Paper short abstract:

The World Commission on Dams (1998-2000) was a science-policy interface which sought to resolve long-standing controversies around large dams. We aim to understand the WCD's impact by combining a review of the academic literature with qualitative research with those involved with it at the time.

Paper long abstract:

The World Commission on Dams (WCD) (1998-2000) was a global science-policy interface which sought to resolve long-standing controversies between supporters and opponents of large dams.

The mandate of the WCD was "to review the development effectiveness of large dams and assess alternatives for water resources and energy development" and "to develop internationally acceptable criteria, guidelines and standards where appropriate, for the planning, design, appraisal, construction, operation, monitoring and decommissioning of dams".

The WCD itself consisted of 12 commissioners representing most world regions, and who covered most positions and interests with regards to large dams.

The WCD sought to incorporate known scientific evidence on large dams by commissioning a large number of studies around the impacts of dams; it also held many public engagement events to gauge a wide range of stakeholder views. It concluded its work with the publication of a report entitled "Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making", which summarised known scientific evidence on dams, and made recommendations for best practice in the form of five core values, three global norms, seven strategic priorities with 33 associated policy principles, five key criteria for planning, and 26 guidelines. It was launched in November 2000 in London with a speech by Nelson Mandela. WCD members hoped these recommendations could inspire lasting positive change around the globe.

We aim to understand the WCD's impact on academic thinking and policy by combining a review of the academic literature with qualitative research with those involved with the WCD at the time.

Paper short abstract:

Using the case of Laos' Xepian-Xenamnoy dam bust, the paper explores 1) the role of the Korean government's 'new' development finance initiatives in facilitating the dam; 2) how 'responsibility' and 'risks' of the dam 'failure' were expressed by the Korean business and aid agency in public arenas.

Paper long abstract:

'New' drivers and finance tools have been more observable in development cooperation for dams than others. In such 'new' development cooperation landscape for dam, the catalytic role of private sector tools has been greatly stressed as more effective development finance instruments. While rigorous debates and concrete measures (financial packages and procedures) to de-risk investment to protect the lenders and companies in international fora, there lacks the equivalent mechanism and discussion on who takes 'responsibility' and how in time of dam 'failure'. Using the case of Laos' Xepian-Xenamnoy dam bust in July 2018 that was under construction - killing at least 42 people and displacing over 6000 people across Laos and Cambodia-, I explore two things by focusing on Korea's involvement. The reason for Korea focus is 1) the project was first developed by the Korean business in 1994, 2) Korea's public finance - USD 72.4 million ODA loan to the Lao state corporation LHSE - made the project possible. First, I analyse how the Korean government's 'new' development finance and public-private partnership initiatives facilitated the project. Second, the paper explores how the Korean contractors, investors, and aid agency involved have initially reacted/responded to the dam failure - in particular through the analysis of the way in which their take on the 'responsibility' and 'risks' of the dam collapse was expressed in press release, media reports, and several documents disclosed during the parliamentary inspection of the government offices.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the impacts of migration on agricultural productivity and welfare of Ghananian households.We explore the differences in economic and social factors between migrant and non-migrant households and the impact of these differences on agricultural productivity and household welfare.

Paper long abstract:

Migration due to development projects such as large dams impacts livelihoods, as affected households are faced with new (and often less favourable) socio-economic conditions. Much of empirical research on the agricultural impacts of dams is focused on the distribution of upstream and downstream impacts from irrigation, however, and limited to few years immediately following dam construction. In this paper, we take a longer term approach and analyse the impacts of migration on agricultural productivity and welfare of households in Ghana by exploring productivity differences between migrant and non-migrant households. We explore how economic (for e.g. agricultural land size, assets) and social (for e.g. agricultural extension services, land tenure) characteristics differ between migrant and non-migrant households and how these differences affect agricultural productivity and household welfare.

We use nationally representative household data from the Living Standards Measurement Survey to support our analysis. Our empirical approach employs a difference-in-difference method to evaluate whether migration improves agricultural livelihoods, the role of institutional and social characteristics in determining the long-term effects of migration, and the spatial heterogeneity in impacts across Ghana. Our initial results suggest that, on average, migrant households are relatively worse off than their non-migrant counterparts. Moreover, initially better off households are more likely to minimize losses from migration compared to poorer households that lose out. These findings have important implications for the design of effective interventions to raise smallholder agricultural productivity, suggesting that farm households have different adaptive capacities to mitigate shocks related to biophysical and socioeconomic changes.

Paper short abstract:

We present a novel, multi-spatial conceptual framework to understand the politics of dam building that includes the international, national and local levels. Our approach asserts the preeminent role of nation states and the importance of analysing ideological alongside strategic factors.

Paper long abstract:

This paper sets out a novel conceptual framework to understand the politics of dam building within the context of the water-food-energy-environment nexus. This framework syntheses existing literature to outline the three levels at which dams operate: The international, the national and the sub-national/dam locale. Such an approach asserts the multiple territories at which the major dam-building actors operate and the interlinked geographical levels at which dam politics work. Thus it stresses the importance of understanding each dam actor, from the international financiers like the World Bank to local-level community leaders, as engaged not just in one territorial level, but rather in multi-spatial geographic processes. Through this framework, and in contrast to much of the existing literature, we stress consideration of the national level as the most important shaper of dams' political economy and political ecology as they set the terms of international engagement and dictate the context in which participatory attempts and enforcement of social or environmental standards happen. Relatedly, we also outline the ideological factors that influence dam projects and particularly the role of grand modernising visions of the future. We stress that these co-exist with more recognised strategic concerns to inform the decision to choose dams, decide on their design and influence certain patterns of cost and benefit distribution. Additionally, to further the potential for interdisciplinary research, we produce this framework to help explain to a wider audience why dams should be considered political objects rather than mere technical engineering infrastructure.

Paper short abstract:

Bypassing socio-environmental safeguards and democratic participation in dam construction leads to social conflicts and food insecurity. Decision making which in the Brazil has outsourced blame to changing weather conditions and "undeveloped" people tend to obfuscate evidence-based considerations.

Paper long abstract:

The governance of natural resources is intrinsically linked with the governance of people. However, in practice, social aspects are often viewed as secondary to more technical and pressing issues in the implementation of projects such as dams. The use of water for electricity production in Brazil is a cas d'excellence that exemplifies how the bypassing of socio-environmental safeguards and democratic participation of affected people leads to conflicts. Decision making which outsources blame to changing weather conditions and "undeveloped" people tend to obfuscate evidence-based considerations. These conflicts delay infrastructure works, such as the more than 69 dams planned for the Amazon region, that were said to be crucial for the equilibrium of the regional electricity supply. Recently, social manifestation have become the scapegoat for the sector's crisis. This paper expands on earlier fieldwork and discusses the "electricity crisis" from a historical policy analysis perspective which considers not only energy needs but the triple nexus between food-water-energy. It concludes that the present disregard for social and environmental procedures is a self-inflicted sector disease that only contributes to the longer-term state of conflicts in the expansion of the electricity sector in Brazil.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I scrutinize the environmental governance processes in the decision-making and practices of acquisition of land and manufacturing of local consent towards hydropower development in Darjeeling to reveal how global climate change discourses exacerbate local vulnerabilities

Paper long abstract:

The global emphasis on climate change has reframed the debate of the costs and benefits of hydropower dams as green development, especially in developing countries. Although the current global debate on hydropower dams are driven by discourses of clean energy, at the national and regional level, these projects are pursued to meet objectives of national economic growth.

In India, the national drive for energy security has prompted a rapid expansion of hydropower development into isolated and parts of the Himalayas, previously sidelined by mainstream development. This is occurring against a backdrop of political conflict, poverty, widespread dependence on natural resources and degenerating ecosystems. The large-scale socio-ecological transformation of the region has become a contested governance arena.

In this paper, I scrutinize the environmental governance processes in the decision-making and practices of acquisition of land and manufacturing of local consent towards hydropower development in Darjeeling. I demonstrate that hydropower development discourse ends up declaring local subsistence activities illegal while denying existing crucial questions about non-recognition of land and forest rights to reveal divergence between global, national and local priorities.

Based on a qualitative methodological approach involving interviews with affected communities, historical document reviews, and field observations, I analyse the processes of contemporary hydropower development within the historical trajectory and contemporary processes of shifting resource regimes and injustices in the region through the conceptual frame of territoriality.

This study demonstrates how hydropower development overlay with complex, contextual dimensions and contributes to questioning how global climate change discourses exacerbate local vulnerabilities.

Paper short abstract:

The paper analysed the case study of Nuozhadu project along the Lancang River, and concluded that, dynamic policy coevolution is essential for China's hydropower development, however, it has also been substantially subject to the institutionalised governance process under strategic planning.

Paper long abstract:

China, with the biggest electricity system, now leads the world on its global share in electricity production and consumption, as well as greenhouse gas emission. Hydropower has continuously served as the renewable foundation of China's energy transition and reduction of greenhouse emissions. However, after intensive investment and construction of power generation infrastructure, renewable power has been severely curtailed due to the uncoordinated power system with distorted pricing mechanisms and the absence of the transaction market, as well as regional protectionism. In 2016, an alarming 50 billion kWh hydropower was curtailed, mainly in Yunnan and Sichuan. The hydropower development in China has been coordinated through the institutionalised governance process, which is mainly composed of strategic planning, and dynamic policy coevolution across sectors and governmental levels. This paper aims to apply a qualitative case study method to analyse the Nuozhadu hydropower project, the largest mega-dam along the Lancang River, with a total capacity of 5850 MW. The case study suggests that current governance approach has led to regional incoordination and imbalance in energy demand and supply, which has caused huge waste of clean hydroelectricity over recent years. The ongoing power sector reform will be of great help in tackling the hydropower curtailment, but further institutional reforms will be needed for better coordination. The paper concludes that, dynamic policy coevolution is essential for China's hydropower development, however, it has also been substantially subject to the institutionalised governance process under strategic planning.