Environment and natural resources
Where is the promised money, campaigners ask at climate talks in Bangkok
Developed countries are dragging their feet on meeting their pledges of billions of dollars to help developing nations tackle climate change, leaving poor nations with mounting costs from rising temperatures, rights groups said. Rich governments have promised to mobilise $100 billion per year in climate ...
Myanmar-Thailand highway branded ‘ecological and social disaster’
Community and conservation groups in Myanmar have branded a planned highway linking a port project to Thailand an “ecological and social disaster”, saying it would uproot indigenous people from their homes and farms. Critics said an environmental and social impact assessment for the road project, ...
Illegal trafficking of baby elephants to China and Dubai for tourism must be stopped, say activists
An investigator has called on the international body that polices trade in wildlife to crack down on the illegal trafficking of young elephants across borders in south-east Asia. Secretive agents in Laos are sending dozens of animals each year across the country’s land border with China and fly others to the Middle East, earning up ...
HCM City seeks ways to curb CO2 emissions from vehicles
Air pollution in HCM City caused by vehicles has become even more serious than the level of pollution emitted by industrial zones, environmental experts say. The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the city is estimated to be 38.5 million tonnes per year, making up ...
Trade of coastal sand is damaging wildlife of poorer nations, study finds
The secretive trade of coastal sand to wealthy countries such as China is seriously damaging the wildlife of poorer nations whose resources are being plundered, according to a new study. Sand and gravel are the most extracted groups of materials worldwide after water, with sand used in ...
Climate change will make hundreds of millions more people nutrient deficient
Rising levels of carbon dioxide could make crops less nutritious and damage the health of hundreds of millions of people, research has revealed, with those living in some of the world’s poorest regions likely to be hardest hit. Previous research has shown that many food crops become ...
Mekong River flooding communities throughout the northeast
The rising Mekong River has resulted in flooding in Mukdaharn province and brought flood warnings to all riverside communities. A rise of 10 centimeters in the Mekong River in Mukdaharn province has allowed it to 0verflow its 12.5 meter high banks for a second time this ...
Samlot rife with land grabs
Authorities are facing mounting pressure to safeguard the Samlot Protected Area, where villagers and wealthy land-grabbers continue to trespass to start orchards and claim ownership of the plots. The area, which straddles Battambang and Pailin provinces, is jointly protected by the Ministry of Environment and ...
Study shows forest conservation is a powerful tool to improve nutrition in developing nations
A first-of-its-kind global study shows that children in 27 developing countries have better nutrition—when they live near forests. The results turn on its head the common assumption that improving nutrition in poorer countries requires clearing forests for more farmland—and, instead, suggest that forest conservation could be an important ...
Living in fear along the Mekong
The collapse of a dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower project in Laos was tragic. Immediate assessments say that 39 people died, many suffered injuries and thousands were left homeless, with their means of income lost for the foreseeable future. Beyond these numbers, ...
