Environment and natural resources

As the monsoon gets underway across Indochina, farmers and fishermen are praying for rain after a lengthy drought — aggravated by climate change and dam construction.  This year the Mekong River has seen its lowest levels since record keeping began 60 years ago.  According to the Mekong River Commission, ...

The Ambassador of Finland to Vietnam H.E. Mr. Kari Kahiluoto participated in a signing ceremony of a project named “Strengthening Communication Capacity for Better Climate Resilience in the Mekong River Delta project (CCBCR)” in Tien Giang province on 2 July 2020. The CCBCR project was granted by ...

Activists campaigning against wildlife crime say Thailand could be a global leader in stopping pandemics by further cracking down on and ceasing to be a gateway for the illegal wildlife trade. They believe this would help stop animal-to-human disease transmission. They said scientific information has shown that ...

SK Engineering & Construction Co. said Thursday that it has reached a deal with authorities in Laos to compensate victims of a deadly hydroelectric dam collapse in the Southeast Asian country. The Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Co., a joint venture involving the South Korean builder, inked the ...

The number of illegal logs seized in the first nine months of the fiscal year shows that timber smuggling remains rampant in Sagaing Region despite the threat of COVID-19, the head of the regional Forest Department said.  U Aung Tun Win, director of the department, said ...

Illegal dumping and waste burning present a challenge to municipal solid waste management in Vientiane Capital, according to authorities. Household waste management in the nation’s capital stands at only 27 percent, while the remaining 73 percent of households in the capital do not use municipal waste ...

The People’s Committee of the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh has decided to provide relief worth more than 40 billion VND (1.7 million USD) to more than 28,000 farming households to revive agriculture, which was severely affected by drought and saltwater intrusion in the 2019 – ...

A leading Thai geologist is warning that a huge new dam proposed in an earthquake-prone region of northern Laos poses a high risk of endangering the famed UNESCO-World Heritage city of Luang Prabang. The 1410-megawatt dam, expected to be Laos’s largest, is being developed by Thai ...

Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam have urged Laos to better assess transboundary impacts, and strengthen proposed measures to reduce any negative effect as it moves ahead with the construction of a dam. At a special joint committee session of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) earlier this week, ...

Neighboring countries have called on Laos to consider the cross-border environmental impacts of a hydropower plant it plans to build on the Mekong River. Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand expressed concern after the Mekong River Commission (MRC) completed a six-month consultation process for the Luang Prabang Dam project ...