Sanath Ranawana, Senior Natural Resources Management SpecialistAsian Development Bank

Building Resilient Cities:

The role of the Greater Mekong Subregion

Core Environment Program

Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)

Six countries:

Cambodia

People's Republic of China (PRC)

• Yunnan Province

• Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous

Region

Lao People's Democratic Republic

(Lao PDR)

Myanmar

Thailand

Viet Nam

Connected by:

• The Mekong River

• Nine economic corridors

• Social and cultural links

Rich in natural capital …

• Land: 2.6 million sq. km

• Mekong: 4,350 km - 12th longest

river in the world

• Extensive coastland and marine

resource

• Rich wetlands and other inland

water bodies

• Extensive forest area - 118

million ha.

Natural capital’s contribution to the total and per capital wealth of selected GMS

countries, 2005

Source: World Bank Wealth of Nations Database

Diverse Society …

• 332 million people

• More than 70 ethnic groups

• Around 67% of total population

live in rural areas

• Largely agrarian and dependent

on natural resources for

subsistence and livelihoods

• High poverty in rural areas

… rapidly urbanizing

• Urbanization levels are

currently low

• Between 2010 to 2050,

GMS urban areas will

grow 7 times faster than

total population

• This trend will result in

92.6 million more people

living in urban areas by

2050

• Rural areas will lose more

than 62 million people.

And increasingly connected through

infrastructure…

Infrastructure Development in GMS (1992)

• Roads

• Telecommunications

• Power Transmission Line

Infrastructure Development in GMS (2010)

Infrastructure Development in GMS (2015-2020)

Which is fragmenting ecosystems

Biodiversity landscapes

intersected with

economic corridors

Causing loss of biodiversity and

ecosystem services …

Source: WWF

Affecting human well being …

Highly vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change

• E.g. Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) – highly vulnerable to sea level rise.

• 2011 Bangkok flood - costs $46 billion; ranked among top ten costliest natural disasters since 1980s (the Economist)

• Viet Nam, 1m rise in sea level would inundate a quarter of HCMC, home to more than 6 million people, and submerge 11,000 km of roads

The cost of climate change couldreach nearly 7% of GDP per yearby 2100 in Thailand and Viet Nam,significantly higher than the globalaverage

GMS Economic Cooperation Program and Regional Investment Framework

RIF endorsed by the 19th GMS Ministerial Conference in Dec 2013

$30.0 billion RIF Implementation

Plan (2014-2018)

Recognized by the 5th GMS Summit in Dec 2014

Priority Investment Projects by Sector under the RIF Implementation Plan (2014 – 2018)

Transport: 90.2%Energy: 4.0%

Agriculture: 1.5%Environment: 0.3%

HRD: 0.7%Urban: 1.1%

Tourism: 1.5%TTF: 0.1%ICT: 0.0%

Multisector & CBEZs: 0.6%

transport

energy

Priority Technical Assistance Projects by Sector under the RIF Implementation Plan

Transport: 12.0%Energy: 10.8%

Agriculture: 8.3%Environment: 14.3%

HRD: 6.6%Urban: 5.8%

Tourism: 4.0%TTF: 15.1%ICT: 16.6%

Multisector & CBEZs: 6.6%

transport

energy

agri

environment

HRDurban

tourism

TTF

ICTmultisector&

CBEZs

Phase I: 2006-2011

Phase II: 2012-2016

Regional: environment ministries of Cambodia, PRC,

Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam

Secretariat: GMS

Environment Operations

Center

Multi-donor: $28.4 million from the Governments of

Finland and Sweden, Nordic Development Fund, ADB,

GEF, and PRCF

Vision: poverty free and ecologically rich GMS

The Core Environment Program in the GMS

Core Environment Program (CEP)

Output Map of the SMCA, at 1km

resolution.

Low values ( 0) indicate high

accumulated risk, while high values (

1) indicate low accumulated risk.

Application of a decision-making tool: Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis

Criteria Tree

Example 1: Assessment of Corridor Towns Development Project 1

Example 2: Corridor Towns Development Project II

Other Assessments under CEP

• Economic assessment of ecosystem

services

• Multisector planning to assess trade-offs

• Climate vulnerability assessments to support

climate resilient communities and

landscapes

Environment Operations Center

• Repository of knowledge and information

• Providing baseline social, economic and

environmental data, and technical know how

GIS Data and GMS Atlas

http://www.gms-eoc.org

GMS Development Map Tool

Climate Change Projection

GMS Statistics

Bid for enhanced

partnership to promote

investment in natural capital in the GMS−from the recently concluded

EMM4

Next steps

1st Half of 2015

• Identify Action Plan for mainstreaming natural capital in RIF and beyond

• Align with GMS Core Environment Program Phase 2

2nd Half of 2015

• Work with sector ministries to support the design and implementation of RIF projects

• GMS Core Environment Program as facilitator

1st half of 2016

• Take stock of progress

• GMS Core Environment Program to organize a knowledge sharing event

THANK YOU!