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|  | Ecosystem Profile: Indochina Socioeconomic FeaturesIntroduction and Historical Context Indochina was one of the first regions where agriculture developed (Solheim 1972 cited in van Dijk et al. 1999), creating a long history of forest burning and clearance for shifting and permanent cultivation. Indochina has been home to some of the most successful Asian civilizations, for instance the Angkorian Empire, which dominated the region for several centuries. The 19th and first half of the 20th centuries were characterized by French colonial regimes in Cambodia, Lao P.D.R., and Vietnam, while Thailand and mainland China remained independent; current institutional frameworks in the respective nations reflect this to varying degrees. Another key difference between China, Lao P.D.R. and Vietnam on one hand and Cambodia and Thailand on the other is the existence of communist regimes in the former countries. Cambodia is still recovering from almost three decades of civil war; its governance has most recently been influenced by the presence of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) during the 1990s, since when the gradual development of a democratic political system has been underway. Demographic and Social Trends Indochina has a human population of around 200 million. Average population densities vary enormously across the region: Lao P.D.R. has just 19 people per km2 (National Statistics Centre 1997), although population density per unit area of agricultural land is near the regional average. China's Guangdong Province has 400 per km2 and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has more than 6,000 per km2 (Benewick and Donald 1999).Human populations in the region are predominantly rural. The projected urban population figures in Table 4 show an increasing trend toward urban-based human societies. However, these figures are still among the lowest in the world for the percentage of total population living in urban environments; urban populations in developed countries typically comprise 60 to 80 percent of the total population. Regional population distribution is very uneven. For example, Vietnam's population shows marked concentrations in the Red River (approximately 1,000 people per km2) and Mekong Deltas (approximately 500 people per km2), with mountainous parts of the country being much more sparsely populated; southern China shows even more extreme variations. In the mid-1990s, approximately 83 percent of the population in Lao P.D.R. inhabited small villages in rural areas, with the only urban centers being along the Mekong River, with smaller towns on its major tributaries (National Statistics Centre 1997, Duckworth et al. 1999). Most protected areas in the region have significant human populations living and/or using resources within their boundaries (e.g. Robichaud et al. 2001).Table 4. Demographic and Social Indicators for the Five Countries in Indochina
Until very recently, all nations had predominantly rural, natural resource/agriculture-based economies. This is essentially still the case in Cambodia and Lao P.D.R., while large parts of Thailand, Vietnam, and southern China have yet to become industrialized. Thailand achieved double-digit economic growth in the late 1980s, marking its gradual shift to an export-driven, industrialized economy (ADB 2000). Over the last decade, the smaller communist states, particularly Vietnam, have begun to gradually shed their centrally planned economic policies for market-oriented policies. China has been doing so for some time already. All countries in the region were affected by the Asian economic crisis and global economic slump in the late 1990s, which, in turn, has exacerbated many environmental problems.Table 5 illustrates the high levels of poverty throughout the region. The percentages of the populations of Cambodia and Lao P.D.R. without sustainable access to improved water sources are still extremely high, even regionally. Most telling is the percentage of population earning less than $2 per day, which is still above 30 percent even in Thailand, and a startling 63.7 percent in Vietnam, despite the country's rapid economic growth over the past decade (ADB 2000, UNDP 2005).Table 5 also illustrates the relative poverty within the region and the continued reliance of several countries on Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), although the figures mask huge variations within countries, particularly China. The largest recipients of ODA in the region are Vietnam and China, although the largest per capita recipients are Cambodia and Lao P.D.R., reflecting the small human populations of these countries.
Although the region's populations are chiefly rural, several major cities exist, most notably Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Nanning, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh City. Hong Kong and Bangkok have two of the busiest airports in Asia. With the exception of Thailand and parts of southern China, road and rail networks are relatively undeveloped and generally poorly maintained, apart from a handful of arterial routes. This is partly due to difficult terrain and partly due to lack of financial resources.Dams are an increasingly common feature of hill and montane landscapes, providing a significant proportion of the region's electricity supply. Rural areas seldom benefit from piped water, and have poor and unreliable electricity supplies, compared with urban areas, unless they are situated along major roads. Government hospitals and clinics, particularly provincial and rural ones, are generally severely under-resourced. In parts of the region, telephone landlines are also frequently unreliable, and mobile phone networks dominate communication in many areas.Large-scale infrastructure projects are likely to increase significantly in the region with increasing economic prosperity. For example, Vietnam is in the final stages of constructing a second major north-south road link, which bisects several protected areas. However, several more remote natural landscapes of significant size, particularly in Cambodia and Lao P.D.R., are unlikely to be severely affected by infrastructure development in the immediate future, and, as such, have high potential for the long-term maintenance of intact plant and animal communities.In many countries in the region, internal transmigration is significant and typically involves migration from densely populated lowland regions into more sparsely populated mountainous regions, often with associated displacement of indigenous peoples. Such transmigration is occasionally sponsored by government but is typically spontaneous, in response to actual or perceived economic opportunities in the settlement areas. In the case of Cambodia, the return of people displaced by past conflicts and political instability are major factors. In many areas, transmigration results in conversion of natural habitats for permanent or shifting agriculture, particularly cash crops.Government Frameworks Inappropriate legislative frameworks, conflicting policies, overlapping jurisdictions and lack of communication among different agencies are characteristics of government frameworks in Indochina and represent major obstacles to the effective management of environmental resources. Moreover, government institutions often lack sufficient funding and adequately trained staff to effectively implement their mandates, enforce conservation legislation and fulfill obligations under international conventions. Extremely low average government salaries frequently contribute to low motivation. In addition, turnover of staff in many government departments remains high, with one result being that investments in staff training are diluted. Another key shortcoming is a lack of accurate data with which to make informed management decisions.All five countries in Indochina have government structures comprising central-level bodies with local administrative bodies at various levels. These structures exhibit varying degrees of decentralization. In China, Lao P.D.R. and Vietnam, local administrative bodies typically have more autonomy than in the more centralized government structures of Cambodia and Thailand. Shortcomings of decentralization include unclear and overlapping responsibilities, and lack of cooperation among local institutions with authority over natural resources, which can particularly impact the effectiveness of protected area management. Given the size and complexity of China and its government structures, achieving effective coordination remains one of the most important and intransigent obstacles to effective biodiversity conservation (Maxey and Lutz 1994). This is also true, to varying degrees, for other countries in the region.The cornerstone of each government's biodiversity conservation strategy has been the designation of protected areas for the conservation of wildlife and their habitats. Although in some countries, such as Thailand, responsibility for protected area management lies with a single government institution, responsibility for biodiversity conservation is typically shared among several institutions, and division of responsibilities among them is not always clear. In general, however, management responsibility is more clearly defined for forests than for wetlands. In addition, the institutions responsible for biodiversity conservation are often dependent upon other institutions, such as the police, armed forces, and judiciary, to effectively discharge their responsibilities, and these institutions rarely consider biodiversity conservation to be a high priority. The following section summarizes government institutional responsibility for biodiversity conservation issues in each country.CambodiaThe two government institutions responsible for natural resources management are the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the Ministry of Environment (MoE). MoE is chiefly responsible for management of the 23 protected areas designated by Royal Decree in 1993, while MAFF is responsible for management of wildlife resources outside of these protected areas, including law enforcement, research and management of other biodiversity conservation areas. The two ministries share responsibility for the various international conventions and treaties to which Cambodia is party. The two offices specifically assigned to wildlife conservation are the Wildlife Protection Office of the Forest Administration of MAFF, and the Protected Areas Office of the Department of Nature Conservation and Protection (DNCP) of MoE (Seng Kim Hout et al. 2003). ChinaChina's State Council, appointed by the National People's Congress, has ultimate responsibility for the country's environment. The State Council authorizes the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) to coordinate and monitor the management of biodiversity conservation. SEPA's responsibilities include formulating laws, regulations, economic, and technical policies, compiling national programs and technical specifications, formulating management regulations and evaluation standards for nature reserves, and supervising the conservation of rare and threatened species. In addition, SEPA is responsible for the implementation and supervision of international environmental conventions, and represented the government in drafting and revising the CBD. However, responsibility for managing the majority of forests and other protected areas lies with the State Forestry Administration . Several other institutions also have biodiversity conservation responsibilities, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Previously, the State Environmental Protection Committee (SEPC) of the State Council, with representatives from various ministries, played an important coordinating role: examining and approving general principles and policies concerning environmental protection at the national level, and resolving any difficulties through consultations between relevant institutions. Central government restructuring, which led to the abolition of the SEPC in 1998, has been a loss for coordination and adjudication among agencies.One source of independent expert advice to the State Council in policy development and planning is the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), a high-level, nongovernmental consultative forum created in 1992 with the support of a grant from the Canadian Government. CCICED consists of senior Chinese officials and experts, together with high-profile international experts, with a variable number of working groups and task forces. Lao P.D.R.The management of most forests in Lao P.D.R., including those designated as protected areas, is the responsibility of the Department of Forestry (DoF) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. At the central level, the key institution within DoF is the Division of Forest Resource Conservation, which was created in mid-1999 as part of a wide-ranging restructuring of central government, to improve efficiency and move central staff to assist provinces and districts. At local levels, forest management is the responsibility of Provincial and District Agriculture and Forestry Offices. Several other government institutions outside of DoF contribute to environmental management. The main one is the Science, Technology and Environment Agency (STEA) in the Office of the Prime Minister, which is mandated to provide broad inter-sectoral coordination and regulation, for which the adoption of a draft Environmental Protection Law will give it wide statutory powers. STEA is responsible for conducting environmental impact assessments, controlling commercial exploitation of biodiversity, and the implementation of international conventions relating to the environment. Its mandate to regulate research also requires a close relationship with the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute. Other institutions, such as the Ministry of Defence, the Hydropower Office of the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts, and the National Tourism Authority, are also integrally involved in or near protected areas (Robichaud et al. 2001). ThailandSince 2002, management of the national protected area system has been the responsibility of the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department of the newly established Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. This department was established from the former Royal Forest Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. Other bodies with environment-related remits include the Department of Fisheries, the Department of Agriculture, and the National Resources and Biodiversity Institute (NAREBI). NAREBI was established in 1998 to provide more flexibility in natural resources management policies and to reduce institutional overlap and duplication of efforts. The other main government institution involved in natural resources management is the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, which is responsible for developing and coordinating national and international environmental plans and policies.A significant recent institutional development in Thailand was the establishment of the Thailand Biodiversity Centre in February 2000. This center is the secretariat of the National Biodiversity Board, functions as a clearinghouse for the CBD and supports research and programs relating to access to and sharing of benefits from biodiversity use.VietnamResponsibility for environmental management is divided among several central government institutions, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), the Ministry of Fisheries (MoFI), the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Of these institutions MARD has the main responsibility for forest management, with the Forest Protection Department (FPD) within MARD being responsible for developing the national protected area system and enforcing wildlife protection regulations. MONRE is responsible for international conventions related to the environment, including the CBD and the Ramsar Convention. Within MONRE, the National Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for the development of a system of wetlands of national importance. Conservation of marine biodiversity is principally the responsibility of MoFI, although a number of marine and wetland sites are included in the national protected area system managed by FPD of MARD. In addition, there are a number of government research institutes whose work support biodiversity conservation and protected areas planning, including the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources of the National Centre for Science and Technology, and the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute of MARD.Civil Society Frameworks Civil society organizations active in biodiversity conservation in Indochina can be broadly grouped into local organizations and international organizations. Local organizations include community-based organizations, national NGOs, academic institutions, private companies, and faith-based organizations. Relative to many other regions of the world, local civil society groups in Indochina have only recently begun to organize to address environmental concerns. There are relatively few national NGOs active in biodiversity conservation, and these are frequently limited in terms of capacity, political leverage, and program development. Community-based organizations are at varying stages of development but, in general, the potential to engage them in biodiversity conservation remains largely untapped. In each country, there are national academic institutions with capacity to undertake applied biodiversity research and, in some cases, on-the-ground conservation action. With a few exceptions, the private sector in the region is generally not engaged in conservation. Faith-based organizations can also play an important role in conservation in the region, through both promoting positive attitudes toward environmental protection and taking on-the-ground action. In the Mekong Delta of Cambodia and Vietnam, for instance, there are a number of examples of Buddhist monks protecting bird and bat colonies within temple grounds. However, the general description above hides significant variation among countries in the region, with respect to the level of development of local civil society and the extent of its engagement in conservation.International civil society organizations active in the region include international conservation organizations, which mainly comprise NGOs but also include IUCN. These organizations typically have larger programs and greater capacity than local NGOs, and are generally active in more than one country in the region (Table 6). International private sector organizations active in biodiversity conservation in the region include environmental consulting companies, for example Scott Wilson-Kirkpatrick, which has been contracted to implement two components of a United Nations Development Program (UNDP)/GEF-funded project in Vietnam. Other private sector organizations play a relatively minor role in biodiversity conservation in the region. Where private companies are engaged, it is often indirectly, as donors, for example British Petroleum (BP), which supports a global conservation program as well as a number of local conservation initiatives in China and Vietnam. In addition, a number of academic institutions based outside of the region, particularly in Europe and North America, are also active in Indochina. These include the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution, Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. To date, these institutions have largely been involved in research and capacity building, particularly in biodiversity survey and taxonomy.Table 6. International Conservation Organizations Active in Indochina
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