Agriculture and fishing
Thai farmers near Mekong lose land as riverbanks collapse
Thai communities living along the Mekong River have watched their land disappear before their eyes as riverbanks collapse. However, what has caused these riverbank collapses is unclear. Local residents link the riverbank collapses to the irregular water flows that have been seen since the commercial launch ...
Thitipan Pattanamongkol
Netizens Report Mass Chicken Deaths Across Laos
The Laotian Times spoke with an official from the Lao Farmer Network regarding a poultry disease that has been killing many chickens lately as discussed by several residents in Laos on social media. Many Lao residents including foreigners living in Laos recently took to social media to state ...
Phontham Visapra
Heavy Rains Improve Mekong Life, But Concerns Remain
Heavy rains and a bumper fish crop have improved life along the Mekong River after a nearly four-year drought, poor harvests and the pandemic took a heavy toll on some 65 million people who rely on the waterway for their daily livelihoods. According to the Laos-based ...
Luke Hunt
Irrawaddy Dolphins Near Extinction as Mekong Region Develops
There are only 80 Irrawaddy dolphins left in a loosely-patrolled stretch of the Mekong River in central Cambodia. Hydropower dams are shrinking freshwater pools in their main habitat, leading to more contact with fishermen who threaten their survival. Three dolphins died in December, accounting for about 5% of their ...
Kevin Varley
Perspective | Giant Catch in the Mekong Reveals Mysteries of Biodiversity Hot Spot
The Mekong River, the longest waterway in Southeast Asia, is often called the world’s most productive river because it holds a greater abundance of freshwater fish than any other river basin on the planet. From an ecological standpoint, there is one stretch of the river, in ...
Stefan Lovgren, special to Circle of Blue
Cambodian leader orders Mekong safe zones to save rare dolphins
Cambodian premier Hun Sen on Monday ordered the creation of conservation zones on the Mekong river to protect critically endangered dolphins, after three were killed by fishing nets and lines last month. The Irrawaddy dolphins, known for their bulging foreheads and short beaks, once swam through ...
AFP
No justice for Indigenous community taking on a Cambodian rubber baron
The mood outside the Kampong Thom Provincial Court had grown tense on the afternoon of July 26. Some 12 residents of Ngon village, an Indigenous Kuy community in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district, waited for the judge’s verdict. The group had spent roughly $200 traveling the ...
Gerald Flynn, Vutha Srey
Vietnam’s fishermen battle a lack of fish and China
In a cell at Tanjung Pinang in Riau, Indonesia, 64-year-old Vietnamese fisherman Nguyen Van Tu struggles alone with aching legs. He has not been found guilty of any crime, but has been detained for more than 20 months. In the summer of 2020, the pair of ...
Vo Kieu Bao Uyen
Southeast Asia remains world rice bowl as pockets of region suffer crop disasters
Rice crops in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have taken a hit from flooding and conflict this year, casting a shadow on a mostly sunny outlook for Southeast Asia’s output of the key grain as the region deals with other potential longer term supply troubles, farm ...
RFA Burmese, RFA Khmer and RFA Lao
Harvesters in Mekong Delta can't operate for lack of oil
In the past few days, many farmers in some localities in the Mekong Delta are in despair because the rice in the summer-autumn rice in the paddy fields was ripe but harvesters did not have oil to operate. Mr. Giang Van Bao, an owner of a rice harvester ...
Tuan Quang - Translated by Anh Quan