Environment and natural resources

[] A collection of shoals, reefs and islets off Chiang Rai province is the only serious block for 500-tonne Chinese riverboats past Thailand and all the way down to Luang Prabang in Laos. Beijing is once again applying economic and diplomatic pressure on Prime Minister ...

China’s Mekong development plan has stirred debate as potentially becoming an environmental and social peril for downstream Mekong countries. The country’s navigation channel improvement plan has recently attracted attention from environmentalists, activists, and the media alike.The pace has picked up since the middle of this ...

[] Sustainable development of the Mekong basin is too important to be persistently ignored. Approximately 284 million people, including around 400 ethno-linguistic groupings, live on the Mekong River. A majority of Mekong communities are considered “primary producers,” as they rely on the river’s ecosystems for their survival through ...

Climate change is already having an impact on our health, by exposing people to dangerous heat waves and more extreme weather, according to a new study. [] The report, called The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, is meant to track progress on health and climate change ...

The 63rd joint patrol on the Mekong River with law enforcers from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand was completed on Sunday. Keep reading ...

Laos and France have agreed to enhance cooperation in the energy sector and improve the management of water resources on the Mekong River by building a new Coordination and Monitoring Centre (CMC). The centre will be equipped to monitor hydroelectric power project (HPP) development on ...

The Royal Irrigation Department (RID) has withdrawn it’s environment and health impact assessment (EHIA) report on the Mae Wong Dam project after it is considered incomplete.  Keep reading     ...

As Myanmar pushes for attracting more foreign direct investment through its three special economic zones, civil society organizations have reiterated their recommendation to review and monitor the progress of the SEZs. Keep reading ...

An environmental group in Chiang Rai has renewed its campaign against the controversial Pak Beng dam that is due to be built on the transnational Mekong River by lodging a complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court against Thai authorities for failing to provide local communities ...

From crowdfunding platforms to drones, chatbots, and artificial intelligence, emerging startups in ASEAN are leveraging on their existing technologies and business models to solve the region’s most urgent problems through a competition called “Startups to the Resque.”[] According to the 2016 World Risk Index by the United ...