Environment and natural resources
ADB to double climate financing to US$6b for Asia-Pacific
The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao announced on 25 September that the ADB will double its annual climate financing to US$6 billion by 2020, up from the current US$3 billion. ADB’s spending on tackling climate change will rise to around 30 percent of its overall ...
Sand firms’ licences are revoked
Preah Sihanouk provincial authorities have revoked the business licences of four companies working across more than 10 hectares for alleged environmental impact. Keep reading ...
Mekong Delta farmers warned climate change to affect livelihood
If there are no reasonable solutions to adapt to climate change, Mekong River Delta residents will have to scale down their agricultural production in the near future, or go bankrupt because of lack of materials for production. The warning has been repeatedly given by experts at ...
Rights group asks for land data sharing
Rights group Licadho has called on the government to make available statistics on the full extent of economic land concessions in response to data collected by the organisation over five years. Keep reading ...
IFC to lead sustainable hydro in Myanmar
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed to advise the government on environmental and social risk management for hydropower projects nationwide. This is the first time anything like this will be done in Myanmar. Commentators say they hope it will serve as the basis for transparent ...
7 more bears saved from Vietnamese farms
Animal rights activists on 22 September rescued seven bears from farms in northern Vietnam in their efforts to save the animal from the local bear bile extraction industry. Members of a Hong Kong-based animal welfare group brought the bears to Vietnam’s biggest bear sanctuary at Tam Dao National ...
Report finds economic land concessions affected 17K families
Community representatives, civil society organisations and opposition members have urged the government for more urgent action to resolve land disputes following the release of annual data showing that all 24 provinces were affected in 2014, with hundreds of cases still unresolved. The call came at the launch ...
Lao officials fail to enforce government ban on timber exports
A recent ban on the export of raw logs imposed by the Lao government to increase the value of processed wood products is not being enforced in the country’s southern provinces because some national leaders are involved in timber smuggling, a civil society official with ...
Groups slam dam go-ahead
Advocacy groups on 21 September voiced their “strong disappointment” over the approval of the concession agreement for the controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam in Laos. Keep reading ...
Vietnamese rubber giant makes deal with Cambodian villagers
A “major breakthrough” has been reached in discussions between Vietnamese rubber giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai and 11 indigenous communities in Ratanakkiri province that have lost land and resources to the company’s plantations. During a three-day meeting with community representatives, NGOs and its own subsidiaries, the ...
