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National Plan

Environmental Impact Assessment

Public Participation

Political and Public Awareness

Land and Resources Planning

Economic Evaluation of Environmental Issues

Human Resources Capacities

Limited Financial Resource

Political and Public Awareness

Issue

The lack of political and public awareness of NRE, social, development and related institutional issues both nationally and sub-regionally.

Background

Many NRE issues are closely interrelated. For example, water quality and supply is affected by deforestation and misuse of land. Lack of understanding of these inter-relationships and limited capabilities and capacities, as well as the absence of government vision, affect all NRE issues and their management or lack thereof. Also, in the name of “development”, concerns over negative impacts are often played down.

Natural resource management in the region is further complicated by the disparity in the available remaining natural resources in each country (e.g., Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR which have had low resource use demand, while Yunnan, Thailand and Vietnam experience high resource use demands. Cross-border trade in natural resources is increasing rapidly.

NRE management at the national and regional levels is made difficult by the lack of reliable and available data (often it is guarded jealously) and the discrepancies between national policies and local practices. Consequently, many of the NRE stresses are felt rather than understood and perceived rather than acted upon.

The summary of current Thematic Institutional, NRE, Social and Development Issues provides a foundation on which to consider regional and national plans for economic growth, investment, and infrastructure development.

Increased awareness of the importance of regional and shared approaches to development/environment interrelationships is key to long-term regional sustainability.