Impact Story: Mekong Watch
Mekong Watch is a Japanese NGO based in Tokyo. They combine research and advocacy to address and prevent the negative environmental and social impacts of development in the Mekong Region. Mekong Watch seeks to create a framework such that the views and opinions of affected communities will be respected and lessons learned from past projects will be reflected at every stage of development in the Mekong Region. Within McKnight’s Southeast Asia program, Mekong Watch received funding for a community capacity-building project for indigenous communities in northeastern Cambodia and southern Laos.
In Laos, where access to reliable information is limited and information flow is often stunted, or one-sided, resource development activities form an integral part of Mekong Watch’s program work. They have been training national staff at local TV stations in many provinces to produce quality environmental education documentaries. One of these documentaries is on traditional forest protection in Savanakhet Province. Local communities’ livelihoods rely on the forests as a good source of non-timber forest products, but they don’t overharvest the forests because of a deep belief in ancestral spirits that reside in the forests. Locals prefer to limit activities like cutting down trees and harvesting forest products that would disturb or destroy the natural environment needlessly. Documentaries like this help promote greater understanding among the general public on rural communities’ traditional and sustainable means of managing their natural resources and the current development challenges facing these communities.
Mekong Watch’s work is divided into three categories: research, resource development and outreach, and advocacy. Their resource development and outreach work, such as their documentary work, aims to disseminate the outcomes of their research work and to promote information exchange among key stakeholders.
Mekong Watch is a Japanese NGO based in Tokyo. They combine research and advocacy to address and prevent the negative environmental and social impacts of development in the Mekong Region. Mekong Watch seeks to create a framework such that the views and opinions of affected communities will be respected and lessons learned from past projects will be reflected at every stage of development in the Mekong Region. Within McKnight’s Southeast Asia program, Mekong Watch received funding for a community capacity-building project for indigenous communities in northeastern Cambodia and southern Laos. In Laos, where access to reliable information is limited and information flow is often stunted, or one-sided, resource development activities form an integral part of Mekong Watch’s program work. They have been training national staff at local TV stations in many provinces to produce quality environmental education documentaries. One of these documentaries is on traditional forest protection in Savanakhet Province. Local communities’ livelihoods rely on the forests as a good source of non-timber forest products, but they don’t overharvest the forests because of a deep belief in ancestral spirits that reside in the forests. Locals prefer to limit activities like cutting down trees and harvesting forest products that would disturb or destroy the natural environment needlessly. Documentaries like this help promote greater understanding among the general public on rural communities’ traditional and sustainable means of managing their natural resources and the current development challenges facing these communities.
Mekong Watch’s work is divided into three categories: research, resource development and outreach, and advocacy. Their resource development and outreach work, such as their documentary work, aims to disseminate the outcomes of their research work and to promote information exchange among key stakeholders.