Considering the increasing recognition of the role of benefit sharing in facilitating transboundary water cooperation, the IUCN BRIDGE GBM project is facilitating development of a Transboundary Benefit Sharing Strategy (TBSS) for the Meghna Basin.
The Building River Dialogue and Governance Programme (BRIDGE, currently in phase 3) set out to do something quite new: to facilitate the development of international networks of Champions of water governance in its target basins.
In 2014, IUCN carried out a vulnerability assessment of the impacts of climate change on the Ramsar site at Beung Kiat Ngong in southern Lao PDR. The overall description of the wetland ecosystem and its components were drawn from the Ramsar profiles of the wetland and the recent biodiversity surveys.
In order to gain further experience on rights-based approaches (RBAs) to conservation, the project focused on undertaking a situation analysis in the Xe Champhone Ramsar Site in Lao PDR. It examined the under-researched issue of customary law governing natural resources, including its relationship with statutory law. This publication summarizes and analyses the findings of the field work.