologies can be harnessed for integrated FEW management, changing the way that each resource system operates within the broader system. We discuss solutions to three main challenges to integrating FEW system management: resolving spatiotemporal disconnections over multiple scales; closing resource loops; and creating actionable information. Sustainable resource management is critical for humanity, as well as for functioning trade systems and ecological health. Embracing integrated management in FEW systems would enable policy makers and managers to more efficiently and effectively secure critical resource systems in the face of global change.

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“…Less is known, however, about how policy narratives’ elements influence beliefs of policy elites or policy outcomes in developing countries with less democratic systems of government. In the Mekong Region, a previous study of emerging policy narratives, around the water–energy–food nexus, showed that expert and intergovernmental adoption does not necessarily lead to influence on national discourse or practices (Lebel and Lebel, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Road to shared prosperity: The elaboration and influence of a transboundary policy narrative for regional economic integration

Lebel

2019

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

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In the Mekong Region, the Asian Development Bank and partners have promoted economic corridors as a way to achieve regional economic integration and growth. This study evaluates how a transboundary policy narrative of shared prosperity around the East-West Economic Corridor programme emerged, and then how it was elaborated and used, taking a set of border policies of the government of Thailand as cases. For two decades the shared prosperity narrative has been used by a coalition of elite actors to support a programme of investments in road infrastructure, as well as to push for agreements on trade, border logistics, investment and tourism. The shared prosperity narrative has helped maintain support for the programme despite its failures to meet projections and expectations. Although criticised by civil society and experts from time to time, no coherent shared counter-narrative emerged. Policy elites in Thailand have used the transboundary narrative to justify investments in special economic zones, and transport infrastructure near the border and inside neighbouring countries. Thailand has also reproduced the narrative in support of efforts to bolster tourism cooperation, and negotiate cross-border trade and logistics agreements. Roads and bridges have been built, underlining how discursive practices have material consequences and reinforce the narrative.

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Nexus narratives and resource insecurities in the Mekong Region

Cited by 29 publications

References 38 publications

Participatory Modeling Updates Expectations forIndividuals and Groups, Catalyzing BehaviorChange and Collective Action inWater‐Energy‐Food NexusGovernance

Participatory Modeling Updates Expectations forIndividuals and Groups, Catalyzing BehaviorChange and Collective Action inWater‐Energy‐Food NexusGovernance

Innovating at the food, water, and energy interface

Road to shared prosperity: The elaboration and influence of a transboundary policy narrative for regional economic integration

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