The Lancang-Mekong River is an international river that runs across China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. In order to promote regional sustainable development, and jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind. In March 2016, at the First Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders’ meeting, China expressed its willingness to work with Mekong countries in establishing a Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Center, with a view to strengthening cooperation and exchanges in technology, personnel and information, and promoting green, coordinated and sustainable development.

Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Center

In November 2017, the Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Center (LMEC) was officially launched in Beijing as a good communication platform for the six LMC member countries to have dialogues on environmental and development policy, improve environmental governance capability, and achieve regional sustainable development. Guided by the Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Strategy, and from the perspectives of implementing the expected results, promoting progress through cooperation, LMEC focuses on environment and climate and has made key efforts on developing the flagship project of Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative. It actively conducted policy dialogues, capacity building, joint research and cooperative demonstration projects, and achieved many results in building a network of regional cooperative partnerships.

At the Third Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) leaders’ meeting in August 2020, the Vientiane Declaration was adopted, and implementing the Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Strategy and the Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative became an important part of the expected results. At the fifth anniversary of LMC, LMEC will demonstrate the positive progress made since the implementation of the Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative.

《Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Strategy》

In January 2018, the Second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders’ meeting was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The meeting issued the Five-Year Plan of Action on Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (2018-2022) and formally proposed the formulation of the Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Strategy to solve the environmental problems faced by all countries in the region, and to promote the realization of the goals of ecological environment protection and sustainable development.

The Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Strategy (2018-2022) was officially adopted in March 2019 after consultations among Lancang-Mekong countries. It defined specific directions for Lancang-Mekong environmental cooperation, which include: 

As the main implementing agency, LMEC has continued to advance the flagship project of Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative and focused on supporting the implementation of the Cooperation Strategy.

Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative

As a flagship project for the implementation of the Cooperation Strategy, the Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative aims to facilitate the sustainable development of the six countries in the sub-region and promote Lancang-Mekong cooperation on eco-environment protection, provide a platform for countries in the sub-region to have dialogues on environmental and development policies and improve their environmental management capabilities, and strengthen cooperation of the countries in capacity building. It mainly includes five aspects:

● Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Policy Dialogue

● Mainstreaming of Lancang-Mekong Environmental Policy 

● Lancang-Mekong Environmental Capacity Building

● Lancang-Mekong Environmental Demonstration Cooperation

● Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Partnerships

Achievements of the First Phase of the Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative

Guided by the Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Strategy (2018-2022), the Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative has actively promoted regional environmental cooperation, and its first phase has yielded fruitful results.

30 + Under the Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative, LMEC worked with domestic and foreign research institutes and research teams from international organizations to carry out investigations and research on regional eco-environmental hotspot issues including freshwater ecosystem management, water environment management policy, sustainable infrastructure construction, and development of green industrial parks. More than 30 research results were delivered, which provide scientific support for the mainstreaming of Lancang-Mekong environmental policy.

200 + LMEC has actively strengthened exchanges and cooperation. It has established good cooperative relations with more than 200 domestic and foreign research institutes, international organizations, and enterprises to achieve mutually beneficial and win-win environmental cooperation in the Lancang-Mekong countries. This laid a solid foundation for promoting Lancang-Mekong environmental cooperation.

2000 + Over the past five years of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, the Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative has carried out more than 20 environmental policy round-table dialogues and capacity building seminars, with the total number of participants exceeding 2,000. The cooperation areas involve water environment governance, climate change and low-carbon development, sustainable infrastructure, environmental impact assessment and a number of other areas. The participants include officials and research personnel from departments of environment, diplomacy, industry, transportation, and municipal affairs of the Lancang-Mekong countries, international and regional intergovernmental organizations, as well as international organizations, enterprises, and financial institutions. A pragmatic multi-party dialogue and exchange platform has been formed.

2500 + In 2018, a demonstration project of domestic garbage collection, transportation and disposal in Nann[A1]  Village, Luang Namtha Province, Laos was officially put into operation, helping more than 500 villagers in Nann[A2]  Village and surrounding areas to solve the problem of garbage disposal. In 2019, a sewage treatment demonstration project was officially put into operation for the Provincial Middle School of Luang Namtha Province, which eradicated the problem of sewage disposal for more than 2,000 teachers and students in the school. The Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative has already benefited more than 2,500 people with the demonstration projects it has run.

Demonstration project of domestic garbage collection, transportation and disposal in Nann[A1]  Village, Luang Namtha Province, Laos

Demonstration project of sewage treatment in Luang Namtha Provincial Middle School, Laos

Currently, a series of demonstration projects are being implemented in an orderly manner, which include action on low-carbon communities and climate schools, China-Laos clean water program, China-Laos automatic monitoring of air quality, construction of low-carbon demonstration area in Laos under South-South Cooperation on Climate Change, and construction of low-carbon demonstration area in Cambodia under South-South Cooperation on Climate Change. The Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative has continued to promote cooperation and demonstration projects in climate, environment and people’s well-being, and to enhance the regional governance capabilities in the areas of sustainable waste management, water environment governance, climate change and air quality improvement, benefiting people’s well-being and warming their hearts.

Direction of Future Cooperation

LMEC will continue to implement the Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Strategy (2018-2022) through the Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative to help the region implement the UN 2030 for sustainable development agenda. The Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative will focus on building a knowledge-sharing platform for South-South Cooperation on Climate Change, a Lancang-Mekong knowledge-sharing platform on low-carbon and sustainable infrastructure, and a regional climate envoys program to promote more cooperation and policy research in the areas of climate and sustainable infrastructure in Lancang-Mekong countries. Moreover, LMEC will jointly explore effective paths for carbon neutrality and promote to improve the quality and efficiency of the economic development in the entire river basin.