Uffe Raunsholt Poulsen

Mis)managing Trans-boundary Resources of the Sesan River, Lower Mekong: How Contested Resources in a Boundary Area Are Important for Livelihoods and the Importance of Regional Politics Uffe Raunsholt Poulsen

The book discusses the issues related to (mis)management of the Se San River in Ratanakiri Province, Northeast Cambodia as part of the Mekong River Basin. Dam construction has been a contributing factor to infrequent water levels in both Vietnam and Cambodia which has influenced the livelihoods of people and the flora and fauna of the river. The rivers of the Mekong Basin are truly borderless in nature and therefore the book also examines the geopolitical issues of the Mekong region and the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam as well as the role of the Mekong River Commission. The Se San River is affected by multi-scale politics, souvereignty issues and mismanagement of valuable environmental resources. This mismanagement is no longer confined to the tributaries of the Mekong but is now also reaching the mainstream of the river with a new dam starting construction near Xayabury in Laos. The people of Ratanakiri province live on the edge of civilisation and have traditionally not received much attention from the central government in Phnom Penh.