Inequalities and Environmental changes in the Mekong region: a scoping review

Rising inequalities and accelerating environmental changes are two of the most significant and intertwined challenges of the twenty-first century. The Mekong River basin is both a crucial ecological constituent of the South-East Asian Region and a driving force of its economic dynamics. Numerous studies have tackled one specific aspects of the relation between environmental changes and inequalities in the region, but no holistic assessment has been conducted so far.

It is thus essential to conduct scoping and systematic reviews on the topic to help sort out the consolidated results useful for policy makers from the topics where more research would be needed. The environmental aspects investigated include notably dam construction, pollution, resources over-extraction, land degradation and climate change impacts; their impacts vary from one group of population to another and strongly inform by social inequalities. 

This presentation covers the result of a scoping review of more than 14000 scientific, institutional and gray documents investigating the topic in five countries including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The results produce a systematic map on the existing literature, identify gaps of knowledge, and provide the foundation for the current understanding of the environment/inequality nexus in the Mekong Region.