Southeast Asia Map

Southeast Asian countries have a total population of approximately 1.8 billion people, living on approximately 9% of the world's land area and with some 25% of the world's fresh water resources. By 2025 the population in the region is expected to have grown to about 2.3 billion persons, estimated to be about 30% of the projected world population. While the region is continuing to see dramatic advances in the industrial and commercial sectors with accompanying movements of population from rural to urban areas, (50% of population by 2025) agriculture will continue to be a major source of employment and the basis for rural livelihoods. In order to support this ever increasing population, national food and wealth generation; security of water supply; and sustainable utilization of land resources will become increasingly important issues.

We cannot ignore the influence and impact of developments that are occurring beyond the region. In 2004, the world acknowledged the Chinese "economic miracle", reinforced to a certain degree by the lesser but no less real Indian miracle. The suddenness of the recognition is not because growth rates have changed dramatically - China has been growing steadily at between 8 and 10 per cent per year for three decades, and India at 6 to 8 per cent for about a decade - but possibly because some invisible barrier or tipping point was crossed. There is a realization that the growth process is self-sustained and robust - like Japan in the 1950s and 1960 -and that it is spreading within and outside the country. What does this growth dynamic mean for environmental resources? According to Brown (2005), even if China grows at only 8 per cent per year (lower than the 9.5 per cent average since 1974), it will overtake current US per capita income in 25 years. The impact of this growth should be of concern to all in the region. For example, if the pattern of Chinese food consumption in 2031 emulates current US consumption patterns, it would bring Chinese grain consumption to 1.352 billion tonnes (from 382 million tonnes) equal to two thirds of current global grain harvest. The production of an additional 1 billion tonnes of grain with existing technologies would either require converting a large part of rainforests to agricultural land with associated increases under limited water resources or the adoption of biotechnology and intensification of chemical agricultural, all with critical environmental implications. Consequently, natural resources in the region will continue to come under considerable stress as economic development continues unabated.

At the same time, irrigated agriculture and industrial demands compete with municipal and environmental requirements for water as enlarging, and increasingly economically active, urban communities demand secure water supplies and access to natural eco-systems for recreational activities. The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food seeks to enable increased agricultural production with no increase in water abstraction for agriculture. The GWP and others promote integrated water resources management (IWRM) strategies to replace the former, largely sector based, approaches to water resources development and management. Multi-stakeholder participatory management organizations are being adopted to bring decision making to the lowest appropriate levels. As a result of the greater awareness about water issues and specifically the need to improve governance of the water sector, there is recognition of the need to improve the performance of soil and water management at all levels.