Environment and natural resources

Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin, the Kingdom’s top authority in charge of resolving land disputes, slammed the Ministry of Agriculture over “shameful” irregularities in granting economic land concessions at the Environment Ministry’s annual meeting on December 21. During yesterday’s meeting, Chhin accused the Ministry of ...

A new, hi-tech shrimp breeding model that generates electricity via biogas and deals effectively with sludge is being piloted in Bến Tre Province. The project, being carried out by Japanese and Vietnamese scientists in the Mekong Delta province, deploys the closed-cycle shrimp farm model, where ...

The second national workshop on better waste management was held in the capital this week to discuss and finalize a strategy to deal with Cambodia’s less-than-effective methods of garbage disposal. Officials from the Ministry of Environment met with the Japan-based Institute of Global Environmental Strategies ...

Tun Lin has a unique occupation: he is the security guard at Linno limestone karst cave on the bank of the Salween River in Myanmar’s southeast Karen (Kayin) State. He earns 80,000 Myanmar kyat (around $60) per month to guard the entrance to the cave, ...

Việt Nam accounts for 87 of the 163 new species of animals and plants discovered in the Greater Mekong region, according to a report released on December 19 by the World Wide Fund for Nature. A new frog measuring less than 3cm long, which took ...

Palm oil production in Indonesia often comes at the expense of traditionally managed lands as well as the livelihoods of indigenous communities, causing widespread conflict in the archipelago country. With oil palm cultivation set to double in Indonesia over the next 10 years, methods for understanding ...

The forestry sector will protect, develop and sustainably use existing forest areas and land fund for forest development with a view to raising the country’s forest coverage to 47.25 percent in 2017. This is one of the focal tasks of the sector during 2017 put ...

Protecting, maintaining and restoring ecosystems, especially water systems, is among the most urgent tasks for strengthening the country’s resilience to climate change, said Dr Trần Văn Giải Phóng, technical specialist at the Institute for Social and Environment Transition. He spoke at a workshop of a ...

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors is providing US$25 million credit for Laos to strengthen its road maintenance systems and improve road connectivity throughout the country. The credit comes from the International Development Association, according to a report published on the World Bank’s Board ...

An environmental impact assessment released on Friday for a $245 million mining project slated to begin operations in Mondolkiri province next year has raised concerns about its potential effects on the environment and local communities. The project, proposed by the Chinese-owned Alex Corporation, would see ...