Rethinking Agriculture In The Greater Mekong Subregion

This book presents research into the production of safe, high-quality, and environmentally friendly agriculture products in the Greater Mekong Subregion. It also explores the actions and policy options that could be pursued. Three themes are examined: Improving Food Safety and Quality; Inclusive and Sustainable, Safe and Environment-Friendly Agriculture Products; and Value Chains for Safe and Environment-Friendly Agriculture Products. This aligns with the ASEAN Economic Community blueprint, which calls for the creation of a single market and production base for food, agriculture, forestry; and integration of the region into the global economy.

Trade facilitation of agri-food products can potentially reduce trade barriers, lower transaction costs, foster efficiency along the supply chains, and reduce poverty in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). A comprehensive analysis of a range of policy options that influence trade behaviors of selected agri-food products in the GMS will help policy makers in their decision making. This agriculture trade facilitation plan lays out systematic ways to increase movement and flow of agri-food products and their impacts on the GMS sector. It proposes that the GMS adopt a cluster approach to trade facilitation and develop itself into regional hubs of agri-food trade.

The impacts of climate change on agriculture and food production in Southeast Asia will be largely mediated through water, but climate is only one driver of change. Water resources in the region will be shaped by a complex mixture of social, economic and environmental factors. This report reviews the current status and trends in water management in the Greater Mekong Subregion; assesses likely impacts of climate change on water resources to 2050; examines water management strategies in the context of climate and other changes; and identifies priority actions for governments and communities to improve resilience of the water sector and safeguard food production.

The second edition of the Greater Mekong Subregion Atlas of the Environment again champions the environment of this unique part of Asia, an area straddled by rivers great and small, with bountiful watersheds, wetlands, and forests. The Atlas celebrates the peoples of the subregion, and presents the environmental and development challenges they face and their responses. It reminds us that the subregion's peoples and communities are key to maintaining its environment. The Atlas captures in one volume maps, remote-sensing images, and essential information on one of the most culturally, ethnically, and biologically diverse regions in the world. The subregion is made up of Cambodia; Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province of the People's Republic of China; the Lao People's Democratic Republic; Myanmar; Thailand; and Viet Nam.

This report aims to demonstrate the compelling need to increase investments in natural capital in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and identifies actions now being taken regionally and nationally to manage natural capital. It also proposes a guiding framework for promoting investments and actions by GMS countries to secure natural capital and thus ensure sustainable and inclusive growth in the subregion.

A philosopher and a scientist propose that sustainability can be understood as living well together without diminishing opportunity to live well in the future. Most people acknowledge the profound importance of sustainability, but few can define it. We are ethically bound to live sustainably for the sake of future generations, but what does that mean? In this book Randall Curren, a philosopher, and Ellen Metzger, a scientist, clarify normative aspects of sustainability. Combining their perspectives, they propose that sustainability can be understood as the art of living well together without diminishing opportunity to live well in the future. Curren and Metzger lay out the nature and value of sustainability, survey the problems, catalog the obstacles, and identify the kind of efforts needed to overcome them. They formulate an ethic of sustainability with lessons for government, organizations, and individuals, and illustrate key ideas with three case studies. Curren and Metzger put intergenerational justice at the heart of sustainability; discuss the need for fair (as opposed to coercive) terms of cooperation to create norms, institutions, and practices conducive to sustainability; formulate a framework for a fundamental ethic of sustainability derived from core components of common morality; and emphasize the importance of sustainability education. The three illustrative case studies focus on the management of energy, water, and food systems, examining the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Australia's National Water Management System, and patterns of food production in the Mekong region of Southeast Asia.