Yunnan's (PR China) rapidly expanding small hydropower sector. Actors, conflicts, environmental impacts and socio-economic consequences

为了维持其令人印象深刻的经济增长，中国正在积极发展其能源行业。可再生能源，主要是水力发电，在其目前和未来的能源部门战略中发挥着重要作用。位于中国西南部的云南省因其适合水电开发的（自然）地理位置而发挥着关键作用。水电项目的快速发展主要是基于有争议的大型水坝，但也基于小型水电项目的快速发展（SHPs，按照中国的分类，容量不超过50兆瓦）。这一发展使云南成为中国主要的电力供应国之一，为中国东部和南部以及东南亚（如泰国、越南）的经济中心提供电力。云南是中国生物、地理和民族多样性最丰富的地区之一，水电行业的迅速扩张可能会造成严重的环境和社会冲突，如果管理不当的话。在此背景下，本项目分析了云南动态水电行业背景下的人与环境相互作用。基于四柱政治-生态方法，本文在省（云南）和地方（德洪州）层面对这一动态进行了多层次分析。特别注意查明行动者及其利益的工具化，分析由此产生的冲突领域，并评估（在地方一级）不对称的环境和社会经济影响。

To sustain its impressive economic growth, PR China is aggressively developing its energy sector. Regenerative energy, mainly hydropower, plays a major role in its present and future energy sector strategy. Yunnan province in the southwest of PR China plays a key role due to its (physio) geographic suitability for hydropower development. The extreme rapid development of hydropower schemes is mainly based on controversial large dams, but also on the rapid development of small scale hydropower projects (SHPs, up to 50 MW capacity as per Chinese categorization). This development makes Yunnan one of the key suppliers of electric energy in PR China, supplying the economic centres of both eastern and southern China as well as Southeast Asia (e.g. Thailand, Vietnam). This rapid expansion of the hydropower sector in Yunnan is falling into one of the richest bio-, geo- and ethnic diverse regions within PR China, potentially creating significant environmental and social conflict if not managed carefully. Within this setting the project analyses human-environmental interactions in the context of Yunnan’s dynamic hydropower sector. Based on a four-columned political-ecological approach this dynamic is studied in a multi-level analysis on province (Yunnan) as well as local (Dehongprefecture) level. Special attention is paid to identify the actors and the instrumentalization of their interests, to analyse resulting arenas of conflicts and to asses the asymmetric environmental as well as socio-economic implications (on local level).