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Hydropower dam construction is currently focused in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to increase electricity supplies, yet the negative environmental and social impacts are extensive. The planned development of 88 hydropower dams in the Mekong River Basin by 2030 is used to explore how to quantify the energy versus food supply trade-offs. We estimate the land and water resources needed to replace the protein and lysine from the lost wild fish supply in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Using FAO data, we (1) examine the supply of protein and also lysine, as an example of an essential micronutrients, (2) consider three options for managing loss of wild fish supplies, namely replace with livestock, other fish or crops, and (3) quantify the land use change required in the crop and livestock replacement scenarios. We provide a new index for assessing lysine in food and find that replacing lysine from wild fish requires considerable reallocation of land or of fish exports. The options for replacing protein and lysine through domestic production involve significant resource trade-offs and have social impacts. This method of quantifying the links between hydropower (energy) and food policies at regional and other scales can be used to better inform decisions on sustainable developments across sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Proposed dam construction in the Lower Mekong Basin will considerably reduce fish catch and place heightened demands on the resources necessary to replace lost protein and calories. Additional land and water required to replace lost fish protein with livestock products are modelled using land and water footprint methods. Two main scenarios cover projections of these increased demands and enable the specific impact from the main stem dam proposals to be considered in the context of basin-wide hydropower development. Scenario 1 models 11 main stem dams and estimates a 4–7% increase overall in water use for food production, with much higher estimations for countries entirely within the Basin: Cambodia (29–64%) and Laos (12–24%). Land increases run to a 13–27% increase. In scenario 2, covering another 77 dams planned in the Basin by 2030 and reservoir fisheries, projections are much higher: 6–17% for water, and 19–63% for land. These are first estimates of impacts of dam development on fisheries and will be strongly mediated by cultural and economic factors. The results suggest that basic food security is potentially at a high risk of disruption and therefore basin stakeholders should be fully engaged in strategies to offset these impacts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]