Forests and forestry

The Forestry Department has broken its silence after a Swedish court last week penalised an importer of Myanmar teak, dramatically calling into question the country’s documenting processes for timber sourcing. In a public statement, the Forestry Department claimed that current control systems should be “capable ...

A study looking at economic land concessions in Ratanakkiri province has found that, contrary to the oft-repeated government narrative, they have brought almost no benefits to local communities. Speaking at a launch event for the study yesterday, one of the researchers behind it, Dr Neth ...

Despite the presence of a blanket ban by the Cambodian government on all trade in Siamese rosewood since 2013, exports of the precious timber to Vietnam increased in the third quarter of this year, according to Vietnamese customs data compiled by US-based NGO Forest Trends. ...

The Ministry of Industry and Trade removed 471 hydropower plant projects from its power development plan after reviewing the plan in accordance with a National Assembly resolution passed in 2013. According to the ministry and the people’s committees of provinces nationwide, the projects are mostly small ...

Rainforest cover in the Indonesian archipelago has since declined rapidly in recent years giving way to large-scale plantations of rubber and oil palm. A recent study published in Nature Communications finds that small-scale farming can be just as damaging to biodiversity as the plantations, since ...

The third International Wildlife Trade Conference opened in Hanoi on November 17 with the participation of 47 countries, the European Union, 7 international organisations and over 40 inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations. Vietnam’s Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh; Laos’ Deputy Prime Minister Sonxay Siphandone; the UK’s ...

The first containers of plywood certified as legal under the EU’s anti-illegal-logging action plan were shipped out of the Indonesian capital on November 15, a milestone in the fight against blackmarket timber in one of the world’s most heavily forested countries. Of the 15 nations that ...

Thái Bình Province aims to plant more than 1,320 hectares of coastal forests in the next five years and protect almost 4,000 hectares of forest, with total investment of US$18.7 million. The plan by the province’s authorities aims to recover lost forest areas, consolidate existing forest ...

Academics and legal experts on November 9 called for radical reforms of decades-old environmental laws, with public participation to ensure the rights of all citizens to live in healthy surroundings. The call was issued as the Law Reform Commission and the Good Governance for Social Development ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment gathered a network of government and civil society representatives on November 8 to begin planning the creation of a biodiversity conservation corridor that would make it easier for wildlife to thrive. Biodiversity corridors connect isolated conservation areas with strips of vegetation to ...