Environment and natural resources
Biodiversity
Cattle feeders in Vietnam feel sting of fast changing market
Vietnam cattle feeders spent millions of US dollars importing 311,523 head of Australian young beef calves last year— betting that retail prices for beef on the supermarket shelves had nowhere to go but up. Now the feeders, who buy calves and fatten them for sale to ...
Government will start chipping away at protected areas
Between 2009 and 2012, the Ministry of Environment went on nationwide leasing spree, signing over vast swaths of the country’s nominally protected areas to private companies for rubber plantations and other agribusiness ventures. A new map of Cambodia’s protected areas shows the 36,000-hectare concession controlled by ...
Yok Don national park still threatened by hydropower project
The Drang Phok Hydropower Plant project, which was started way back in 2007 and criticised for its impact on the ecosystem, has still not been scrapped despite continued opposition. In 2007, the chairman of Dak Lak Province at that time, Lu Ngoc Cu, granted his approval ...
Laos, China and Vietnam join to combat wildlife trafficking
Frontline enforcement officers last from key provinces, ports and border posts in Laos, China and Vietnam completed an inter-agency field mission this week to share experiences, approaches and update the situation on wildlife smuggling networks along the major trade routes between China, Vietnam and Laos. Keep ...
Forest wildfires ring Mae Hong Son township
Forest fires were still burning high on mountains ringing Thailand’s provincial capital Mae Hong Son on 22 March, with firefighters struggling to reach hot spots in very difficult terrain. Keep reading ...
Illegal wildlife trade thriving
Despite concerted efforts by officials to prevent the illegal trade in wildlife through regular inspections in markets around the country, the trade is still flourishing unchecked. While the government is working to preserve aquatic animals and wildlife and protected areas, the sight of wild fauna for ...
Fishermen seek probe into large number of dead fish
Fishermen in Rayong’s Muang district are calling on the authorities to find out why a large number of fish were found dead at Ta Kuan Beach-Pradu Bay area on 15 March, though they believe it could be blamed on rising sea temperatures, which usually happens ...
Details scant for warrants issued in logging crackdown
The recently formed anti-illegal logging committee has issued 10 warrants against alleged illegal timber traders since it began its crackdown in January, officials have confirmed, although the details of those accused and the charges they face remain under wraps. The committee’s spokesperson Eng Hy said on ...
Hydropower dams cause VND5,194,153m in damages to Mekong Delta
Mainstream hydropower projects on the Mekong River caused a loss of VND5,200 billion (USVND5,194,153 million) in seafood and agriculture output to the Mekong Delta, said former Deputy Chairman of National Committee of Science and Technology, Nguyen Ngoc Tran. The announcement came at a conference on the ...
Environmental campaigner convicted of forestry crime
A prominent anti-dam activist in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province who has been jailed since October was convicted on 3 March of illegal logging and given a suspended prison sentence, allowing him to walk free but leaving the shadow of a criminal conviction hanging over him. The decision ...
