Lao People's Democratic Republic

How are decisions about water resources development made? This question is prompted by the continuing global interest in the final report from the World Commission on Dams (WCD), released in 2000, which offered seven strategic priorities as a framework to aid decision-making about large dams and other types of water resources development.

Water ecosystems have long been perceived by decision makers as having little value simply because their economic value is poorly understood and rarely articulated. Calculating the economic value of an ecosystem is a means of providing information which can be used to make better and more informed choices about how resources are managed, used and allocated.

The decade from 1966 to 1976 was a tumultuous time in the history of the Lower Mekong Basin, with three of the four countries at war. Remarkably, this was also a time of major planning for developing the agricultural production systems of the region. This publication describes the pioneering work done in that decade under the auspices of the Committee for the Coordination of Investigations in the Lower Mekong Basin, otherwise known as the Mekong Committee.

These studies investigate the role of protected areas in supporting local socio economic development in selected regions of each country. They are designed to assist policy-makers and planners by demonstrating that protected areas are productive economic assets and that there is a need for appropriately managing them in order to realize the greatest benefits for the community.

Thematic lesson papers are intended to bring global lessons and best practice to the region and to help define the agenda for detailed consultation and reform in the four lower Mekong River countries.

These lessons papers are the result of assessment and debate carried out through background papers and national round table meetings involving all key sectors and levels of government. They provided the basis for the more detailed work in each country by inter agency PAD core groups on the national reports.

The regional report deals with issues requiring collective action from all four countries in the Lower Mekong region and describes the status and trends in the region which set the basis for the PAD review.

The report analyses the relationships between the national protected area system and socio-economic development addressing important sectors one by one. It concludes by setting out strategies for each sector to optimise the benefits received from protected areas whilst maintaining and improving their integrity.