Environment and natural resources

When Charcoal burners began casting covetous eyes over the mangrove forest next to coastal Kanyin Chaung village in Tanintharyi Region, its residents joined forces to protect a natural resource that had served their community for generations. The threat emerged in about 2005 and it worried the ...

For the first time, the Myanmar Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (MEITI) has opened the books to share information with the public on revenue Myanmar’s government collects from harvesting timber. Last month, the MEITI released two reports juxtaposing statistics on production and tax payments from government ministries’ ledgers ...

The Mekong River is again striking record lows, threatening crop production, fish stocks and the livelihoods of 70 million people amid rampant over-development and dire warnings. But this year’s drought, the second in three years, could mark a turning point and a bleak future.Scientists, backed ...

While wandering through northwestern Myanmar in 2016, a group of scientists stumbled on hundreds of huge tracks in the ground. According to a new paper in the journal Mammalia, these footprints, made by Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), have a lasting impact. Even when the giants that made ...

The Mekong River basin was identified as a major disaster risk hotspot by the United Nations today. Poor people living close to the river suffer high exposure to flood and drought, according to a report released today. A UN official also called for the nations in ...

In July the Mekong River, the precious lifeline for four Southeast Asian countries and China’s Yunnan Province, fell to its lowest levels in 100 years, the victim of increasing climate change, agricultural runoff and a plethora of upstream dams that threaten its existence. The rains have ...

Cambodia is seeking Vietnam’s help to curb timber smuggling and crack down on forestry crimes along shared borders. National Assembly Foreign Affairs commission chairman Chheang Vun made the request to his Vietnamese counterpart during a two-day conference of parliamentarians from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos in Vietnam’s ...

The National Committee for Prevention and Crackdown on Natural Resource Crimes on Monday impounded nine trucks used to transport timber to Vietnam through Kratie province’s Snuol district. Committee spokesman Eng Hy declined to provide details, citing the ongoing investigation. “We are still working on the case ...

In recent weeks, the Mekong River, one of the world’s longest and largest rivers, which has been under peril due to a confluence of development, demographic, and geopolitical pressures, has been at its lowest levels in a century. Dams upstream are holding back much needed water ...

As a park chief himself, Soeung Khemarak, the deputy director of the Oyadav National Park in Rattanakiri province, fully understands the problems faced by Cambodia’s Kulen Prum Tep Wildlife Sanctuary and adjacent parks near the border with Thailand where bombs, illegal logging and poaching are ...