![\"Small](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Small-pratincole.jpg\")
<\/div>![\"Small](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Small-pratincole-eggs-laid-beneath-an-egg-crate..jpg\")
<\/div>Small pratincoles (Glareola lactea<\/em>) mate for life and, like other vulnerable birds on the Mekong, lay their eggs in the sands of the October\u2013May dry season. In recent years, hydropower dams have contributed to unseasonable water levels. In the dry season this has included both abnormally low water levels and flooding, says Ratchaneekorn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She and her husband, Noppadol\u200b Buaroey, have been monitoring the birdlife of Bueng Kan for 12 years, noting the eggs of beach-nesting birds on the banks of the Mekong. \u201cThese birds require several months of low water to incubate their eggs and rear their chicks. With the unseasonal water levels, the nests are unpredictably flooded,\u201d says Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok from the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand. \u201cThe river needs to be dry during the right season, and flooded during the right season. Otherwise, species that have relied on such seasonal rhythms for centuries will gradually go extinct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are 12 operational mainstream Mekong dams upstream of Bueng Kan, 11 in China and one in Laos, and more mainstream dams are in various stages<\/a> of planning and development in Laos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSudden releases of water from Chinese dams during the dry season have rendered the Mekong almost unrecognisable from the river it once was,\u201d says Phil Round, regional representative of the Wetland Trust and research associate at Michigan State University Museum. \u201cMany eggs and small, still flightless young are washed out and destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2021 dry season has been unpredictable, largely driven by the maintenance and testing of China\u2019s Jinghong dam<\/a> site close to the Thai and Laos borders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to data from the Stimson Center<\/a>, a Washington DC-based think-tank, levels below the Jinghong have been spiking up and down since December because of hydropeaking operations. This is when turbines are shut off overnight, restricting water release until demand spikes the next day. Brian Eyler of the Stimson Center says the Jinghong hydropower plant is responding to local energy demand in Yunnan\u2019s Xishuangbanna prefecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The principal affected species along Thai stretches of the Mekong are small pratincoles, of which there may be fewer than 1,000 pairs, and river lapwings, with perhaps fewer than 100 pairs, Round says, adding that the little ringed plover and red-wattled lapwing are similarly affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe actually need some proper structured studies of the impact of dams on birds so as to have a more precise idea of what is taking place,\u201d Round says. \u201cI am not aware that anybody is looking properly to assess the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The economic impacts of upstream dams \u2013 from the salinisation of the delta<\/a> to the decline of Tonle Sap\u2019s fisheries<\/a> \u2013 are having drastic consequences for people along the Mekong, but large areas of the region lack reliable bird surveying, particularly in Cambodia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the rarest Mekong birds is the river tern (Sterna aurantia<\/em>), which has decreased in number by 80% in Cambodia in the past 20 years, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). In February, WWF announced<\/a> that the Mekong population of the river tern had doubled in five years despite disruptions to the river, aided by local conservation efforts. Despite this, river terns, as well as black-bellied terns, have already disappeared from the Thai and Laos stretches of the Mekong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are some stretches of the lower and mid Mekong that are not so well surveyed for birds in Cambodia\u2019s northeast provinces and southern Lao People\u2019s Democratic Republic, but likely of importance based on recent data,\u201d says Dr Ding Li Yong, Flyways Coordinator for Asia at BirdLife International, adding that human encroachment has already endangered many species. \u201cThere are now very few stretches of undisturbed parts of the Mekong where these riparian birds occur in any number.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thailand and Cambodia are home to the Mekong\u2019s only endemic bird species: the Mekong wagtail, which was not confirmed as a species<\/a> until 2001. The Oriental Bird Club<\/a> lists the Mekong wagtail\u2019s chief threat as the construction of dams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Golden Triangle at Chiang Saen, where Thailand\u2019s border meets with Myanmar and Laos, sits downstream of 11 of China\u2019s hydropower dams on the Lancang (China\u2019s section of the Mekong). The area is also upstream of the Thai-built Xayaburi dam. In northern Laos there are plans for dams at Pak Beng, Pak Lay, Luang Prabang, Sanakham and Pak Chom \u2013 all with varying levels of Chinese involvement in development and construction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe stretch between Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong in particular has changed drastically. The water level is unnaturally high during the dry season, reducing the exposed sandbars which used to be filled with small pratincoles and other birds,\u201d says Ayuwat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Thailand\u2019s conservationists, Chiang Saen\u2019s section of the river has long been a point of contention with China, exacerbated by long-term plans to blast stretches of the river to increase navigability<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chiang Saen is also the location of the Mekong\u2019s uppermost near-real-time monitoring station outside of China, the vanguard for determining the water levels from China\u2019s upstream dams. Data from this gauge feeds into the Stimson Center\u2019s Mekong Dam Monitor, which uses a combination of satellite data and water and weather monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Mekong Dam Monitor is capable of issuing alerts for sudden releases or restrictions from the Jinghong dam 48 hours prior to the effects of those releases or restrictions hitting Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong,\u201d says Brian Eyler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Combined with China\u2019s Lancang-Mekong data portal, predictions for sudden rises or falls downstream are accurate within a few centimetres. However, prediction is so far of little value to bird conservationists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[Predictive data] wouldn\u2019t be helpful if we can\u2019t negotiate with those who are in control of the water flow. The key to reducing environmental impacts on both birds and other animals is to let the Mekong River run naturally,\u201d says Ayuwat. Birds like the small pratincole lay eggs that hatch in around two to three weeks and remain flightless for weeks after, so any water on the banks during that time will destroy the nests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Birdwatchers congregate in Chiang Saen at the Nong Bong Kai Non-Hunting Area in the winter months to see harriers roost. Eight kilometres away stands the gaudy Kings Romans Casino in Laos, a monument<\/a> to Chinese financial and cultural influence in the country. Dams financed by China face little resistance in Laos, and Thailand and other riparian countries contend via the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an entirely advisory body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe government should create platforms for downstream civil societies to participate or negotiate with China,\u201d says Teerapong Pomun, director of the Mekong Community Institute (MCI) and Living River Siam Association (LRSA). \u201cWe cannot let just the government or MRC do it because they have limitations and agendas. Civil society is an important factor to balance the power and fill the gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018, nests holding 21 bird eggs were flooded, more than half the active eggs Bueng Kan Rak Nok recorded in the area. The same has not happened this year, as the 2021 dry season has been very dry, says Ratchaneekorn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Flooded](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Flooded-egg-with-flotsam-2018.jpg\")
<\/div>Unnatural Mekong<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Species that have relied on seasonal rhythms for centuries will gradually go extinct<\/blockquote>Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok, Bird Conservation Society of Thailand<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"River](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/thick-knee_great03.jpg\")
<\/div>![\"Mekong](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/wagtail_mekong01.jpg\")
<\/div>![\"River](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/lapwing_river15.jpg\")
<\/div>Downstream in the dark<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/tern_river04.jpg\")
<\/div>Data and the Golden Triangle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"mekong](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/20210429_Mekong_dams-01.svg\")
<\/div>Prediction of little value<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Little](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Bueng-Kan-Rak-Nok-noting-little-ringed-plover-eggs.jpg\")
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