World Wildlife Fund Thailand

November 1, 2002
The planned Nam Theun 2 (NT2) dam on the Nakai Plateau in central Lao
People’s Democratic Republic would be 48 metres high and 320 metres
long, with a capacity of about 1,000 megawatts. It would create a 450
square-kilometre reservoir with a volume of 3 billion cubic metres.
Water from the reservoir would be driven through 40 km long tunnels to
a powerhouse located at the base of the Nakai plateau on the Xe Ban Fai
River. The size of the project and its location will have a substantial
impact on regional biodiversity and people. This short paper summarizes
some of these likely impacts and explains the position of WWF-Thailand
on the dam.

Over the past decade, perceptions of biological diversity have expanded
to encompass the distribution patterns of biota, associated ecological
processes, and the (often large) regional landscapes over which these
interactions occur. Long-term conservation of biodiversity, and the
security of local human livelihoods, requires a shift in focus to large
spatial scales and, within these, a proactive identification of
conservation opportunities. The Nam Theun 2 dam violates these emerging
principles by treating parts of a broader ecosystem in isolation.

The Nakai Plateau consists of a gently undulating 1,200 square-
kilometre basin at an elevation of about 600 metres, and is part of the
ecological system of the Annamite Mountains. About one third of the
Plateau is within the Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area, a
globally significant protected area for the future of rare and endemic
fauna such as the Large-antlered Muntjac and Saola. The Nakai Plateau
is not pristine. As in most significant conservation areas in the
world, people have altered its landscapes for subsistence agriculture,
fished its waters and hunted its forests over thousands of years. This
does not detract from the conservation significance of the area,
however, either for biodiversity or local livelihoods. About one third
of the Nakai Plateau would be flooded by the reservoir of the NT2 dam,
securing the destruction of habitats and wildlife populations that
presently maintain a significant role in the ecological functioning of
the region.

From the traditional perspective of species richness, the Nakai-Nam
Theun protected area ranks among the most important in the world. Over
400 species of birds occur there, one of the highest totals for any
protected area in mainland SE Asia. These include over 50 species of
birds that are threatened with extinction. As part of the Nakai-Nam
Theun protected area, the Nakai Plateau has a special role for these
threatened species: 35% occur only there, including globally important
populations of white-winged ducks and fish eagles.

Until recent dam-related logging began, the Nakai Plateau supported the
most extensive stands of old-growth pine forest in the region, with
unique variations in tree species composition. One of the most
endangered habitats in SE Asia is lowland slow-flowing rivers with
adjacent forest. The Nakai Plateau, despite habitat degradation, still
represents one of the best examples of such habitat in Lao PDR; almost
all (180 km) would be lost after inundation if the dam were
constructed.

The diversity of habitats on the Nakai Plateau also includes deciduous
forest, semi-evergreen forest, secondary forest, seasonal wetlands and
permanent streams, which, together with the gentle terrain they rest
on, provides excellent physical conditions for high densities of large
mammals – a situation that is becoming increasingly rare elsewhere in
Lao PDR and the region. Though these densities have been markedly
reduced through hunting, they remain significant relative to other
forested areas in Lao PDR. More importantly, the Plateau’s large
mammals reside within one of the largest and least fragmented expanses
of forest in the region, which increases their chances of persistence
and recovery. Gaur and Elephants for example, are central to, and
interact with larger regional populations through intact links to
forested areas that surround them. The central role of the Plateau in
ecological functioning is exemplified by this intact large mammal
community, whose members are able to maintain widespread seasonal
movements on a landscape scale.

A relatively abundant prey base of Sambar, Wild Pigs and Indian
Muntjacs on the Plateau supports endangered Tigers. The Nam Theun river
supports at least 80 fish species, 16 of which are endemic to it. The
dam would disrupt hydrological functioning and fish migrations, causing
many of these species to disappear. The water diversion scheme of the
dam means that, in addition, another water basin would also be
disrupted (the Xe Bang Fai).

Every international NGO that has worked on the Plateau recognizes the
outstanding conservation significance of the area. Opportunities to
care for extant biodiversity and local livelihoods on the Nakai Plateau
exist, but need to be developed through collaboration of local people
with their government, protected area staff and conservation
organizations. This has not happened. Activities such as logging and
infrastructure development over the past decade in anticipation of a
dam that may never be built, have already had far-reaching and negative
ecological and economic consequences. To invoke the very source of so
much disruption to the Nakai Plateau as the solution to these problems
is clearly invalid. What stands to be lost, both in ecological and
cultural terms, can not be mitigated. The Nam Theun 2 Dam is not
inevitable. Lao people and the conservation community need not accept a
hydropower fate that leaves them with ecological scraps to make the
best of – there are positive opportunities on the Nakai Plateau that
are much more attractive.

WWF also notes that the case underpinning Nam Theun 2 is unclear. The
economic viability of the project is dubious and the demand for the
dam’s power is also highly questionable, given Thailand’s declining
projected power demand (the market to which NT2 will export). In
addition, there are significant alternative energy options available
both in Thailand and Laos, including renewable energy and energy
conservation. These have been ignored and insufficiently evaluated.

In short the deleterious impacts of the project on local ecosystems are
clear; the justification for the dam and its superiority to available
alternatives is not. WWF Thailand is therefore opposed to its
construction.