Environment and natural resources
Forests and forestry
Parks Dept rejects Karen call to return
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) has rejected a request by a group of evicted Karen villagers to be allowed to resettle in their ancestral home deep into a forest at the Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi. “As long as there ...
APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
Award-winning Thai community continues the fight to save its wetland forest
Srongpol Chantharueang remembers his parents telling him as a boy always to protect the local wetland forest when he grew up. They told him that the ecosystem would be important for his life and that of his community. “I didn’t understand what they meant at ...
Carolyn Cowan
Myanmar migratory bird census to be taken by locals
The Asian migratory bird census which is usually conducted yearly will be taken in collaboration with local communities in Myanmar this year, said Daw Thiri Daewi Aung, executive director at Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA). “Normally, the migratory bird census is taken in the second ...
Phyo Wai Kyaw
Endangered crane absent from Vietnam's Ramsar site
Losing their natural habitat and food source, red-crowned cranes no longer call a national park in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta home. For three decades, Tram Chim National Park in the reed fields of Dong Thap Muoi in Dong Thap Province has been famous as a natural habitat ...
Hoang Nam
Angkor sells out: Cambodia turns a blind eye to vanishing forests
A series of reports this year show that protected forest areas across Cambodia are under increasing threat from land grabs and deforestation. As Cambodians struggle with the economic impacts of COVID-19, journalists and advocates report that illegal logging and land development continues, from central Cambodia’s Prey Lang Forest to the Cardamom Mountains ...
Editorial
Alleged gov’t-linked land grabs threaten Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains
Rising across remote stretches of southeast Cambodia, the Cardamom Mountains harbor dense tropical rainforest, much of it native growth carpeting the range’s wet slopes. Due to its remoteness, the vast protected area has historically seen relatively little human activity, which helped safeguard crucial tracts of ...
CHRIS HUMPHREY
Thai teak seized in SorPorKor raid north of Patong
The Forestry officials, along with police from the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division seized sawn pieces of timber valued at about B60,000 at the site, located in the hills on Phra Barami Soi 7. Boonlarp Suksai, Chief of the Royal Forestry Department Region 12 ...
The Phuket News
New resources for forest protection
Vietnam has entered the world’s carbon credit trading market after a long period striving for sustainable forest management. This is a major event, marking a positive start in mobilising new resources for forest protection and improving forest quality and sustainable forest management, thereby helping Vietnam ...
Deforestation and greater risk of flooding set off environmental alarms in Vietnam
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 ...
Nguyn Hung
Vietnam susceptible to afforestation: expert
Around 700,000 ha of land in Vietnam are still available for afforestation purposes, an expert said while discussing the role of forests in flood prevention. Vietnam has set the target of growing around 200,000 ha of forest each year while in reality, the country still has ...
Gia Chinh