Environment and natural resources

While the world’s attention has been focused on the Covid-19 pandemic, northern Thailand has been experiencing the worst forest fires in decades. Already raging since mid-March, the fires are projected to continue well into May. With the news of the pandemic dominating international media, the choking ...

More farmers in the Mekong Delta have restructured their crop cultivation to adapt to the effects of climate change. The delta, the country’s largest rice, fruit and seafood producer, has faced severe drought and saline intrusion in recent years and local authorities have encouraged farmers to switch to ...

The Mekong River originates in China and winds its way south, flowing through or past five other countries — Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam — before it empties into the South China Sea. The Mekong is the beating heart of the region, and while ...

Groups working to protect the Mekong River have called for greater transparency and cooperation from China after a report that Chinese dams held back water during a damaging drought in downstream countries last year. China has disputed the findings of the U.S. government-funded study and said ...

For three decades, China has been building dams on the upper Basin of the Mekong River, worrying countries downstream that China could one day turn off the tap. New data shows that for six months in 2019, while China received above average precipitation, its dams ...

China’s Mekong River dams held back large amounts of water during a damaging drought in downstream countries last year despite China having higher-than-average water levels upstream, a U.S. research company said in a study. China’s government disputed the findings, saying there was low rainfall during last ...

Denmark’s University of Copenhagen has drawn Prey Lang stakeholders’ attention to recently published data which shows increased illegal logging within the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. In an open letter dated April 11 and penned by the university, illegal logging activities were highlighted on a map provided ...

A herd of eight Asian elephants – an endangered species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – has been found living in an elephant conservation area in Nông Sơn District, Quảng Nam Province. Deputy head of the provincial ranger and forest protection sub-department Từ Văn Khánh confirmed ...

As China was stricken by the coronavirus in late February, its foreign minister addressed a concerned crowd in Laos, where farmers and fishers across the Mekong River region were contending with the worst drought in living memory. His message: We feel your pain. The foreign minister, Wang Yi, ...

With friends falling ill, another passing away and his movements restricted, coronavirus had already stretched Giordano Alpi physically and mentally when another disaster struck his 30-hectare farm in Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. A sudden plunge in night-time temperatures to below zero in late March caused extensive ...