Environment and natural resources
Forests and forestry
DNP set to build DNA database for wildlife
The National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department invited the press to its wildlife forensic lab yesterday to demonstrate its accountability and transparency in wildlife forensic investigation in a move to counter the strong opposition of elephant owners. Kanita Ouithavorn, chief of the department’s Wildlife ...
Forest department investigates sizeable seizures of smuggled timber
The forest department has launched an internal investigation in response to sizeable seizures of smuggled timber since late January. On Jan. 24, authorities seized more than 30 tons of smuggled teak from two containers at the Myanmar Industrial Port in Yangon. Further investigations led to ...
Govt orders further action to regulate timber industry, combat illegal logging
The government has entrusted a taskforce committee to take further action to strictly regulate wood processing businesses and clamp down on illegal logging after learning that issues continue to exist. The assignment was made after the cabinet was briefed at the government monthly meeting for ...
What happens when the soy and palm oil boom ends?
Over the past thirty years demand and production of oils crops like oil palm and soybeans has boomed across the tropics thanks to rising incomes, macroeconomic changes and government policies, and substitution effects. This rapid expansion has in some places taken a heavy toll on ...
Endangered bull killed in park in Central Highlands
A seven-year-old male Bos Gaurus bull, an endangered species listed in Group IB in Việt Nam’s Red Book, was killed in a protected area in Chư Mom Ray National Park last Friday. Đào Xuân Thủy, deputy director of the park’s management board, said the bull, ...
Khammuan confiscates large illegal timber haul
Yommalath district authorities in Khammuan province this week seized illegally harvested timber which was hidden inside a shipping container and buried underground at a sawmill in Donpeuay village. The incident was outlined by local media after provincial Forest Inspection Division officials teamed up with local ...
Forest reform proposal merits our full attention
Alarmed by the steep decline in Thailand’s forest cover, reformers have drafted proposals for remedial action. A few weeks ago, the National Reform Steering Assembly’s natural resources sub-panel completed a 250-page proposal, which has been submitted to the NRSA for endorsement. The document notes that ...
Land owners face prosecution over illegal timber, says Yangon forest department
Owners of timber yards will be prosecuted if illegal timber is found stored on their land, warned the Yangon Forest Department. U Thein Toe, the department’s director, said even if the land owners were unaware that their land was used to store illegal timber, they ...
Hundreds of logged trees found in protected Pursat forest
An official delegation led by the head of the nation’s illegal logging task force found hundreds of felled trees inside protected forest areas in Pursat province on February 14, officials said. National Military Police chief General Sao Sokha, who heads the task force, and more ...
Ministry okays wood plant
The government issued a statement on February 12 allowing Lim Royal Joint Stock Company to create a temporary wood and furniture manufacturing plant in Trapeang Srae village in Kratie province. According to an announcement signed by Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Veng Sakhon last Thursday, Lim ...
