Sustainable Development on the Mekong Region

Abstract

This MP analyzes the relationship between fast economic development and the environment. My objective was to learn if the ecosystems were strongly disturbed by the economic and industrial development process. In cases where ecosystems were lost, if this process was bringing negative social effects to the population, or if the inhabitants preferred the new economic opportunities brought by the development process (investments, jobs and infrastructure). In order to better understand the problem, I have chosen to investigate rubber plantations, one type of private investment project that is very popular in the Luang Namtha region in northern Laos. I view this type of business as a microcosm of the more general sociological and environmental distress created by the development process. In this project I analyze the environmental and social consequences of rubber plantations more deeply, as well as the legal and economic factors around them.