“It’s not too late at all. You just do not yet know what you are capable of.”
Mahatma Gandhi

Key Projects

The initial research focus for the Changing Mekong Program involves several Key Projects that come from discussions with partner groups (see Program Origin). These projects help satisfy the initial requests for assistance, but also serve as models for the sorts of partnerships that we expect to develop in this program.

Note that both the outcomes of the research and the research process for these Key Projects are important. The research results involve answers to questions that involve assessing strategies to identify and maintain biodiversity, evaluating traditional agricultural practices, and determining basic information about specific rare and endangered taxa. The research process involves improving the research infrastructure, creating new data collections and access to data, and enhancing the local capacity to maintain a research-oriented approach to resource identification and utilization.

The important point is that we expect the research to have meaningful results and it must contribute to sustainability of a research program that is relevant to the local communities and their government organizations. We propose to accomplish this by the formation of two types of networks: Project Teams that focus on specific research questions and Knowledge Networks that transcend individual projects.

Project Teams

Our experience is that there is a vast, largely untapped pool of people who can help carry out the type of research needed in the Changing Mekong Program. This particularly includes local academic and government researchers and their students and a range of community members. The Program will involve all of these people along with the fewest necessary people from outside the region. One of the Program goals is to establish new alliances among people who have a common interest in doing research on a particular problem. This will be done primarily through local project teams.

Knowledge Networks

Project research is generally focused on a specific location, or set of locations. Similar aspects of different research project, or projects carried out in different areas, will lead to the formation of Knowledge Networks. For example,

• Local and Regional Biodiversity Inventory Managers and Archivists
• Local/Traditional Natural Resource Management Experts
• Communities of Rare and Endangered Language Speakers
• Master Swidden Farmers
• Women’s Cooperative Groups
• Traditional Leadership Cross-Cultural Community Elders
• Regional Scientific Infrastructure