Environment and natural resources
Urgent need for law to control water pollution
Formulating a specific law to control water pollution in the country’s legislative work programme is a necessary task of Vietnam’s State agencies and scientists to ensure national sustainable development. A consensus on this was reached by participants at a workshop on roles of the Vietnam Union ...
Laos’s threat to the Mekong River
Sipandon – meaning 4,000 Islands – is an area of immense biodiversity, ecotourism and abundance of fish migration, but its survival is at serious risk from the hydropower Don Sahong dam, which is on the verge of construction. “If this special wetlands zone is protected, it ...
Taking on climate change in the dry zone
A UNDP project in the country’s dry zone aims to help villages weather climate change by improving access to water sources and food security. The project will be implemented in Shwebo and Monywa in Sagaing Region, Myingyan and Nyaung-U in Mandalay Region and Chauk in ...
‘Ownerless’ illegal logs seized in Kachin and Sagaing
A thousand tonnes of timber bound for the Chinese border have been seized by police, with the help of local residents amid armed clashes between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army. Investigators are now following up the seizure of the 2206 logs in Bhamaw/Bhamo township, ...
Mining destroys local way of life
The mining of minerals has caused serious harm to the public’s environment, experts warned. A recent report presented at a workshop held by the People and Nature Centre (PanNature) and the Vietnam Mining Coalition showed that mining activities is a direct cause of hunger and poverty ...
Dams may worsen arsenic problem: study
A Stanford University study conducted in Cambodia has shed new light on the natural introduction of the poison arsenic into groundwater – an established problem in Cambodia that could be exacerbated by hydrological development, particularly dams, researchers say. According to a report on their findings, published ...
Myanmar to fight climate change by protecting forests
Though it emits very little greenhouse gas – and what is emitted is offset by its forests – Myanmar is affected more than almost any other country in the world by climate change, the country’s delegates will tell the Paris climate conference. About 20 Myanmar government ...
Vietnamese ignore health risks, catch fish from dioxin-polluted lakes for sale
Fish buyers never know that fish may have been caught illegally, from lakes heavily contaminated by extremely dangerous chemicals. Bien Hoa airbase, which is around 30 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, is one of the sites with the severest and longest lasting dioxin pollution in the ...
11 primate species in Vietnam are critically endangered: study
A new study by global primate experts found Vietnam in a dire situation with an increase in critically endangered species, several of which are endemic to the country. Experts assessed the threat of extinction for 182 kinds of primates in South China, South and Southeast Asia, ...
Critics doubt Thai PM's climate pledge
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on 1 December declared in front of the world community that Thailand would slash greenhouse gases by 20-25 per cent within 15 years, but critics panned the plan, saying it was just for show, as it looked unrealistic. Prayut told the two-week-long United Nations climate-change ...
