Environment and natural resources
No authority to prevent new Mekong River projects: MRC
The Mekong River Commission does not have the authority to stop projects even if they have trans-boundary effects, delegates to the fourth Green Mekong Forum said on 13 June, while the Thai Irrigation Department presented a water diversion project to fight poverty. If the MRC member states – ...
Province, district authorities have no right to approve logging
Officials from Vientiane and provincial agriculture and forestry departments across the country attended the one-day meeting where they received an explanation about Prime Ministerial Order No 15 issued on May 13 that details measures to address illegal logging and improve domestic timber business operations. Provincial ...
Companies failing to replace trees felled during projects
All companies carrying out projects in Laos which resulted in deforestation are required to plant trees to offset the loss, forestry officials and researchers have stated. But less than 10 percent of companies in question pursued the country’s laws and regulations, causing great loss in forestry ...
Old habits put crops at risk: study
A new academic report has urged farmers in the northwest of the Kingdom to change their planting ways if they want to mitigate the detrimental impacts of climate change on their crops. Van, a researcher with the department of agronomy and soil science at the University ...
Diverting the Mekong River into Thailand: The Khong-Loei-Chi-Mun project
Recently, the Royal Irrigation Department has reinvigorated its irrigation plans through the “Mekong-Loei-Chi-Mun River Management and Diversion by Gravity in the Northeast” project. It entails diverting water from the Mekong River’s mainstream into the Loei River in Northeastern Thailand, which would then be connected via tunnels ...
Species in ‘dramatic decline’ in east: WWF
Multiple animal species are in “dramatic decline” on Cambodia’s Eastern Plains as a result of habitat loss, road incursion, insufficient law enforcement and poaching, the World Wildlife Fund said in a statement on 7 June. According to villagers in various provinces, Cambodians hunt a diverse range ...
CARDI raises climate change concerns in report
A report from the Cambodia Agriculture Research and Development Institute, a semi-autonomous organisation, showed that 83 per cent of farmers surveyed in Kampong Speu, Kampot and Kampong Cham provinces had noticed the effects of climate change. Farmers in the three provinces emphasised that climate change reduced ...
Mekong dam projects ‘could destroy livelihoods, ecology’
The ecology of the Mekong River could be destroyed within 10 years if dam projects along the river are allowed to continue, Thai and Cambodian non-government organisations have warned. They have also warned that it will be very difficult for people to claim compensation for ...
Hard battle against wildlife crime
Lack of legal assistance from foreign countries means the fight against wildlife crime is still very tough. This is according to Nguyễn Duy Giảng, head of the Department for Prosecution and Supervision over Criminal Cases, under the Supreme People’s Procuracy of Việt Nam at press conference ...
Timber trade continuing despite ban, data shows
Customs data from Vietnam confirms that thousands of cubic meters of wood worth millions of dollars is continuing to reach the country from Cambodia despite a blanket ban placed on such exports four months ago. Soeng Sophari, a spokeswoman for the Commerce Ministry, which manages and ...
