Environment and natural resources
Vietnamese, Norwegian enterprises envisage a future of clean energy
HCM City (VNA) – An energy transition seminar on Norwegian-Vietnamese business partnerships opened in Ho Chi Minh on September 13, hosted by the Norwegian Embassy in Vietnam in collaboration with the Oil, Gas and Coal Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). According to experts, the participation and collaboration of the ...
VNA
Report: Forest encroachment for maize cultivation increased in Lower Mekong
Industrial-scale maize cultivation to produce animal feed, one of the two main reasons behind annual smog in the three Lower Mekong countries, has grown on a massive scale, satellite data analysis has revealed. More than 11.8 million rai (4.7 million acres) of forested area in the ...
Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA
A forest gave Cambodia’s captive elephants a new life. Now they’re paying it back
PU TROM, Cambodia — The quiet life that Sambo leads today seems as distant from her past plight as the searing-hot streets she once trod as a tourist attraction in the far-off capital of Phnom Penh. “Elephants are not meant to walk on concrete,” says Jemma ...
John Cannon
New Thai government must show more responsibility with the Mekong
Around this time of year when the rainy season begins, people living on the banks of the Mekong River along the Thai-Lao border always feel a little less stressed because rising water levels mean more fish and food to support their survival. Until the mid-1990s, these ...
Titipol Phakdeewanich
Thai investment in Laos hydropower reveals dire disconnect in the Mekong
Over the past year, the pace of hydropower development along the mainstream of the Mekong River in Laos has picked up, fuelled by long-term funding agreements. Chinese and Thai hydropower project investors have been signing Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), which usually cover a 30-year period, ...
Ming Li Yong
PM addresses Mekong Delta's environment crisis
The Mekong Delta is seeing land subsidence faster than the sea level rise and is at risk of sinking, PM Pham Minh Chinh said as he visited the region on Saturday. The rate of land subsidence in the delta, the nation’s agriculture hub, is 3-4 times ...
An Binh, Ngoc Tai
Mekong water level falling
NAKHON PHANOM: The level of the Mekong river is falling and water can now be drained more quickly out of thousands of rai of flooded rice fields, authorities in this northeastern border province said on Monday. The river was receding by 10-20 centimetres per day. It ...
PATTANAPONG SRIPIACHAI
Indonesia to prepare 500,000 hectares for rice crops amid El Nino phenomenon
JAKARTA: The Indonesian government will prepare 500,000 hectares of agricultural land for rice production in anticipation of the long drought brought on by the El Nino climate phenomenon. According to a Presidential Secretariat’s Press, Media and Information Bureau (BPMI) statement, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo said ...
Rhea Yasmine Alis Haizan
Ancient alligator species identified in Thailand
Scientists have discovered a previously unknown alligator species with a distinct skull structure that thrived in ancient Thailand about 230,000 years ago, offering additional insights into the evolutionary history of Asian alligators, according to a new study. The creature in question shares a close evolutionary relationship ...
Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA
El Nino will expose Thailand’s lack of defense against climate change: experts
Although the rainy season has begun in Thailand, the threat of prolonged drought and water shortages is hovering on the horizon because of El Nino. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which monitors sea temperatures at over 200 locations, forecasts that El Nino – ...
Thai PBS World