Last month, Ecofish organized a field trip and two workshops on river health and hydropower development in the Lancang River basin, China from October 27-29th. These were among a number of R4D (research for development) activities for the WLE Mekong project “Balancing River Health and Hydropower Requirements in the Lancang River Basin.” This event was hosted by the Asian International Rivers Centers of Yunnan University, China and brought together nearly 30 specialists from China, Canada, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. The event included site visits to the Jinghong Hydropower Project, Nanla River and Buyuan River (two tributaries for fish migration from Mekong River), and the Fish Hatchery Center of Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture. In addition, two workshops were held to discuss “Hydropower Development, Fish Conservation and Sustainable Use of Fishery Resources on the Lancang River,” ( https://wle.cgiar.org/project/mk22-balancing-river-health-and-hydropower-requirements-lancang-river-basin).
Ecofish Scientist Dr. Xuezhong Yu chaired the second workshop and presented “Fish Conservation of Hydropower Projects on Columbia River and Implications for Lancang River.” Ecofish Scientist’s Dr. Todd Hatfield and Dr. Andrew Harwood presented “A Comparison of Desktop Hydrologic Methods for Determining Environmental Flows” and “Monitoring the Environmental Response to Hydropower Facilities: Perspectives from North America” respectively. These workshops strengthened dialog and communications on the transboundary effects of hydropower projects on the Lancang River among Lancang-Mekong stakeholders. Participating specialists from Greater Mekong countries highly appreciated the good practices shared by Ecofish on how to maintain river health in hydropower development, encouraging Ecofish to share local knowledge and expertise that will continue to benefit the environment on a global scale.