Environmental changes and inequalities in the Mekong region: A systematic mapping
Rising inequalities and accelerating environmental changes are two of the most significant challenges of the twenty-first century. But how do they relate to one another? Do they have common dynamic factors? We will try to address this question at the regional scale of the Mekong countries, which benefit from both an ecological and socioeconomic coherence. COVID-19 has tested and, in one way or another, revealed embedded societal inequalities. The virus does not confine itself to zones that are known for their difficult conditions; rather, vulnerable families present in all settings can be affected, from rural to urban areas, from Lao PDR and Cambodia to Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam, and from poor to non-poor households. Such unprecedented crises, similar to natural disasters, cha‑ llenge response mechanisms at all levels: individuals, house‑ holds, countries, and regions. 1.1. Equality and its current position on the research and development agenda
Equality is currently at the center of the development agenda, both for for its relevance to and interdependence with growth dynamics and poverty alleviation. In the Mekong region, extensive interventions on land, water, and other resources in the last decades have fueled economic gains, while leaving significant negative impacts on the environment and communities, especially the most vulnerable, which includes minority ethnic groups, the poor, fishers, women, children, migrants, and smallholders. These social groups are likely to become even more vulnerable soon. Adding to the problem, vulnerability to climate change is also socially differentiated and those consistently identified as the most vulnerable to climate risk are those who are already socially vulnerable. The reverse is also true. Indeed, inequalities often lead to an overuse of natural resources through different channels. Different human activities and behaviors may also hinder attempts toward environmental protection. As noted by various authors (Cushing et al., 2015; Boyce, 2007), inequality has often been discussed in its economic (income-related) dimension (Piketty, 2014) without focusing on the diverse and holistic dimensions of inequalities in relation to different environmental dynamics. In a global-scale review, Hamann et al. (2018) show that, far from being independent from each other, inequality and the biosphere interact in many different ways — or “pathways” — including through the presence of unequal societies, which leads to increased environmental degradation (emphasized in
23
