Environment and natural resources
Dam threat to Mekong River’s last few dolphins
The fate of the last surviving Irrawaddy river dolphins on the Laos-Cambodian border hangs in the balance after a Laos government official was reported as saying this week that construction of the dam would begin by the end of the year.Keep reading ...
Myanmar third-worst for deforestation rate, says UN
Myanmar’s forests are in trouble. Two recent reports reveal the rapid loss of tree cover over the past five years has been so severe Myanmar ranks among the worst for deforestation in the world. Since 2010, Myanmar has lost more than 546,000 hectares (over 1.3 million ...
Trees ‘felled for pepper’
Batambang’s Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary is being illegally logged for pepper posts, with brokers bribing environment officers to transport the timber, residents and NGO workers have said. Keep reading ...
NGOs, Cambodia voice alarm at Lao decision to proceed with Don Sahong Dam
Cambodian officials vowed on 11 September to prevent neighbor Laos from going ahead with construction of the controversial Don Sahong dam without approval from fellow Mekong River basin countries that would be affected by the project. The Phnom Penh officials, as well as local and international non-governmental ...
Mekong dwellers struggle to adapt to tides of change
Since its founding, the inhabitants of Can Tho city have sold their wares atop the water, which has become a tourist spectacle. This has been the way of life for as long as any resident here can remember, but things are changing. In recent years, local communities ...
Agreement signed to sustain fisheries
In the first such initiative, Vietnam’s Directorate of Fisheries and six other members signed an agreement on 9 September on Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the fisheries and aquaculture sector with the aim to support sustainable development in this sphere. Keep reading ...
Environment experts discuss dam dangers
Thirty-five experts from environmental organisations in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam gathered on 8 September to discuss water management and the effects of hydropower dams. They participated in a one-day seminar held in Vietnam’s Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta and discussed the impacts that dams ...
NGO files suit over ‘seizures’ in Phnom Oral
A Kampong Speu-based NGO has accused a police officer and several rangers working for the provincial Environment Department of seizing more than 100 hectares of Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, demanding a court order to restore the land and hold the parties to account. Keep reading ...
Southern farmers bring dead fish to province office to protest pollution
Fish farmers in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on 7 August brought hundreds of kilograms of dead fish to the government office, accusing seafood processors of polluting a local river. The move came one day after they protested with dead fish in front of the ...
Green light for Mekong ‘time bomb’ sparks alarm
Environmental groups have expressed alarm at the Laotian National Assembly’s approval of the concession for the Don Sahong Dam project, which has been described as an “ecological time bomb” about to be dropped on the Mekong River. The Laotian government and the project’s developer, Malaysia’s MegaFirst ...
