The Mekong Natural History Museum (MNHM) is first announced in U.S.-Vietnam S&T Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) Action Plan 2013-2015 (4. Conservation Science, part 4.5), and is updated by Letter of Intent (LoI) signed on 23 May 2016, by four parties: The US Embassy at Vietnam representative for The US State Department, The US Geological Survey (USGS), The Smithsonian and The Cantho University (CTU) of Vietnam.

To pursuit this objective, Cantho University supported to form a Non-government organization, named The Mekong Research and Conservancy Assistance Foundation (MRCAF), MRCAF registered at Vietnam and received its license on 2018.

To date, CTU/MRCAF networking of 14 Universities at the Mekong delta of Vietnam, 20 Universities in the Mekong region cover entire six countries of China, Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam. There are also 4 universities at US join the network. With hundreds scientists from USGS, NOAA and Universities in the Network, leading by CTU and MRCAF, the data and information of Geology, Soil, Hydrology, Biodiversity, History land uses, Traditional experiences and Local cultures are under collecting/managing programs. All of the expenses for the synthesized data and information is funded by the private sectors.

While the data and information collection, CTU/MRCAF is working on a virtual museum version. We are also discussing with Government of Cantho city for land location of the physical Mekong Natural History Museum.