Environment and natural resources
Vietnam to need 80,000 tonnes of biodegradable plastics annually by 2025
The demand for biodegradable plastics in Vietnam is projected to reach 80,000 tonnes annually by 2025, according to Associate Prof. Dr. Le Hung Anh, Director of the Institute of Environmental Science, Engineering and Management. At a recent workshop on biodegradable plastic production and consumption held by the Ministry of Natural ...
VNA
New Zealand earmarks $35,000 for protective forest in Ninh Thuan
New Zealand on Monday announced it would allocate $35,000 to help plant three hectares of forest in the central province of Ninh Thuan. “This is in response to the Vietnam government’s commitment to plant one billion trees by 2025,” a press release from the New Zealand ...
Khanh Lynh
Covid-19 outbreak contributes to elephant population decline in Southern Thailand
There has been a significant decline in the elephant population of Southern Thailand as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Phang Nga Province, which normally has more domesticated elephants than any other Southern Thailand province, the elephant population has dropped by a third of ...
Tanutam Thawan
Moody’s says Cambodia, ‘Stands Out’ for flood risks
Moody’s Investors Service has said Thursday that Cambodia was among three countries in the Asia-Pacific region most exposed to flood risks arising from climate change. In a statement received from Frankfurt, Moody’s said climate risks such as rising sea levels, droughts, floods and wildfires were particularly ...
Sao Da – AKP
Faced with climate challenges, Vietnamese rice farmers switch to shrimp
For years, Ta Thi Thanh Thuy toiled on a sliver of land sandwiched between the Mekong River and the South China Sea, a region widely known as Vietnam’s rice bowl, to grow the prized grain. But Thuy, along with many of her neighbours, has over the ...
Khanh Vu
Volatile Mekong threatens birds’ nests
The following story was written by Tyler Roney for Third Pole, a “multilingual platform dedicated to promoting information and discussion about the Himalayan watershed and the rivers that originate there.” Just 50 metres from the Mekong, in the shadow of a discarded plastic cup, a lone chick sits ...
Thaiger
Urgent responses to climate change in the Mekong river are required
With rapid economic development, exponential population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation, and increased agricultural production in the region, the demand for water and river-based resources has dramatically increased, which gives rise to environmental degradation, resource scarcity, and struggles among diverse groups of resource users including local people, ...
Keo Piseth
At Vietnam’s southern tip, mangroves defend the land from the encroaching sea
Seen from above, Cape Ca Mau National Park, at Vietnam’s southernmost point, juts into the Gulf of Thailand like a verdant green toe. This dark green shade is created by an expansive, ecologically vital mangrove forest. But the province the park sits in, also called Ca ...
Michael Tatarski
Plastic gets to the oceans through over 1,000 rivers
The problem with plastic waste just got more complicated—and so did the effort to stanch its flow into the world’s oceans. Rivers are the primary conduits for plastic waste to the seas. In 2017, two separate groups of scientists concluded that 90 percent of river-borne plastic ...
LAURA PARKER
Mekong countries’ diplomats call for more experience sharing in water governance upon in-person visits to China’s dams
Mekong River countries’ diplomats expressed that they value the scientific, regulatory effect of Chinese dams on water resources, following their latest in-person visits to the main hydropower stations along the Lancang River, recognizing China’s role in bringing practical benefits to downstream sustainable development and calling ...
Hu Yuwei in Yunnan