Deforestation drivers

The recent, devastating floods highlight the fragility of the country’s natural environment. Deforestation, expanded farming, timber harvesting, and hydroelectric dams are the main culprits. In four years, 7,300 hectares of forest have been lost. So far, about 800 large, medium and small plants have been ...

There has been a sudden demand for old-growth wild ornamental trees in recent years, leading to the destruction of forest trees in the Central Highlands and South Central Vietnam while local authorities have their hands tied. Ancient trees from Central mountains are being harvested to bring ...

Every two years, the World Wide Fund for Nature publishes a report that sums up the state of the world’s wildlife based on the monitoring of its projects around the world. The latest WWF report, titled the “Living Planet Report,” describes stunning declines in biodiversity caused ...

Every morning at 5:30, Yang Phorn and some of his neighbors from a village west of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, climb on motorbikes to go honeybee hunting in a forest far from home. Before the 47-year-old and the others set, they prepare bags of rice and ...

Few countries have suffered such severe deforestation over the past two decades as Cambodia, a land once covered with expansive woodlands that were home to Indochinese tigers, elephants, and scores of endemic plant and animal species. Satellite surveys show that only 3 percent of Cambodia’s primary ...

The ASEAN region lost about 33 per cent of its mangrove forests between 1980 and 2020, a decrease of more than 63,000sq km, said the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB). Nations that comprise ASEAN have just around 43,000sq km of mangrove forests remaining. The ACB statement was ...

While Ministry of Environment officials claim they and relevant departments implement forest protection and conservation measures responsibly, forest protection activists have expressed frustration over their inability to participate in patrols where illegal logging took place. The activists complained they are barred from forest protection efforts and ...

Inspectors have identified 41 factories built on 72 ha of land allocated for forest cultivation in Dong Nai Province ten years ago. The factories all belong to Phuoc Tan Industrial Park (IP) in Bien Hoa Town of Dong Nai that borders Ho Chi Minh City. The violation ...

The number of illegal logs seized in the first nine months of the fiscal year shows that timber smuggling remains rampant in Sagaing Region despite the threat of COVID-19, the head of the regional Forest Department said.  U Aung Tun Win, director of the department, said ...

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen released an open letter Thursday reporting a 73 percent increase in deforestation in 2019 at the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, compared to 2018, while criticizing the government’s ban on certain patrolling operations. The University of Copenhagen’s open letter used data ...