Environment and natural resources

It is starting to appear that nothing can save the 800,000 sq. km Mekong River basin, which provides vital sustenance for as many as 100 million people, from environmental depredation from dams all along the 4,350 km length of the mighty river that feeds it. Over ...

This year has been rough for the 70 million people who call the Mekong River basin home:  a severe drought rocked the region for months before yielding to deadly flooding.  The Mekong slowed to its lowest level in recorded history, knocking the world’s largest freshwater fishery—Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake—out of ...

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 ...