Environment and natural resources
Hydropower vs Heritage: Will Laos Lose Luang Prabang?
The Lao government’s high-risk plan to install a massive dam on the Mekong River, perilously close to the renowned UNESCO World Heritage site of Luang Prabang, shows a disregard for its legal obligations to protect the renowned site, according to conservation experts. Minja Yang, the former ...
Tom Fawthrop
Trash talk: Why waste management is not a throwaway business
As waste continues to increase on Phnom Penh streets and decrease government coffers, everyone from policymakers to the public wants a solution. Khmer Times’ Tom Starkey spoke to community leader in sustainability and owner and founder of Phnom Penh restaurant Farm To Table Brittany Sims about why ...
Tom Starkey
Cambodia's giant life-giving Tonle Sap lake in peril
As night falls over his floating village, fisherman Leng Vann puffs on a cigarette and heaves a sigh for Tonle Sap, the great inland lake that has sustained Cambodia for centuries. More than a million people live on or around the lake, the world’s largest inland ...
AFP
Opportunity for Cambodia to set example of environmental sustainability
Cambodia has a unique opportunity to reshape environmental sustainability while human development impacts are lessened due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Cambodia’s resident representative, Nick Beresford said yesterday Cambodia could be an example of how human development can ...
Buth Sela
Korea, ASEAN agree to launch working-level dialogue on environment, climate change
South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed to launch a working-level dialogue to strengthen cooperation in protecting the environment and tackling climate change, the foreign ministry said Wednesday. The two sides have wrapped up weeks of discussions to establish the “South ...
Yonhap
Thailand enforces strict laws to reduce smog in Bangkok and big cities
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has ordered relevant organizations to enforce laws strictly to reduce smog and ask operators and people to cooperate. Lt Gen Kongcheep Tantrawanit, spokesman of the deputy prime minister, said the order responded to the high levels of particulate matters 2.5 microns ...
Pattaya Mail
U.S. Steps Up Scrutiny of Chinese Built Dams on Mekong Basin
The U.S. is increasing scrutiny of Chinese dams along the Mekong River, its latest move aimed at helping Southeast Asian nations push back against Beijing. The ‘Mekong Dam Monitor,’ funded by the U.S. government and run by for-profit consultancy Eyes on Earth and the Washington-based Stimson Center gathers ...
Philip Heijmans
Endangered crane absent from Vietnam's Ramsar site
Losing their natural habitat and food source, red-crowned cranes no longer call a national park in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta home. For three decades, Tram Chim National Park in the reed fields of Dong Thap Muoi in Dong Thap Province has been famous as a natural habitat ...
Hoang Nam
Open letter to Aung San Suu Kyi to address water contamination issue
Your Excellency; First of all, I am Saw Paul Sein Twa, the Chairperson of the Salween Peace Park in Mutraw District, Karen State, Kawthooeli, Eastern Myanmar, which recently was awarded the 2020 Equator Prize. I work closely with local Indigenous Karen people and walk with them as ...
Saw Paul Sein Twa
Chinese dams under U.S. scrutiny in Mekong rivalry
A U.S.-funded project using satellites to track and publish water levels at Chinese dams on the Mekong river was announced on Monday, adding to the superpowers’ rivalry in Southeast Asia. The 4,350-km (2,700-mile) waterway – known as the Lancang in China and flowing south through Myanmar, ...
Kay Johnson, Matthew Tostevin