Environment and natural resources

New power plants blamed for turning Mekong River blue

The Mekong River has turned a bright and striking blue, but this eye-catching sight has raised concerns about the environment and the livelihoods of those living in the region. The Mekong runs for nearly 3,100 miles and flows through China, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia, filling a ...

Simon Roughneen

Dam testing in China to affect eight Mekong River provinces

Eight provinces along the Mekong River have been told to brace themselves for a dip in water levels between Jan 1-4 as tests at Jinghong hydroelectric power station in China’s Yunnan province are expected decrease of water outflows. According to the Office of National Water Resources ...

Experts doubt effectiveness of new plan to address Mekong drought

After a year of severe drought that hit the region, the inter-state agency Mekong River Commission (MRC) has laid out new measures to mitigate the effects of the crisis but experts have questioned the effectiveness of the plan. In its 2020-2025 strategy, adopted late last month ...

Leonie Kijewski

The Mekong is on the cusp of an ecological catastrophe

People living along the banks of the Mekong River in Laos and Thailand were recently amazed to see the river’s water turn light blue and become so transparent that they could see the sandbars underneath. It was an eye-catching sight and the phenomenon boosted tourism ...

Darunee Sukanan

How To End Deforestation? Two Decades of Lessons Learned in the Greater Mekong

It’s home to spectacular beauty, abundant natural resources, and more than 300 million people spread across Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, and China. Yet the Greater Mekong has been gripped by conflict and political crises, creating in many places conditions ripe for illegal forest ...

Michael Jenkins, Kerstin Canby, Genevieve Bennett

Thailand returns orangutans to their Indonesian homeland

Wildlife authorities in Thailand sent two orangutans back to Indonesia on Friday as part of a collaborative effort to combat illicit wildlife trade. Ten-year-old female Cola and 7-year-old male Giant were transported from wildlife sanctuaries in the western province of Ratchaburi to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where ...

Busaba Sivasomboon

Currents of Time

A river can be timeless, but on no two days will its flowing course ever truly be the same. So it goes on the mighty Mekong. For thousands of years, this river has wound its way through much of Asia, shaping the land and lives of ...

Andrew Haffner

Patrol finds 200 snares in forest community

More than 200 illegal snares have over the past two weeks been removed from the Prambei Mom Forest community area in Kampong Speu’s Thpong district. Liv Sarum said on Thursday that patrols of the forest community in Prambei Mom commune found the traps, with 117 of ...

Long Kimmarita

Mekong countries strengthen river management cooperation

The Mekong River Commission and the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center have signed a memorandum of understanding to improve the management of the Mekong river. As part of the agreement, both organisations will research on drought and low flow scenarios in the lower and upper Mekong ...

Pech Sotheary

How the scramble for sand is destroying the Mekong

A crisis is engulfing the Mekong River, its banks are collapsing and half a million people are at risk of losing their homes. The entire ecosystem of this South East Asian river is under threat, all because of the world’s insatiable demand for sand. Extracted from the ...

Beth Timmins

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