Environment and natural resources
Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems
Early this year, many Mekong Delta farmers fought a losing battle against an epic drought, the worst since 1926. Was the drought a harbinger of climate change? Perhaps it was, but more certainly it was an artifact of El Niño. The same ocean-warming phenomenon that ...
Mongla: ‘the wildlife trafficking capital of the world’
Mongla lies on the border of the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China and Shan State in northeastern Myanmar. Situated in the heart of the Golden Triangle, the city is known among other sad epithets as the wildlife trafficking capital of the world and for drugs, gambling, ...
30 provinces and cities formulate and implement green growth plan
Viet Nam has honoured its commitment to the Paris climate agreement through diverse activities under the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions framework which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Deputy Minister of MoPI, Nguyen The Phuong, has said at the high-level seminar “Viet Nam Green Growth Strategy: ...
Airbus to marshal its satellites against deforestation
One of the world’s largest aerospace companies is enlisting its satellites in the fight to save forests. That’s the aim of Starling, a new service developed by Airbus Defence and Space, nonprofit The Forest Trust and remote-sensing specialist SarVision. Food giants Nestlé and Ferrero, two of the ...
Authorities told to tackle water pollution to prevent deaths of aquatic animals
Dr Nantarika Chansue, head of the Veterinary Medical Aquatic Animal Research Centre at Chulalongkorn University, said on October 12 it was too late to do anything about the recent deaths of giant freshwater stingrays but authorities could work to restore the water quality in the ...
Kayah residents protest planned Pwunchaung dam
About 500 residents of Bawlakhe township, Kayah State, on October 11 protested plans to build a dam on Pwunchaung Stream, as water and soil examination continues. Transparency and environmental impact are the major concerns for the protestors, who already sent letters to the president and state ...
Shark fin trade swims on, despite ban
Pungent piles of dried fish meat fill tiny shops on the ground floor of Phnom Penh’s Phsar O’Russei as the latest catch flops in metal basins. Hanging from some stalls are bags of half-meter long, leathery, dried shark fins—destined for expensive bowls of a soup ...
Gov’t, Vietnam exchange blame on logging
Cambodian conservation officials spoke publicly for the first time on October 10 about what they described as nearly three years of corrupt practices by their Vietnamese counterparts in facilitating the multibillion-dollar illicit trade in Siamese rosewood. But their complaint comes amid allegations from Hanoi that ...
China downplays reports of sharing river waters with India
Playing down official media reports mooting a mechanism to share Brahmaputra river waters with India, China on October 10 said Beijing and New Delhi have “effective” cooperation to share data of the river flow and it is willing to continue it. “China and India have appropriate ...
Khanh Hoa leader opposes China’s election in so-called ‘Sansha’ city
Chairman of the People’s Committee of central Khanh Hoa province Le Duc Vinh has rejected China’s election of deputies to the People’s Congress in the so-called ‘Sansha’ city. In a statement posted on Khanh Hoa province’s e-portal on October 10, the official affirmed that Truong Sa ...
