Environment and natural resources
Measures needed to make Mekong Delta adaptive to climate change
It is essential to promote sustainable development of the Mekong Delta in the direction of effectively adapting to climate change, given the region’s strategic position in national socio-economic development and security defence, experts have said. Covering a total area of 3.94 million hectares across 13 provinces and city, the ...
Marijuana seized on Mekong river bank
A patrol of the Mekong Riverine Unit seized 635 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana on the bank of the Mekong river in Tha Uthen district in the small hours of Monday. The patrol spotted a pickup covered with canvas on the bank of the Mekong river near ...
PATTANAPONG SRIPIACHAI
Forests are needed to absorb carbon, but the overheating planet might soon flip a critical switch
New research shows that the fast warming of the planet could cause trees and plants to release more carbon than they absorb, a critical function reversal that would further accelerate climate change. By as early as 2040, given the current projections of global temperature rise, land ...
Jack Board
For border-crossing Thai tigers, the forest on the other side isn’t as green
Big cats require big home ranges. In February 2016, a young male Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) walked from Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand to Kayin state in Myanmar. After crossing mountains, rivers, roads and national borders over the course of its 170-kilometer (105-mile) ...
Carolyn Cowan
Trash trap gets to work removing plastic waste from Vietnam's Red River
Removing the vast amounts of plastic waste already polluting our oceans is going to need tackling in a number of ways. But the flow of plastic from rivers also needs to be stopped, and that’s what Vietnam’s trash traps are designed to do. They may not ...
Paul Ridden
Water Levels Drop, Fail to Rise Again on Mekong River Along Thai-Lao Border
Water levels on a stretch of the Mekong River along the border of Thailand and Laos, already low because of equipment testing at China’s upriver Jinghong Dam, have failed to rise again, raising concerns in communities living downstream, sources say. Chinese authorities at the end of ...
RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Floating guard post to protect Irawaddy dolphins in Mekong
The Kratie provincial authority in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Cambodia) is preparing to build a guard post in the Anlong Kampi area of the Mekong River in Chitr Borei district’s Sambok commune to watch for illegal fishing activities that may affect ...
Nov Sivutha
Time is up for illegal loggers in protected park
The Royal Academy of Cambodia (RAC) will start enforcing the law to arrest perpetrators and seize timber and bulldozers as there is still illegal logging at Preah Vihear province’s Techo Sen Russey Trep Park. RAC president Sok Touch said yesterday that his patience has been exhausted, ...
Buth Sela
The guardians of Siamese rosewood
“We bury a GPS tracker in the wood. We call them rabbits,” says Cheewapap Cheewatham, director of Thailand’s Forest Protection and Fire Control Bureau, part of the forestry department. He tells China Dialogue that they used to just impound as evidence cut rosewood they found ...
Ryn Jirenuwat, Tyler Roney
Laos to earn revenue from sale of carbon credit next year
The government expects to earn its first income from the sale of carbon credit next year after signing an agreement with the World Bank. The Deputy Director General of the Forestry Department, Mr Khamsene Oukham, said on Thursday that the government had signed an agreement with ...
Times Reporter