Environment and natural resources
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 ...
Timber exports to Vietnam way up
Legal timber exports to Vietnam – the bulk of them rosewood – soared between 2013 and 2015, with the volume of logs exported increasing by a factor of 142 and seven times as much sawn wood passing across the border, according to a report by ...
Move to grow artificial forest in Nan dubbed unsustainable
Critics claim an all-star conservation group set up to tackle deforestation has missed the mark by advocating an artificially grown forest, which they say will not result in sustainability and rich biodiversity. Many people have welcomed the plan by the Plook Loei Group, which is led ...
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 ...
The fight for resources in Myanmar’s deep south
Tanintharyi Region, the southern tip of Myanmar, abounds with natural resources and the problems associated with them. Residents in the isolated region face over-mining by foreign companies, the proposed development of a deep-sea port, an oil refinery and a special economic zone, mechanised farming of rubber ...
Government urged to update environmental monitoring services
The operation mode of the environmental monitoring institutions needs an overhaul as the country is facing serious environmental problems as a result of an unsustainable development model. The Thi Vai River in Vietnam is contaminated by discharged waste water from Vedan’s factories. And many more incidents ...
Govt, UNDP agree project to conserve Savannakhet's ecosystems
The government of Laos has just signed a new UNDP programme funded by the Global Environment Facility, which is set to conserve and manage forests in five districts of Savannakhet province, over the next six years. Dry dipterocarp forests are under pressure as large areas have ...
Amid drought, diarrhea poses severe threat
Teachers at Toul Mead Primary School in Siem Reap province tell students to bring drinking water from home to keep them hydrated in the scorching heat. But water is increasingly hard to come by as the worst drought in decades drags on. There is no free ...
Livelihoods in jeopardy as Vietnam’s Mekong Delta struggles with sediment loss
The World Wide Fund for Nature reported that suspended sediment load in the Mekong Delta declined from 160 million tons in 1992 to 75 million tons in 2014 due to the construction of hydropower dams and reservoirs on the mainstream and branches of Mekong River. It noted that sand ...
Govt widens ban on timber exports, tightens wood business
The government has announced a new ban on the export of various tree species, timber products and ornamental plants in a move to take ownership of and maximise the benefits of Laos’ natural resources. Prime Minister ThonglounSisoulith issued an order last week imposing the ban on ...
