Reclaiming community spaces in the Mekong River transboundary commons: Shifting territorialities in Chiang Khong, Thailand

Abstract

In Northern Thailand's Chiang Khong district, which lies along the banks of the Mekong River and the Thai-Lao border, an community-based environmental movement under the leadership of the Rak Chiang Khong conservation group emerged in response to processes that have appropriated territories traditionally used by locals for state-led economic exploitation. The Rak Chiang Khong has put up fierce opposition to large-scale development projects such as the China-led navigation project, which planned to blast ecologically and culturally significant rapids, and hydropower dam development along the Mekong River. As a result, local-level governance arrangements of the transboundary commons in Chiang Khong have shifted to counter threats both within and beyond the borders of Thailand. Through adapting fishing arrangements, engaging in community-led research and establishing village conservation zones, overlapping forms of territorialisation have emerged in response to socio-ecological changes to the river. These new forms of territorialisation are produced by complex configurations of political, cultural, and ecological histories, politicaleconomic changes, and transboundary dynamics. These territorial strategies have been key towards reclaiming the transboundary commons of the Mekong River for riparian communities, and providing a deeper understanding of the values that drive community involvement in the transboundary environmental governance of the Mekong River.

Is ASEAN ready to move to multilateral cross‐border electricity trade?

“…Cross‐border environmental impacts are likely to impede progress towards multilateral and unified cross‐border electricity trade (Wu, 2016). For example, local communities and civil society in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam are not always keen to support an approach that would incentivise additional dams being built upstream (Suhardiman and Middleton, 2020; Tran and Suhardiman, 2020; Yong, 2020). More generally, there are concerns about countries competing on an uneven playing field in terms of environmental standards.…”

Laos' hydropower development and cross‐border power trade in the Lower Mekong Basin: A discourse analysis

“…Critical narratives of cross-border power trade have recently emerged behind the political intention of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) to operate transnational energy networks. Composed of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Yunnan province of China, the GMS countries are endowed with vast hydropower resources to be expendable for exploitation (Yong, 2020). In this study, we narrow down the scope of cross-border power trade in the context of the Lower Mekong region by examining the power trading schemes that Laos has developed with its partners to serve the state's economic interest (Watcharejyothin and Shrestha, 2009).…”

“…It is also implied in the common understanding that hydropower plants, by themselves, are transnational projects (Hensengerth, 2015). In the Mekong region, in relation to the spatial flows of energy transmission, it is important to note that hydropower development is closely linked to resource exploitation at the expense of in situ and transboundary (mobile) commons that need a sound governance approach (Miller et al, 2020;Yong, 2020).…”

Governing transboundary commons in Southeast Asia

“…Yong (2020) provides a critical examination of these place‐based effects of transboundary development processes on riparian communities, focusing on an environmental movement in Thailand's Chiang Khong district. This movement emerged in response to Chinese‐funded mainstream hydropower dams along the Mekong River.…”