Environment and natural resources
Forests and forestry
Thai Forest Department department reclaims land for Hmong
Authorities have agreed to draft a master plan for zoning the Phuttubberk forest in Phetchabun’s Lom Kao district to allow hill tribe minorities to live and work there. The plan is also designed to keep resort business operators away. Keep reading ...
Three resorts face encroachment counts in Thai national park
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation will file charges against three resort owners accused of forest land encroachment in Phu Rua district of this province. The resorts reportedly belong to state officials, including a retired senior forest official. Keep reading ...
Forest land-using projects required to plant new trees
Any projects using forest land in the future must include, once put forward for investment approval, a feasible report on the plan to plant new trees and to allocate a specific land fund, said Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai. During an online conference of the ...
Vietnamese arrested in Mondolkiri smuggling timber
Two Vietnamese nationals were arrested in Cambodia’s Mondolkiri province as they attempted to cross the border back into Vietnam on 8 October in a tour bus loaded with high-grade timber, authorities said 11 October. Keep reading ...
Laos faces the unknown as elephants walk from logging into tourism
Walk down any street in Luang Prabang, Laos, and you will be presented with any number of opportunities to interact with elephants. Some are more ethical than others. Indeed, at the Elephant Village, 15 kilometres outside town, the motto is: “Saving elephants is our mission.” Keep reading ...
Vietnam's forest protection law falls short
Vietnam’s Law on Forest Protection and Development has become backwards and exposed numerous disadvantages, after more than 10 years of implementation, a senior official from the Vietnam Forestry Administration (VNFOREST) has said. Deputy director of the VNFOREST, Nguyen Ba Ngai, made his comment at a workshop ...
Rights group asks for land data sharing
Rights group Licadho has called on the government to make available statistics on the full extent of economic land concessions in response to data collected by the organisation over five years. Keep reading ...
Report finds economic land concessions affected 17K families
Community representatives, civil society organisations and opposition members have urged the government for more urgent action to resolve land disputes following the release of annual data showing that all 24 provinces were affected in 2014, with hundreds of cases still unresolved. The call came at the launch ...
Lao officials fail to enforce government ban on timber exports
A recent ban on the export of raw logs imposed by the Lao government to increase the value of processed wood products is not being enforced in the country’s southern provinces because some national leaders are involved in timber smuggling, a civil society official with ...
Vietnamese rubber giant makes deal with Cambodian villagers
A “major breakthrough” has been reached in discussions between Vietnamese rubber giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai and 11 indigenous communities in Ratanakkiri province that have lost land and resources to the company’s plantations. During a three-day meeting with community representatives, NGOs and its own subsidiaries, the ...
