Environment and natural resources
Hydropower Dams Have Had ‘Profound’ Impact on Mekong River, Monitor Claims
Hydropower projects, including a spree of mega-dams in China, have had a significant impact on the midstream reaches of the Mekong River, exacerbating drought conditions and altering the river’s flow in fundamental ways, according to a group of U.S.-based researchers. The finding was contained in a report assessing ...
Sebastian Strangio
Baby dolphin born in Mekong’s Koh Phdao
The team researching the Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins has spotted a newborn baby in Kratie province’s Sambor district, according to the Fisheries Administration’s Department of Fisheries Conservation. The department reported on March 7 that the calf was spotted by the research team and World Wide Fund ...
Agriculture development in Mekong Delta must adapt to climate change: Vietnam PM
Agricultural development in the Mekong Delta region must adapt to climate change and be in close connection with the growth of industry and services, said Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính. He made the statement while chairing a meeting jointly held in the Mekong Delta’s Kiên Giang ...
Viet Nam News
Thai authorities demolish resorts in parks, but struggle to prosecute encroachers
Since October 2020, Thailand’s national parks authority has demolished or ordered the demolition of more than 20 luxury mansions, resorts and tourist hotels illegally built in national parks throughout the country’s Western Forest Complex, a globally significant biodiversity conservation corridor. Among the properties already demolished are ...
Kannikar Petchkaew
Abby Seiff on the Slow Death of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake
Cambodia’s Great Lake – the Tonle Sap – is in trouble. The lake and its residents face the converging impacts of global climate change, upstream hydropower dams, and illegal fishing abetted by government corruption. All have combined to threaten the lake’s nourishing flood-pulse, which for ...
Sebastian Strangio
Small Monkeys are Big Business in Cambodia's Animal Trade
Gangs of humans follow troops of monkeys in Angkor Archaeological Park. In the shadow of Bayon Temple, bloggers spend their days documenting every move the long-tailed macaques make. “I got into filming monkeys because I see them as a natural resource in Cambodia and I wanted ...
ANTON L. DELGADO
Commentary: What can Southeast Asia do about all this COVID-19 waste?
For the last couple of years, virtually every news feed or broadcast has included images of mask-clad people or health workers suited up as protection from COVID-19. While the images might be ephemeral, those masks and personal protective equipment (PPE), along with used test kits and ...
JJ Rose
How researchers are using leeches to track rare animals in Vietnam’s mountains
For decades, scientists have struggled to find certain rare and endangered mammals in the vast Truong Son Mountain Range, which stretches from Vietnam’s northern provinces to Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands. Now, a group of scientists has come up with a creative way ...
Le My / Tuoi Tre News
Last Irrawaddy dolphin in northeastern Cambodia dies
The last known endangered freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin on a stretch the Mekong River near Cambodia’s border with Laos died this week, after it was reported snagged in a fishing net, wildlife officials and villagers in the Southeast Asian countries said. “We are deeply saddened by the ...
RFA Staff
Mekong Drought Enters Fourth Year; Worst Conditions in 60 Years
Mainland Southeast Asia is entering its fourth year of drought, with climate change and unrelenting dam construction taking an unprecedented toll on the Mekong River and the 65 million people who rely on the waterway for their livelihoods. In Cambodia, the drought has prompted a government ...
Luke Hunt