Environment and natural resources

A toxic smog settled over Malaysia and Singapore for most of September fuelled by fires that had been raging in neighbouring Indonesia for weeks. Schools were forced to close, N95 masks to filter the polluted air’s most dangerous particulates were rationed, and doctors reported a surge in patients ...

Cambodia is one of the most wetland dependant countries in the world. More than 46% of its people live and work on these vital resources and 80% of the population rely on them for food. Yet over the past 15 years half of Cambodia’s wetlands have ...

The environmental impacts of cars, plastics and fossil fuels are well know. But what about illegal drugs? MDMA production is listed as an environmental threat. Due to the limited availability of a crucial ingredient, the drug is damaging the environment with its sourcing and production. MDMA, or ecstasy, is ...

A top marine biologist has urged Thailand’s government to speed up conservation plans for the dugong, an imperiled sea mammal, after their death toll for the year in Thai waters has already climbed to a record 21. Thon Thamrongnawasawat said on his Facebook page that the ...

The consequences of climate change is getting worse as each day passes. From shrinking ice caps to drawn out drought seasons, it seems that every country across the globe has experience some sort of impact from the drastic changes in weather patterns. And one of climate change’s victims, Southeast Asia’s ...

Irrawaddy dolphins are curious creatures in more ways than one. They are curious by nature and look curious too. Instead of having long bottle-like nostrums like their relatives living in the seas, these freshwater mammals sport snub noses with bulging foreheads. They look a bit ...

Under a rickety wooden stilt house near Cambodia’s Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary, one of the country’s leading environmental campaigners is preparing dinner. Ouch Leng stuffs raw meat into an empty beer can and throws it into the fire. It’s a poor man’s feast for his team ...

When I first met Ly Heng in May 2016, the forest behind his house was still smoldering — the remnants of the worst drought to hit Southeast Asia in decades. Heng lived along a small river at the top of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, in a protected ...

The Mekong Delta has restructured agriculture towards climate-change adaptation and market demand by establishing specialised farming areas for its key agricultural products, and by growing other crops on ineffective rice fields or rotating rice with other crops on the same field.  The delta, the country’s largest rice, seafood ...

As world leaders meet in New York from Monday to discuss the global challenge of climate change, thousands of kilometres away people in Cambodia are grappling with dramatic changes to the country’s ecosystem, including the lowest water levels in the crucially-important Mekong River ever recorded. The United Nations Development Programme, ...