Greater Mekong Subregion Atlas of the Environment

Abstract

The Greater Mekong Subregion Atlas of the Environment champions the environment of a unique part of Asia, an area straddled by rivers great and small, with bountiful watersheds, wetlands, and forests. The Atlas celebrates the peoples of the subregion, and presents the environmental challenges they face and their responses. It reminds us that the subregion's peoples and communities are key to maintaining its environment. The Atlas captures for the first time in one volume, maps, remote sensing images, and essential information on one of the most culturally, ethnically, and above all, biologically diverse regions in the world. The subregion is made up of Cambodia, Yunnan Province of the People's Republic of China, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. They are linked together by the longest river in Southeast Asia, the Mekong. In many ways this Atlas is the story of the Mekong on its 4,2000-kilometer journey from the mountains in the southwestern People's Republic of China to the sea.