Extractive industries
In Arakan State, resource control fuels conflict
In a new report, Arakan Oil Watch has urged Myanmar’s incoming government to amend the Constitution in an effort to quell tensions between the military and the country’s ethnic armed groups. “Breaking the Curse,” released on 22 March by the environmental non-government organization, describes the “decentralization of ...
One villager’s struggle for justice at Heinda tin mine
For more than a decade, U Saw Dar Shwe has been fighting a battle against a Thai tin mining company which he says has irreparably destroyed his land. A smallholder areca palm farmer and ethnic Kayin, U Saw Dar Shwe has repeatedly refused compensation from Myanmar ...
Thai dredging vessels told to retreat from Lao side of the Mekong
The operators of Thai sand dredgers working in the Mekong River close to Khammuan province signed a document last week stating they would not continue to cross the border into Laos. Deputy Head of the Khammuan provincial Administration Office, Mr Vannavong Vongphachan, told Vientiane Times on ...
Two director generals fired after jade probe
A three-month investigation into dodgy dealings in the murky jade industry has netted dozens of government officials, with two director generals dismissed from their posts earlier this week. The President’s Office on 3 March confirmed that the director generals from two Union government ministries, as well as ...
Rough seas impede oil spill cleanup
Thailand’s Marine Department on 27 February said it had not been able to clean up the oil spill from the capsized cruise liner Ocean Dream off Koh Nok in Chon Buri’s Si Racha district due to high winds and waves impeding their operations. In a press statement, the department ...
Locals ask court to cancel coal permits
Residents in Thailand’s Nakhon Laung district in Ayutthaya province have asked the Central Administrative Court to withdraw the operating permits given to 51 coal and fertiliser companies and 26 piers on the Pasak River. They argue they have failed to protect the communities’ health and environment ...
Amyotha committee takes aim at resource extraction
With Myanmar’s deadly jade industry increasingly under international scrutiny after hundreds of scavengers were buried in landslides, the Amyotha Hluttaw is taking the infamously unregulated extractive industries sector to task. The illegal plundering of natural resources will be put to an end, according to National League for ...
Koh Kong sand dredging impact studies due
The Ministry of Mines and Energy plans to release the environmental impact assessments of two controversial sand-dredging companies in Koh Kong “soon”, ministry spokesman Meng Saktheara said on 15 February. Activists from NGO Mother Nature – three of whom have been arrested for interfering with the ...
Oil blocks to remain open
The Cambodian government said on 9 February it would postpone bidding on two vacated offshore oil blocks given the low global levels of investment flowing into petroleum exploration activities. The Ministry of Mines and Energy revoked the exploration licences of Resourceful Petroleum Limited last month after the ...
Cam Pha port handles over 33,000 tonnes of coal on first New Year day
Cam Pha port and logistics company, an affiliate of the Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin), in the northern province of Quang Ninh loaded 33,000 tonnes of coal for two ships on 8 February, the first day of the Year of the Monkey. Keep ...
