Resource frontiers: managing water on a trans-border Asian river

近年来，全球政策越来越关注淡水资源的管理和治理。从人道主义的角度来看，联合国的目标是应对与取水相关的“全球挑战”。从国际法的角度来看，越来越多的多边协议旨在确保各国公平利用跨界河流。在这一政策背景下，社会科学越来越重视淡水作为一种需要精心管理的稀缺全球资源。与煤炭和石油等其他具有重大经济意义的资源不同，水被认为是极其重要的，因为它对地球上生命的维持和繁衍至关重要。该项目旨在探索管理和规划水资源边界上跨界河流的管理的政治。在这种情况下，“上游”沿河国家的行动会影响“下游”沿江国家，因此往往会在战略上、政治上和经济上产生重大后果。特别是，我们的目标是了解这些管理政治如何在回避关于跨界河流使用的多边法律协议的背景下发挥作用。这些目标制定并支持一系列目标。我们试图了解，在哪些情况下，参加关于公平利用跨界河流的多边协定是没有吸引力的。我们的目标是了解在没有这样的协议的情况下，这些河流的管理在实践中是如何起作用的--或者不起作用的。我们建议审查不同国家法律在跨境河流方面的交叉所造成的摩擦。从蒙古流入俄罗斯贝加尔湖的塞伦加河就是一个典范案例。塞伦加被两个国家(蒙古和俄罗斯)瓜分，是中国广泛的经济和政治利益的目标。在不受多边协议阻碍的情况下，每个国家在塞伦加问题上都有不同的国家利益。蒙古通过在塞伦加河及其支流上规划水电站，努力实现能源安全。俄罗斯旨在通过保护来自塞伦加河的水流入来保护贝加尔湖独特的生态和文化意义。中国寻求通过从河里取水来推动干旱的西北和中部农业省份的经济增长。法律研究彻底研究跨境河流争端，政治学研究记录内亚地区的国际关系。但人们对管理塞伦加群岛的日常现实及其对这个地缘政治敏感地区更广泛的政治、经济和文化影响知之甚少。以塞伦加为例，该项目借鉴了社会人类学的方法和理论，为理解跨界河流管理提供了至关重要的手段。人类学方法天生适合于考察社会关系，通过这些社会关系，管理计划和建议在日常生活中被概念化、实施和贯穿。选择了横跨蒙古、俄罗斯和中国的六个实地站点，因为它们在生成数据以支持项目目的和目标方面具有重要意义。学术受益者包括来自社会人类学、法律和国际关系等学科的英国和全球学者。他们将从该项目产生的资源民族主义、主权和基础设施的新视角中受益。其他受益者包括倡导可持续水资源管理政策的区域非政府组织、对跨界河流治理和国际法的影响感兴趣的政策单位以及塞伦加河流域和与其管理有关的其他地区的居民。

Recent years have seen increased global policy concern with the management and governance of fresh-water resources. From a humanitarian perspective, the United Nations aims to tackle 'global challenges' associated with water access. From the perspective of international law, a growing body of multilateral agreements aims to ensure countries have fair access to trans-border rivers. Against this policy background, the social sciences pay increasing attention to fresh water as a scarce global resource requiring careful management. Unlike other economically significant resources like coal and oil, water is regarded as supremely important as it is essential for the maintenance and reproduction of life on earth.This project aims to explore the politics of managing, and planning the management of, trans-border rivers on water resource frontiers. In such contexts the actions of 'upstream' riparian states affect those in 'downstream' ones, and so often have strategically, politically and economically significant consequences. In particular, we aim to understand how these politics of management work in contexts where multilateral legal agreements on trans-border river use are eschewed. These aims frame and support a range of objectives. We seek to understand contexts in which participation in multilateral agreements on equitable access to trans-border rivers are unappealing. We aim to understand how, in the absence of such agreements, the management of such rivers works - or does not work - in practice. And we propose examining the frictions caused by the intersection of different national laws in relation to trans-border rivers. The river Selenga, which runs from Mongolia into Russia's Lake Baikal, provides an exemplary case study. The Selenga is divided between two countries (Mongolia and Russia), and is the object of extensive Chinese economic and political interest. Unhindered by multilateral agreements, each country harbours different national interests in relation to the Selenga. Mongolia strives for energy security by planning hydroelectricity plants on the Selenga and its tributaries. Russia aims to preserve the unique ecology and cultural significance of Lake Baikal by protecting its water inflow from the Selenga. China seeks to fuel economic growth in its arid northwest and central agricultural provinces with water abstracted from the river. Legal studies thoroughly examine trans-border river disputes, and political science documents international relations in Inner Asian regions. But little is known about the day-to-day realities of managing the Selenga and their wider political, economic and cultural implications for this geopolitically sensitive region. Using the Selenga as an example, this project draws on the methods and theories of Social Anthropology to provide a critically important means for understanding trans-border river management. Anthropological approaches are inherently suitable for examining the social relations through which management plans and proposals are conceptualised, implemented and worked through in everyday life. Six field-sites spanning Mongolia, Russia and China have been selected for their importance in generating data to support project aims and objectives. Academic beneficiaries include UK and global scholars from disciplines including Social Anthropology, Law and International Relations. They will benefit from new perspectives on resource nationalism, sovereignty, and infrastructure generated by the project. Other beneficiaries include regional NGOs advocating for sustainable water resource management policies, policy units interested in trans-border river governance and the reach of international law, and residents of the Selenga river basin and other areas connected to its management.