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Students complete their own research to answer "How does Vietnam's biological diversity compare to that of other places you are familiar with or interested in?" Explore at least 8 comparisons, focusing on biological groups of interest to you (e.g., fish, butterflies, etc.).

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Deep Dive: Root Causes of Biodiversity Loss in Vietnam

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Deep Dive: Root Causes of Biodiversity Loss in Vietnam

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Read the report and discuss with another student or family member 3 issues that complicate the conservation of forest habitat in this region.

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From Discovery to Extinction: Slipper Orchid

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From Discovery to Extinction: Slipper Orchid

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Read about the plight of this orchid species and take note of 3 things that surprised or amazed you.

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Students take short quiz on key concepts and terms.

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Ethnobiology Reflection on Different Ways of Knowing

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Ethnobiology Reflection on Different Ways of Knowing

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Students write a short reflection 1) comparing/contrasting the western scientific method with traditional ecological knowledge, and 2) explaining the importance of traditional knowledge in conservation efforts.

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Project will be centered on an interest area student would like to more deeply develop on the trip. This project will be completed during travel and shared post-trip with their fellow-students and community back home. Follow link for further details.

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Students will be able to define and explain the concept of biodiversity in the context of Vietnam.

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Students will identify and analyze at least three major threats to biodiversity in Vietnam.

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Students will explain the relationship between local cultures and biodiversity in Vietnam.

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Let's Compare: Western Science vs. Traditional Knowledge

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Let's Compare: Western Science vs. Traditional Knowledge

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Students read summary document provided by Enlight Global; full paper is also provided for additional reference. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XBzRd5AThtDGl13ZEvcIpieeHpKiGQHigqwsakHnVTM/edit?usp=sharing

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Cultures from all over the world have developed different views of nature throughout human history. Many of them are rooted in traditional systems of beliefs, which indigenous people use to understand and interpret their biophysical environment ( Iaccarino, 2003). These systems of managing the environment constitute an integral part of the cultural identity and social integrity of many indigenous populations. At the same time, their knowledge embodies a wealth of wisdom and experience of nature gained over millennia from direct observations, and transmitted-most often orally-over generations.

The importance of this traditional knowledge for the protection of biodiversity and the achievement of sustainable development is slowly being recognized internationally ( Gadgil et al, 1993). For example, Article 8 of the Convention on Biological Diversity urges us to "...respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity...." ( United Nations, 1992). In addition, traditional or indigenous knowledge has been rediscovered as a model for a healthy interaction with, and use of, the environment, and as a rich source to be tapped into in order to gain new perspectives about the relationship between humans and nature.

However, our difficulty in approaching the knowledge from indigenous cultures is already reflected in the way in which we describe and name it. No universal definition is available, and many terms are used to establish what indigenous people know ( Berkes, 1993), including traditional knowledge or traditional ecological knowledge, local knowledge, indigenous knowledge or science, folk knowledge, farmers' knowledge, fishers' knowledge and tacit knowledge. Each of these terms carries different implications, and there is an ensuing discussion about which one is the most appropriate. The word 'traditional', for example, places the emphasis on the transmission of knowledge along a cultural continuity, but might ignore the ability of traditional societies to adapt to changing circumstances. Another widely used word, 'indigenous', is meant to highlight the autochthonous nature of this knowledge, but it might overlook knowledge from populations who are not officially recognized as indigenous. The word 'local' can be applied to different geographic contexts, but it lacks specificity. At present, traditional ecological knowledge is interpreted as a cumulative body of knowledge, practices and representations that describes the relationships of living beings with one another and with their physical environment, which evolved by adaptive processes and has been handed down through generations by cultural transmission ( Berkes et al, 2000).

...our difficulty in approaching the knowledge from indigenous cultures is already reflected in the way in which we describe and name it

Many indigenous populations have relied for centuries or even millennia on their direct environment for subsistence and autonomy. Over time, they have developed a way in which to manage and use their resources that ensures their conservation into the future. Such traditional societies are interested more in preserving their own social, cultural and environmental stability and integrity than in maximizing production. Consequently, there is no 'exploitation' of nature-which they do not consider as a collection of commodities-in the interaction between humans and natural milieu. On the contrary, their way of life is based on a strong sense of interconnection and interdependence. This also applies to their social life. Ethics is explicitly part of the traditional approach. Relationships are based on reciprocity and obligations towards community members. Natural resource management is based on shared meanings and knowledge ( Berkes, 1993). Activities in traditional societies often include a strong symbolic dimension in which every action is highly ritualized, and allow humans to participate in the preservation of the natural order. Of course, these rituals differ between cultures, as each society has its own belief systems, which determine its cultural identity and type of technology.

Traditional knowledge has developed a concept of the environment that emphasizes the symbiotic character of humans and nature. It offers an approach to local development that is based on co-evolution with the environment, and on respecting the carrying capacity of ecosystems. This knowledge-based on long-term empirical observations adapted to local conditions-ensures a sound use and control of the environment, and enables indigenous people to adapt to environmental changes. Moreover, it supplies much of the world's population with the principal means to fulfil their basic needs, and forms the basis for decisions and strategies in many practical aspects, including interpretation of meteorological phenomena, medical treatment, water management, production of clothing, navigation, agriculture and husbandry, hunting and fishing, and biological classification systems ( Nakashima & Roué, 2002). Beyond its obvious benefit for the people who rely on this knowledge, it might provide humanity as a whole with new biological and ecological insights; it has potential value for the management of natural resources, and might be useful in conservation education as well as in development planning and environmental assessment ( The World Conservation Union, 1986).

Traditional knowledge has developed a concept of the environment that emphasizes the symbiotic character of humans and nature

Of course, I am not trying to assert the ideal of the 'noble savage'. Not all indigenous people have lived or are living in peace and harmony with nature; history has seen many cultures disappear after they had exhausted the environment's ability to sustain their population, such as the Maya or the Anasazi in the Americas. However, many existing traditional practices are ecologically healthy, and we cannot simply dismiss them as primitive and unscientific belief systems.

In all cultures, humans have gained knowledge by conceptualizing empirical observations to better understand nature, and thus interpret and predict it ( Iaccarino, 2003). The problem is how to study and analyse indigenous knowledge and belief systems. Of course, we cannot depend only on their empirical aspects, but must embrace their specific worldviews. It is not possible to simply reduce them to practical knowledge that is exclusively based on experience as opposed to theoretical knowledge, which is developed through deductive or inductive reasoning. In any case, discovering the fundamental principles of dealing with nature in many far-off cultures is not an easy task. Western science-which is deeply rooted both in the philosophy of Ancient Greece and the Renaissance-and traditional knowledge systems have developed radically different strategies to create and transmit knowledge, and it is exceedingly difficult to analyse one form of knowledge using the criteria of another tradition.

Still, there is a vast body of literature on such comparisons between Western science and traditional knowledge systems, which has identified various characteristics and opposing views. Western science favours analytical and reductionist methods as opposed to the more intuitive and holistic view often found in traditional knowledge. Western science is positivist and materialist in contrast to traditional knowledge, which is spiritual and does not make distinctions between empirical and sacred ( Nakashima & Roué, 2002). Western science is objective and quantitative as opposed to traditional knowledge, which is mainly subjective and qualitative. Western science is based on an academic and literate transmission, while traditional knowledge is often passed on orally from one generation to the next by the elders. Western science isolates its objects of study from their vital context by putting them in simplified and controllable experimental environments-which also means that scientists separate themselves from nature, the object of their studies;-by contrast, traditional knowledge always depends on its context and particular local conditions ( Nakashima & Roué, 2002).

In general, traditional knowledge systems adopt a more holistic approach, and do not separate observations into different disciplines as does Western science ( Iaccarino, 2003). Moreover, traditional knowledge systems do not interpret reality on the basis of a linear conception of cause and effect, but rather as a world made up of constantly forming multidimensional cycles in which all elements are part of an entangled and complex web of interactions ( Freeman, 1992). Of course, there is always the risk of oversimplifying by reducing the things of interest to essentials and/or dichotomies. However, from this brief overview of the dissimilarities, we can gain an understanding of how hard it is to compare two systems of knowledge that are so profoundly different. Trying to analyse and validate traditional knowledge systems by using external (scientific) criteria carries the risk of distorting such systems in the process. At the same time, we cannot extract just those parts of traditional knowledge that seem to measure up to scientific criteria and ignore the rest. This process of cognitive mining would atomize the overall system and threaten traditional knowledge with dispossession ( Nakashima & Roué, 2002).

However, Western contemporary culture and philosophy does offer some interesting ideas as to how to deal with these problems. The Austrian-born philosopher Paul Feyerabend, for example, questioned the widespread assumption that only Western science holds the criteria to determine the truth. As Feyerabend pointed out, any form of knowledge makes sense only within its own cultural context ( Feyerabend, 1987). Similarly, the British anthropologist Gregory Bateson has compared knowledge about the material world to a map and the terrain it describes: the map itself is not the terrain, but only one representation of it ( Bateson, 1979). Just as different maps can give accounts of the same territory, so too can different forms of knowledge about the material world. Its actual representation ultimately depends on the observer's view.

...any form of knowledge makes sense only within its own cultural context

Contemporary hermeneutics-a branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of existential understanding and interpretation of texts-and, to a certain extent, complex thinking can offer useful approaches to compare different forms of knowledge and rationality. Complex thinking has provided new insights, and has contributed to a renewed interpretation of the concept of nature, and a new paradigm of science and epistemology. This new approach has brought a greater awareness of the shortcomings of simple explanations in comprehending reality. It aims to overcome the limits of both reductionism and holism by integrating them into a wider perspective, which investigates the complex structure of interconnections and retroactive relationships in the real world.

According to the classic epistemological approach, the creation of knowledge is a process of qualitative refinement and quantitative accumulation. Its goal is to disclose the ultimate foundation-the 'meta' point of view from where we can see the ontological order and the objective truth-and to provide a neutral and universal language to explain natural phenomena ( Ceruti, 1986).

Complex thinking has strongly questioned this notion of a meta point of view along with its heuristic value as a principle for the creation of knowledge. Instead, it seeks and analyses the web of relationships among different perspectives. This is continually redefined in a dynamic process involving multiple points of observation and explanation. These places are fundamentally incommensurable, yet they can complement each other and be part of a constructive network. What matters, in fact, is the possibility of including multiple viewpoints that are vicarious in building a cognitive universe and can disclose a more complete picture of reality.

In this context, the hermeneutical notion of a 'horizon' as expressed by the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer seems to be highly relevant: "Horizon is the range of vision that includes everything that can be seen from a particular vantage point" ( Gadamer, 1960). Rationality intrinsically works from this point, which starts the process of comprehension through which we can interact with other and different horizons, and ultimately expand our own knowledge horizon.

The encounter between different cultures and knowledge systems can then be regarded as an encounter between different macrohorizons; such systems come from different traditions, and each has its own way of understanding phenomena and its own 'logic' that allows the observed phenomena to be placed within an overall vision. Nevertheless, all representations of reality are expressions of the same cognitive features that are inherent in human nature.

...all representations of reality are expressions of the same cognitive features that are inherent in human nature

Traditional environmental knowledge is an important part of humankind's cultural heritage-the result of countless civilizations and traditions that have emerged over human history. This cultural diversity is as important for our future as is biodiversity. It is a potential source of creativity and enrichment embodied in several social and cultural identities, each of which expresses its uniqueness ( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2002). However, European colonization has eroded and destroyed much of this traditional knowledge by replacing it with Western educational and cultural systems. The trend towards a global culture might even worsen this situation and enhance a process of cultural homogenization.

Scientific knowledge has long held a central role and attained a dominant position in our developed societies, but we cannot ignore the fact that other valid knowledge systems exist. The imposition of Western scientific ideas and methods not only causes disruption to existing social and economic relationships, but also might spoil the local knowledge. Allowing science to be the final arbiter of the validity of knowledge, and to establish the threshold beyond which knowledge is not worthy of its name, would create the conditions whereby an astonishing cultural heritage is transformed into a monolithic structure. Instead, we would be better advised to recognize the value of this heritage, and to devise strategies for its preservation for the benefit of present and future generations.

First, a renewed approach to dialogue among cultures is required. Such a dialogue can only take place if there is a common principle shared by all participants. All humans from all cultural backgrounds have the same biological nature. At the same time, however, a dialogue is only possible because there is diversity at various levels. Eliminating these differences or staying in rigid isolation eliminates the conditions needed for a potentially mutually beneficial converse.

By acknowledging the uniqueness of each knowledge system, we can go well beyond a mere pluralist approach to knowledge. Dialogue can become a tool for social cohabitation, as well as for discovering and enhancing knowledge. It should be based on a sense of profound hospitality because it arises from different identities and traditions, which are interested in exchanging their perspectives and experiences. This should not be anathema to Western science-in fact, it is through dialogue that new insights have emerged from the ancient Greek academies to today's laboratory meetings and scientific conferences. In this sense, a dialogue can catalyse the development of shared meanings, which are key factors in binding people and societies together as vehicles of social cohabitation ( Bohm, 1996).

Dialogue can become a tool for social cohabitation, as well as for discovering and enhancing knowledge

The real world is too complex to be compressed into static conceptualizations. Dealing with this complexity requires approaches and strategies that maintain a continuous openness and willingness to discover and learn ( Morin, 1990). This dialogue should take place with the unknown and the otherness. By shifting our perspective, and looking at other paths to knowledge that humans have developed and lived, we might create the necessary conditions for hitherto unknown knowledge to be revealed. All of these perspectives describe the human experience of reality. We need to open ourselves to participating in the experience of others, and yet we should also be aware that this opening can only start from where we already are-from our point of view or the tradition to which we belong. Our historical and culturally embedded perspective has been described by Gadamer as the "initial directedness of our whole ability to experience" ( Gadamer, 1967). Nevertheless, from our delimited horizon we can still accept the invitation of other paths to knowledge and might well learn from them.

For example, some authors ( Freeman, 1992; Iaccarino, 2003) have suggested that traditional knowledge systems can be helpful in dealing with complex systems: "The understanding of complex systems remains a major challenge for the future, and no scientist today can claim that we have at hand the appropriate methods with which to achieve this. Thus, we cannot discuss the future of science without taking into account the philosophical problems generated by the study of complexity. Modern, or Western, science may not be best suited to fulfil this task, as its view of the world is too constrained by its characteristic empirical and analytical approach that, in the past, made it so successful. We should therefore remember the contributions of other civilizations to the understanding of nature. [...] Such traditional or indigenous knowledge is now increasingly being used not only with the aim of finding new drugs, but also to derive new concepts that may help us to reconcile empiricism and science" ( Iaccarino, 2003).

There is little doubt that modern science can gain a lot from such a dialogue. It has been extremely efficient in studying specific aspects of the natural world-those that are achievable through observation and experimentation-but operates in an environment that is either strictly controlled, such as a laboratory, or highly simplified. This approach is crucial in order to make generalized claims about the validity of scientific propositions, because it allows hypotheses under the same or highly controlled conditions to be tested and verified.-However, an increasing number of critical voices argue that an approach based on reductionism-as helpful as it has been in the past-might no longer be sufficient to analyse and understand higher levels of complexity ( Kellenberger, 2004; van Regenmortel, 2004). Moreover, scientists work only at specific levels of analysis. The theories formulated at each level are based on key observations, and, therefore, can explain only a specific set of facts ( Iaccarino, 2003). Hence, the integration of methods and results from different approaches and levels of analysis can become essential.

These considerations seem to be particularly relevant for studying biological, ecological and social phenomena that include different levels of complexity. As already mentioned, the Western tradition of thinking is developing a different approach to gaining knowledge from complex systems, but it would be equally useful to learn how traditional approaches explain such complexity. Not only are they more holistic, but also they seem to be better suited to coping with the uncertainty and unpredictability that are viewed as intrinsic characteristics of natural systems. Western science and traditional knowledge constitute different paths to knowledge, but they are rooted in the same reality. We can only gain from paying attention to our cultural history and richness.

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Western science and traditional knowledge: Despite their variations, different forms of knowledge can learn from each other

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Cultures from all over the world have developed different views of nature throughout human history. Many of them are rooted in traditional systems of beliefs, which indigenous people use to understand and interpret their biophysical environment ( Iaccarino, 2003). These systems of managing the environment constitute an integral part of the cultural identity and social integrity of many indigenous populations.

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Case Study: Mekong River Delta Extreme Challenges

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Case Study: Mekong River Delta Extreme Challenges

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Students read and engage with Reuters Story Map and consider the complex interplay between local culture (e.g., subsistence farming), economic development (e.g., hydroelectric dams), and conservation in the Mekong Delta region

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Near the coast of Vietnam, the Mekong River splits into smaller branches and discharges into the ocean. This image shows a day of relatively clear water from the river.

However, under certain conditions, the water can carry tremendous amounts of rich, brown sediment for thousands of kilometres downstream.

Standing on the bank of the Mekong River, Tran Van Cung can see his rice farm wash away before his very eyes. The paddy's edge is crumbling into the delta.

Just 15 years ago, Southeast Asia's longest river carried some 143 million tonnes of sediment - as heavy as about 430 Empire State Buildings - through to the Mekong River Delta every year, dumping nutrients along riverbanks essential to keeping tens of thousands of farms like Cung's intact and productive.

But as Chinese-built hydroelectric dams have mushroomed upriver, much of that sediment is being blocked, an analysis of satellite data by Germany-based aquatic remote sensing company EOMAP and Reuters shows. The analysis reinforces an estimate by the Mekong River Commission, set up in 1995 by countries bordering the river, that in 2020 only about a third of those river-borne soils would reach the Vietnamese floodplains, and at the current rate of decline, less than five million tonnes of sediment will be reaching the delta each year by 2040.

Stretching nearly 5,000 kilometres from the Plateau of Tibet to the South China Sea, the Mekong is a farming and fishing lifeline for tens of millions as it swirls through China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia before reaching Vietnam.

"The river is not bringing sediment, the soil is salinised," said Cung, 60, who has grown rice at his family's 10-hectare farm for more than 40 years.

"Without sediment, we are done," he said. His steadily diminishing harvest now brings in barely half of the 250 million dong ($10,636) annually that he earned just a few years ago, and his two children and several neighbours have left the area to seek more stable and lucrative work elsewhere.

Dams trap sediment

For decades, scientists and environmentalists have warned the impact of upstream dam projects jeopardises livelihoods in a region of some 18 million people and an annual rice market of $10.5 billion that is a major food source for up to 200 million people across Asia, according to WWF estimates, Reuters calculations and Vietnam's Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Worry shared by Lower Mekong nations has already led Cambodia to pause its plans for building two dams on the river, according to the Mekong Dam Monitor, an online platform that provides real-time data on dams and their environmental impact.

But in China and Laos, the dam-building goes on. Of seven new dams planned for construction in Laos, at least four are co-financed by Chinese companies, according to data from the Mekong Dam Monitor.

China's foreign ministry said the country accounted for only a fifth of the total area of the Mekong basin and only 13.5% of the water flowing out of the Mekong's estuary, adding that there was already a "scientific consensus" on the overall impact of China's upstream dams. The ministry did not address the dramatic decline in sediment levels or the role of Chinese dams in that decline.

The analysis conducted by EOMAP and Reuters tells a different story.

Using data derived from thousands of satellite images, EOMAP and Reuters analysed sediment levels around four major dams on the Mekong - two in China and two further downriver in Laos. The analysis showed the presence of each dam drastically reduced the sediment that should have otherwise flowed through the river at those locations - by an average of 81% of the sediment load flowing across the four dams.

"The dams are trapping sediment ... each one traps a certain amount, so there isn't enough reaching the floodplains," said Marc Goichot, a river specialist at the WWF in Vietnam, who was not involved in the analysis but reviewed the results.

"Sediment and deltas should be able to regenerate and rebuild themselves," he said. "But the pace at which the natural balance is being forced to change in the Mekong is too fast for the sediment to keep up."

'Wake-up call'

Farmers in the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta region were not prepared for the speed at which their landscape - and fortunes - have changed.

The area under rice farming has shrunk by 5% in the last five years alone, with many farmers forced to adopt shrimp farming in salty seawater as an alternative, and incomes in this once-booming region are now among Vietnam's lowest, even as the national economy grows at a projected 8% for 2022. Amid uncertainty over future prospects, the Mekong River Delta region has seen more outward migration than any other Vietnamese region since 2009, according to the country's Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

A farmer prepares a rice field in Mekong Delta's Soc Trang province, Vietnam, May 25, 2022. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

The Mekong River Commission estimated in 2018 that total sediment flow by now would be around 47 million tonnes per year. In fact, it could be far lower - estimated at just 32 million tonnes per year, according to several scientific studies from the last decade including one published in July 2021 in the journal Nature Communications.

"In the past three or four years there has been a wake-up call about sediment," said the head of the commission, Anoulak Kittikhoun. "We definitely cannot return to sediment levels seen in the past. We need to preserve what we have."

Meanwhile China, eager to boost its renewable energy capacity to reduce its reliance on coal, has already built at least 95 hydroelectric dams on tributaries flowing into the Mekong, called the Lancang in China. Another 11 dams have gone up since 1995 on the main river itself in China - including five mega-dams each standing more than 100 metres tall - while China has helped to build two in Laos.

Dozens more are planned in China. State-owned Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower, tasked with developing the river's resources, aims to double the network's 21.3 gigawatt capacity by 2025, its chairman Yuan Xianghua told Reuters.

Cascading effect

The analysis by EOMAP and Reuters of satellite images taken over three decades around four major dams in China and Laos found evidence that the dams are reducing sediment flow drastically.

The analysis relied on measurements of turbidity depicted in the images - the amount of light scattered by solid particles suspended in water - as a proxy for sediment levels. Sediment clouds the water as it is carried along by the current: the muddier the water, the higher the turbidity and the more sediment it is likely carrying.

EOMAP used the same approach to gauge sediment flows in the Elbe River in 2010 and sediment loads in hydropower reservoirs in Switzerland and Albania in 2021. Its findings on those waterways in Europe matched ground observations.

The satellite images for the Mekong analysis date back to the 1990s, which "allows us to calculate turbidity levels before many of the dams were built," said EOMAP data analyst Philipp Bauer.

After discarding images obscured by cloud cover or pollution, the team was left with 1,500 images depicting the turbidity around two dams in China and two in Laos. Scientists not involved in conducting the analysis agreed that the findings made clear that the dams were a key culprit behind the delta's sediment loss.

"Mainstream dams catch everything," said economist Brian Eyler at the Stimson Center, which runs the Mekong Dam Monitor. "China's got 11 on the mainstream, plus other countries, so all these are working together to reduce sediment load." For example, before China built its fourth-largest dam at Nuozhadu in Yunnan province, the water's turbidity measure in 2004 was an average of 125.61 so-called 'nephelometric turbidity units', or NTUs, according to EOMAP satellite data. After the dam was completed in 2012, average turbidity at the same spot plummeted 98% to just 2.38 NTUs - clear enough to meet the World Health Organization's classification for drinking water.

The Xayaburi and Don Sahong dams in Laos are the most recent to come online, with Xayaburi being the largest on the entire Mekong River. Both structures faced years of opposition from environmental activists.

The average turbidity before China constructed the Xayaburi dam was 101.51 NTUs. After the dam came online in 2019, turbidity tumbled 95% to an average of 5.16 NTUs.

And on Laos' southern border with Cambodia, turbidity fell about 42% to 42.39 NTUs after the Don Sahong dam started up in 2019. The graphic below shows the stark decrease in observed sediment levels across the entire stretch of river.

Reuters asked both the Chinese and Laotian governments about the impact of their dams and their plans for building more. China's foreign ministry did not respond to questions about its existing and planned dams or their impact on sediment levels, while the Laotian government did not respond to requests for comment.

Governments of other countries through which the Mekong flows also did not respond to requests for comment.

Far-reaching impacts

At Cung's rice farm in Vietnam, riverbank seedlings have little time to take root before they fall into the water as the banks give way.

Tran Van Cung, 60, walks in his rice field during an interview with Reuters in Mekong Delta's Soc Trang province, Vietnam, May 25, 2022. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Even though the farm is about 430 kilometres (270 miles) from the nearest upstream dam - and roughly 1,400 kilometres from the Chinese border - the turbidity has changed here too, dropping about 15% in the last 20 years, to about 61 NTUs on average today, according to the analysis by EOMAP and Reuters.

Downriver countries affected by the dwindling sediment have lobbied unsuccessfully for China to share not just details of its domestic dam-building plans, but also its data on sediment flows. Beijing shares data only about the water levels and flow rates from its mainstream dams.

Last year, the Mekong River Commission launched its own joint study with China looking at the dams' impacts on the entire basin, but the results won't be known until 2024 at the earliest.

But while the commission has raised concerns about sediment depletion, "We have not had a serious conversation [with China] about sediment yet," said commission chief Kittikhoun. That's because "water flow is a priority. Working with China, you have to take it one step at a time."

Sitting cross-legged by the river, Cung said he and his peers have struggled to find information about how to adapt to the changes wrought by dams, changes driving many to leave.

"It's not an easy decision to make but sometimes quitting is the only economic choice that makes sense," Cung said.

Sources

EOMAP; Mekong River Commission; The Mekong Dam Monitor, Stimson Center and Eyes on Earth; NASA Earth Observatory; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Additional reporting by

David Stanway in Shanghai

Additional work and illustration by

Adolfo Arranz

Edited by

Katy Daigle and Kenneth Maxwell

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How dams starve the Mekong River Delta of vital sediment

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Data shows how the construction of dams impacts the river's ecosystem and those those living on its banks

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What does it take to write a good travel blog? Students identify 5 criteria important to them and evaluate this blog on those criteria.

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An introduction to giant fish in Mekong river

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Mekong river is home to some impressive fish species which are gigantic and rare. Find out more about what the Mekong has to offer.

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Students read peer-reviewed publication on the traditional uses of plants for medicine by a specific ethnic group, the Van Kieu people, in central Vietnam. Students make note of 2 or 3 points that interested them in the article.

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Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by local Van Kieu ethnic people of Bac Huong Hoa nature reserve, Vietnam - PubMed

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The Van Kieu ethnic group holds valuable knowledge about uses of medicinal plant resources which is inherited through generations however this knowledge was not documented. The study highlights the need for documenting and publicizing the traditional medicinal knowledge which will provide basic data …

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Class discussion on the most surprising or impactful things learned about Vietnam's biodiversity and culture.

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Students choose a specific ethnic group in Vietnam and research their traditional ecological knowledge and conservation practices.

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Design a social media campaign to raise awareness about a specific conservation issue in Vietnam, considering cultural sensitivities.

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Students learn how one researcher is using genetic tools to examine how exploitation and habitat loss are driving declines in fish diversity and genetic resilience

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A Deep Dive into Genetic Diversity of Fish in Vietnam

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A 22-year-old fresh out of Florida Institute of Technology, Kent Carpenter, Ph.D., landed what he calls “the best job there ever was or ever will be in the Peace Corps.” Carpenter was placed in charge of coral reef research at the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the Philippines. He scuba-dived around the Philippine archipelago and saw how pollution and destructive fishing methods had degraded the reefs.

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Students watch 20 minute presentation, taking note of (1) the number of plants and animals used in the traditional process of paper making in Vietnam, and (2) why and to what extent this traditional practice is being threatened.

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Bioculture - Plants and People Interacting: Hand Papermaking Traditions of Viet Nam

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Recognize the Value of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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Recognize the Value of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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Students will gain familiarity with all 17 SDG goals and complete a deep dive into at least one goal particularly relevant to this trip

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Students will evaluate the challenges to conservation efforts in Vietnam, considering cultural factors.

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Students communicate their findings to peers using their choice of delivery method/ media.

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Students develop a mini-proposal for a conservation strategy that considers both ecological and cultural factors.

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Threat Analysis Summary and Presentation

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Threat Analysis Summary and Presentation

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Groups or individuals identify 3 key threats to cultural or biological diversity in the region and present their findings via written or oral delivery.

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Students answer: 'What is one way you think the UN's Sustainable Development Goals could be applied to a specific threatened region or habitat type in Vietnam?"

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Deep Dive: Climate Change Assessment for Vietnam

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Deep Dive: Climate Change Assessment for Vietnam