"Hydrologic change within this region, which comprises approximately half of Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan Province, could have serious consequences for the approximately 200 million inhabitants of mainland Southeast Asia’s lowlands and for the climate of monsoon Asia,” according to Jefferson Fox , East-West Center Senior Fellow, and member of the team heading up the project.
Responding to China’s increased demand for rubber, subsistence farmers in MMSEA are rapidly transitioning from the traditional practice of shifting cultivation to commercial agriculture. The dramatic changes in land cover and land use have significant implications for rural livelihoods, cultural traditions, biodiversity, and watershed hydrology.
The proposed study will bring together a multidisciplinary team of specialists in three fields (remote sensing/land cover-land use, ecosystem modeling, and hydrology) from the East-West Center, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the National University of Laos, Harvard University, and the Carnegie Institution.
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For more information, please contact East-West Center Senior Fellow Jefferson Fox at (808) 944-7248 or FoxJ@EastWestCenter.org .
The EAST-WEST CENTER is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and the governments of the region.
