Environment and natural resources

People living in the Mekong Delta are installing tanks to store water for the dreaded dry season, and authorities are building artificial lakes. Pham Van Tien opens the cement tank which has rainwater from the previous night. During the last dry season Tien’s family and some ...

According to the Ministry of Environment, rangers have cracked down on 11,376 cases of the natural resource crimes cases nationwide, during the first nine months of this year. The report also said that of the cases in which rangers intervened, 420 were filed in court, 606 ...

Thailand’s mangrove forests have increased by more than 200,000 rai, raising the total mangrove coverage to 1.73 million rai, according to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa. Citing satellite data showing the extent of mangrove forests in 24 coastal provinces, Mr Varawut said these ...

Research by the University of Leeds and Utrecht University has helped secure the highest government protection for internationally-important Vietnamese forests. Over the past five years, conservation organization Viet Nature, and its partners World Land Trust, IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands (IUCN NL), Birdlife International ...

Earlier this year, Vietnam’s prime minister called for a ban of the wildlife trade in the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several months later, the government released a directive on the wildlife trade. Hailed as a ban in some media coverage, the move fell short of that, ...

Vientiane authorities will impose a new legal measure designed to control noise as part of efforts to transform the capital into a more peaceful and socially-ordered city. Mayor of Vientiane, Dr Sinlavong Khoutphaythoune, on September 19 endorsed the capital’s decision to limit the noise emanating from ...

The Ministry of Environment is investigating a group that erected more than 50 stone and wooden posts and built fences on State land in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province. Its spokesman Neth Pheaktra said he recently inspected the activities while leading a delegation ...

Representatives of the European Union (EU) and the Lao government have held discussions on an agreement on combating illegal logging and promoting trade in legal timber products. The issue was discussed at the fourth Joint Expert Meeting (JEM) on a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) on forest law ...

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha, on behalf of the Vietnamese Government, has called on countries to combine strength and coordinate actions in a more urgent, drastic and practical manner to protect biodiversity – a priceless natural resource. Ha made the appeal at ...

Thao Nguyen Phan’s Becoming Alluvium opens with sound: an outboard motor puttering in the dark. The tea-brown, silt-clouded water of the Mekong appears, gliding beneath the prow of a little boat. Lines from the great poet Rabindranath Tagore’s The Gardener lap the screen, concluding: “Why did the ...