Environment and natural resources

Vietnam is facing a critical reduction in forest areas five years after it implemented the national forest protection and development programme, forest authority officials said. Deputy Director of Viet Nam Forestry Administration, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Nguyen Ba Ngai said nearly 1.2 million ...

As the National League for Democracy embarks on a volunteer program to keep the country’s streets clean, experts said that Yangon’s water quality is at risk because people keep throwing garbage into rivers, creeks and ditches. Keep reading ...

Vietnam is using its major rivers as dumping grounds or excavation sites, and this poses a risk of severe water shortage for tens of millions of people in the near future, experts warn.   Members of Vietnam Rivers Network (VNR), the country’s largest advocacy group for water ...

Myanmar’s National League for Democracy, which scored a stunning victory in November’s general election, carried out a litter collection drive over the weekend. Keep reading ...

Cambodia’s delegates are returning with mixed feelings about the agreement to try and save the planet from catastrophic climate change that was adopted on 12 December at the UN Climate Talks in Paris, known as COP21. In an email sent just before the treaty was adopted, government ...

Valuable woods are not subject to a resource tax decrease for fears it might unintentionally trigger worsening deforestation, voted the National Assembly’s Standing Committee (NASC) on 10 December. The debate on wood taxes was sparked as the NASC weighed in on the draft of the amended ...

Major hydropower projects like the large-scale dams under way in Cambodia’s waterways are a “false solution” to climate change, according to a global coalition of 300 NGOs who are calling on parties at UN climate talks in Paris (COP21) to bar such schemes from climate ...

Thai soldiers opened fire on a group of 17 illegal loggers on 10 December evening, wounding two, police said. The group had illegally crossed the border into Thailand in Oddar Meanchey province under cover of darkness when they encountered a Thai patrol, according to Brigadier General Men ...

Unlicensed bottled water companies are being shut down by the Food and Drug Administration for fear they could be bacteria-ridden and contaminated, according to officials. Action is so far aimed at small-time businesses which often operate out of the vendors’ homes. However, the results of a secret ...

Kien Giang Province has requested that the government and the Navy end sand dredging at a military port in Phu Quoc as the activity is starting to cause severe erosion.   A statement from the province authorities said the dredging has caused erosion along one kilometer around ...