Environment and natural resources
WWF expresses sorrow over loss of globally endangered wildlife
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) shared its sadness over the loss of two adult female Banteng in Northeastern part of Cambodia, according to its statement released recently. The two Banteng are believed to have been shot dead a few days inside Phnom Prich Wildlife ...
US Study Insists China's Dams to Blame for Mekong Drought
China’s massive dams on the Mekong River exacerbated last year’s extreme drought in downstream countries including Thailand, researchers from a US government-funded study said on Wednesday. The researchers discuss the findings – originally published by American research company Eyes on Earth Inc. – in a video conference organized ...
Khaosod English
Mekong region under threat, report claims
A recent report by the Regional Community Forestry Training Centre (RECOFTC) said villagers living around Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary had recently reported illegal loggers in the forest and they took action by seizing some of the perpetrators’ chainsaws. The area is protected by the government and the ...
Ry Sochan
Water Shortage Is Being Felt in Several Parts of the Country
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology warned that the country might soon experience an intense heat wave, which could bring temperature to 41 Celsius in the northwestern parts of the country. Cambodia is believed to be one of the most vulnerable countries ...
Lay Sopheavatey
Dams upstream of the Mekong damage 70 million people
Construction of dams on the Mekong continues. The river is 4,000 kilometers long, rising on the Tibetan plateau and flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The stretch of this river that flows through the Chinese territory is 2,130 km. It’s called Lan-ts’ang River. Chinese ...
Nguyen Hung
Water Becomes a Weapon in China’s Geopolitical Chess
Modern China seems to have learned the ancient master’s lesson well. It has unleashed water wars on Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Even as China’s neighbors deal with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, they are experiencing their worst drought in living memory. The mighty Mekong ...
Mayank Singh
If China won’t build fewer dams, it could at least share information
River flow downhill, which in much of Asia means they start on the Tibetan plateau before cascading away to the east, west and south. Those steep descents provide the ideal setting for hydropower projects. And since Tibet is part of China, Chinese engineers have been ...
Environmentalists urge Laos to scrap 'destructive' Mekong dam plans
Environmentalists have urged Laos not to proceed with the construction of another “destructive” dam on the Mekong River, a vital Southeast Asian waterway that sustains about 60 million people. Last week, Laos’ communist government announced plans for the Sanakham dam – close to the northeastern border ...
Nicola Smith
How protecting forests and their communities can prevent the next outbreak
Clear-cutting forests may provide short-term monetary gains, but the true costs of mass deforestation could be steep. The novel coronavirus that has caused the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is believed to be zoonotic, meaning it first spread from animals to humans. Not only is that a common ...
CAROLYN COWAN
Ensure Mekong River projects don’t harm riparian countries: Vietnam
Hydropower projects must not affect people’s lives in riparian countries negatively, Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Thursday. Le Thi Thu Hang was responding to a query about Laos’s plan to build another dam on the Mekong River at an online press meet. “The development of hydropower projects ...
Viet Anh