Basin Governance and International Cooperation
Authors: Jia Shaofeng , Wang Yu , Do Hoaithuong , Gojenko Boris , Man Caixia 
Published: May 2024

Integrated basin governance means integrated water governance taking basin as the spatial unit. It deals with rules of integrated water resources management, including the establishment of governance bodies, the definition of interests and roles of stakeholders, the principles and regulations of decision-making, and the arrangement of decision-making procedures. For trans-national basins, international cooperation for integrated basin governance is necessary that is mainly embodied by basin cooperation mechanisms. The implementation of international basin cooperation depends on a number of mechanisms. There are about fifteen cooperative mechanisms in the Mekong Region divided into two groups: intra-regional mechanisms (cooperation among Mekong countries) and mechanisms between Mekong countries and non-basin partners. MRC, GMS and LMC are the three most active mechanism. Within the Lancang-Mekong River Basin, each country has particular perspectives about international basin cooperation. China is very active in Basin cooperation and has invested a lot of resource in this regard, but is sensitive to the intervention from countries outside the region. Cambodia and Laos, with most territory located within the Basin and essential or even majority of foreign investment from China, are active to diversify their international cooperation while maintaining close cooperation with China. Most of the inflow of foreign investments into Myanmar comes from Asian countries, followed by European countries and the United States, and is influenced by its domestic political situation. Thailand has been a relatively stable recipient country of foreign investment for a long time and has benefited significantly, it has now become a donor country, playing an important leading role in basin cooperation. Vietnam’s foreign investment mainly comes from Japan, Korea, and ASEAN. Vietnam plays the leading role in environmental cooperation in Lower Mekong Cooperation with the United States, and has actively participated in the “One Decade of Green Mekong” initiative in Mekong-Japan cooperation. Some countries outside the basin, such as the United States, Japan, India, Korea, India and international organizations such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, have significant influence on basin governance. Social participation in Lancang-Mekong River Basin governance plays a very important role. A variety of stakeholders, ranging from global network initiatives to local NGOs, from business enterprises to communities, have been actively engaging in the governance of the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. They have adopted different strategies (e.g., scientific research, capability building, policy advocacy, and citizen engagement) to exert influence on various issues such as climate change, biodiversity, hydropower development, and sustainable livelihood, revealing overlapping and interacting mechanisms of participation. The future trend of basin cooperation is more optimistic along with the consensus strengthening and capacity building, although there may be still some interferent brought by big power competition and interest disputations.