This program is conducted in partnership with the Center for Regional Environmental Research. CEBES works on the following theme:

●Development of strategic environmental assessment technology and its application to watershed restoration

Japanese archipelago and the Mekong River basin are both recognized as biodiversity hotspots. We develop techniques for strategic environmental assessments that can be applied as swiftly, easily and broadly as possible to wetland ecosystems in these regions and serve as tools for the comprehensive environmental management.

Firstly, we compile databases of biodiversity and ecosystem functions of important wetlands in Japan and Mekong riparian countries. Secondly, we focus on dam development and specifically dam reservoirs that could potentially replace existing wetland ecosystems. We estimate a suite of limnological parameters characterizing integrity of the reservoir ecosystems including the rate of nutrients (e.g. N and P) being released from the sediment through microbial activities, primary productivity and the concentrations of toxic algae such as Microcystis, freshwater fish production, and trophic levels of major food web components. Fish migration, an important life-history trait of most fish species in the Mekong River, could be disrupted by proposed dam construction schemes, leading to reduction and extermination of local fish populations. We therefore investigate migration ecology of the major commercially-important fish species by analyzing otolith chemical signatures. Thirdly, we develop techniques to effectively and efficiently identify suitable sites for mangrove restoration in coastal areas of the Indochina Peninsula.

The techniques we develop will be used to prioritize mitigation and restoration measures and locations to lessen potential impacts of dam development or to maximize benefit of restoration activities. For example, we use our techniques to assess productivity and sustainability of reservoir fishery which is believed by dam developers to compensate for the anticipated loss of river fishery in the Mekong basin. We hope to contribute to sustainable management and use of ecological services that are available from healthy wetland ecosystems in Asia.

(FUKUSHIMA Michio, Senior Researcher)

Related link

The website of the Workshop on Sustainable Management of the Mekong River held in Jan. 2011 in Thailand: