Environment and natural resources
Biodiversity
Chàm Island to protect biodiversity
The Centre of Biodiversity Conservation, GreenViet and the Management Board of Chàm Island has inked an Memorandum of Understanding on the protection of flora and fauna in the forest of the island. The Management Board said the MoU will allow surveying of the current terrestrial plants ...
ADB supports sustainable biodiversity management
The Asian Development Bank has approved US$12.8 million in additional financing for the ongoing Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Project in Laos. The grant assistance is sourced from ADB’s Strategic Climate Fund, Forest Investment Programme. The grant agreement was signed in Vientiane on October 18, inked by Deputy Minister ...
Will hydropower turn the tide on the Salween River?
Both history and future development plans point to risks for the Salween River and its eco-systems and communities. Over-development, lack of public consultation and the appetite for energy threaten Asia’s last free flowing, international river. It is among the most visited, most photographed and most ...
Mongla: ‘the wildlife trafficking capital of the world’
Mongla lies on the border of the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China and Shan State in northeastern Myanmar. Situated in the heart of the Golden Triangle, the city is known among other sad epithets as the wildlife trafficking capital of the world and for drugs, gambling, ...
Authorities told to tackle water pollution to prevent deaths of aquatic animals
Dr Nantarika Chansue, head of the Veterinary Medical Aquatic Animal Research Centre at Chulalongkorn University, said on October 12 it was too late to do anything about the recent deaths of giant freshwater stingrays but authorities could work to restore the water quality in the ...
Shark fin trade swims on, despite ban
Pungent piles of dried fish meat fill tiny shops on the ground floor of Phnom Penh’s Phsar O’Russei as the latest catch flops in metal basins. Hanging from some stalls are bags of half-meter long, leathery, dried shark fins—destined for expensive bowls of a soup ...
Documentary raises alarm over Shan region threatened by Salween dam
Activists on September 28 released a 30-minute documentary as part of a campaign against a mega-dam in central Shan State. The documentary, called Drowning a Thousand Islands, includes local people from the remote Kunhing area voicing their concerns that the proposed Mong Ton hydropower project will irrevocably ...
Thailand pledges $1m to kick off ASEAN science development fund
Thailand will invest an initial US$1 million to establish a Science, Technology and Innovation Development Fund for ASEAN. After the first ASEAN Science & Technology Innovation Forum, held in Bangkok last week, Science and Technology Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj said the forum had come up with three plans to ...
Civet species thought to be extinct found in central Vietnam
The large-spotted civet species recently discovered in the Phong Dien Nature Reserve in Hue city was previously considered to be extinct in Vietnam and China by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to the Forest Protection Department of Thua Thien – Hue province, ...
Questions raised over vehicle spraying station
Many people are wondering what the point of the quarantine station on the Thanaleng side of the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge actually is, given that its spray station resembles a nursery water sprinkler. Ostensibly, the spray station, through which every vehicle entering Laos must pass, is to ...
