Scattered Trees Buffer Ecosystems and Livelihoods in the Lower Mekong River Basin

The Lower Mekong River Basin, spanning Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam, is home to millions of impoverished rural people who depend on healthy ecosystems for food production and livelihoods. The area is rich in biodiversity but is also economically significant, as it provides half of the world’s rice exports.

The intensive and mixed-use nature of this basin, combined with the impacts of climate change, have led to deforestation, drought, flooding, biodiversity loss and the depletion and erosion of the land’s rich soils. Management of this transboundary basin involves stakeholders from all levels of governance across four countries, as well as commercial agribusinesses and those dependent on the land for subsistence livelihoods. And, while the ecosystems that sustain all of these users are at risk, attention is still largely focused on the commercial prospects of the area rather than restoration and protection of these landscapes to ensure resilience into the future.

In a new working paper by the World Agroforestry Center – Are trees buffering ecosystems and livelihoods in agricultural landscapes of the Lower Mekong Basin? – authors Minh Ha Hoang, Meine van Noordwijk, Jefferson Fox, David Thomas, Fergus Sinclair, Tony Simons, Delia Catacutan and Ingrid Öborn confirm that water, soil and biodiversity are suffering in the Lower Mekong Basin. The study discusses scattered (non-forest) trees and agroforestry systems as conservation tools that support the ecosystem services needed for large-scale agriculture and the protection of vulnerable populations.

The study calls for a participatory development framework that combines place-based and scientific knowledge is important for maximizing benefits and minimizing trade-offs between economic, ecological and social aspects of land use in the basin. Rather than being seen as merely of “traditional” value, all stakeholders must consider trees as a necessity for all future uses of the basin. From the farm scale to the national scale, trees ensure the sustainability of these important agricultural landscapes.

Learn More:

Preventing Cardiac Arrest for Cambodia’s Heart

Zooming in on Tree Based Ecosystem Approaches

B-ADAPT: Adapting to Climate Change with a Landscape Approach