This is a broad-ranging study of the interactions transforming people"s livelihoods and their environment in a rapidly-developing yet ecologically diverse region. Encompassing scientific material on climate, health and habitat through to social studies on the large number of ethnic groups, the new findings presented here from specialists in a plurality of disciplines reflect the drastic changes of recent times, concomitant with various impulses toward modernization, economic globalization, and sixty years of rapid population growth. Local relationships with the environment have been incessantly restructured and transformed amidst these political and economic upheavals, revealing unique linkages between certain determinants of change. Over sixty international researchers collaborated bringing vitality and depth to the treatment of these complex issues. The book reveals an array of interesting and serious issues in the Mekong River basin, and serves as an indispensable guide to the historical ecology of the region.