Improving Ecosystem Management for Sustainable Livelihoods within the Framework of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation
Background
Within the Indo-Burma hotspot, the Lancang-Mekong region hosts a rich and unique biodiversity with very high levels of endism, while facing significant pressures from rapid economic development. Today, approximately 75 million people living in the region rely on ecosystem services derived from the Lancang-Mekong River.
The Lancang-Mekong River Basin encompasses six countries: Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam, with national economies highly reliant on goods and services provided by forest, agricultural, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems.
About the project
Funded by the China-UNEP Trust Fund, this project aims to enhance the adoption of an integrated ecosystem management approach in the Lancang-Mekong region by facilitating cooperation among countries, and across sectors, with ecosystem management for sustainable livelihood demonstrated through pilot activities at selected areas in Cambodia and China.
Creating landscapes with healthy, functioning ecosystems is not only key to making progress towards the environmental targets embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals, but also to addressing multiple social and economic targets that depend partly or wholly on the benefits that ecosystems provide to people. This project will contribute towards promoting integrated, and cross-sectoral collaborative approach in the management of key ecosystems and landscapes in the Lancang-Mekong region.
Taking urgent action to manage natural resources in a sustainable manner, build resilience and adapt to climate change has not only become socio-economically compelling, but fundamental for people and planet to tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Objectives
The project aims at increasing awareness, institutional, technical, and financial capacity of countries in the Lancang-Mekong region to adopt an integrated ecosystem management approach, with demonstrated ecosystem management for sustainable livelihood through pilot activities at selected transboundary areas.
Project components
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Assessment and knowledge generation on integrated ecosystem management in the Lancang-Mekong Region.
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Capacity development for integrated ecosystem management in the Lancang-Mekong countries; and
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Integrated ecosystem management pilots in Cambodia and China.
Partners
Under this project, interventions are implemented by the UN Environment Programme Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in partnership with UNEP International Ecosystem Management Partnership, the Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Centre, and the Biodiversity, People and Landscapes Unit of UNEP Ecosystems Division.
For further information, please contact:
Makiko Yashiro, Regional Coordinator for Ecosystem Management Sub-programme, UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific at yashiro@un.org
