News
Thai, Cambodia, Vietnam Ambassadors Urge ASEAN, US support for Mekong Management
The ambassadors of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia have called for greater support from the U.S. and the ASEAN regional bloc to address urgent environmental threats to the Mekong River. They also emphasized the need for improved water data sharing by all countries on the river, ...
Seourn Vathana, VOA Khmer
Cambodia keen on Mekong diplomacy across entire region
Cambodia is committed to reinforcing the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) diplomatic mechanisms for the benefit of all six member states. Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn reaffirmed the stance in a press statement on March 24. “Let me reiterate Cambodia’s commitment to reinforcing the MLC ...
Voun Dara
Rainforest Trust is Saving Habitat in Laos for the Rare Asian Unicorn
Rainforest Trust is working with Asian Arks to conserve the Khoun Xe Nong Ma National Protected Area that was recently declared by the Government of Lao PDR. The KXNM area covers approximately 133,000 acres of the Upper Xe Bang Fai-Laos Key Biodiversity Area in the ...
Rainforest Trust
Preah Vihear villagers seek solution to ‘encroachment’
Around 230 families from three villages in Romtom commune of Preah Vihear province’s Rovieng district said they are worried about the continued encroachment on their farmland by three companies which have licences for gold mining and agricultural in the area. The villageres said they had been ...
Long Kimmarita
Myanmar’s environmental record was weak but improving. Then came the coup
It started with the water changing color. Soon after that, the fish began to die. When the villagers bathed, they became itchy and covered in sores like an allergic reaction. Later, women and farm animals in the area started having miscarriages at an unusually high ...
Andrew Nachemson
Lands Grabs and Other Destructive Environmental Practices in Cambodia Test the International Criminal Court
Three leading climate and human rights nonprofits have asked the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague to pursue rampant “land grabbing” by the government of Cambodia and its commerce partners as a crime against humanity under the court’s jurisdiction. In an open letter ...
Katie Surma
Mekong-Lancang Cooperation records achievements
The Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) was established on 23 March 2016. This year marks the Fifth Anniversary of MLC, which comprises of six member countries, namely Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam and China with the objective of promoting and enhancing socio-economic development on the ...
H.E. Saleumxay Kommasith, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Lao PDR
Volatile Mekong threatens birds’ nest
Just 50 metres from the Mekong, in the shadow of a discarded plastic cup, a lone chick sits camouflaged on the sand. It is a newly hatched small pratincole in Bueng Kan province, northeast Thailand. “I recorded 15 nests on the beach, smaller numbers compared with previous ...
Tyler Roney
China’s rare earth supplies disrupted by Myanmar tumult
Fears are growing of a global shortage of rare earth minerals used in the manufacture of high-tech devices as unrest in Myanmar following the February 1 coup disrupts exports to China. Chinese companies started complaining about delays in shipments of the minerals since mid-March, reportedly due to ...
DOMINIC OO
Five Bright Spots in the Mekong
For many years the warning signs flashed the same message: the Mekong River, Southeast Asia’s main waterway, was headed toward environmental disaster. The 2,700-mile-long ribbon of water, scientists cautioned, could not withstand the onslaught of dam construction, overfishing, and pollution. Yet somehow the river that ...
Stefan Lovgren
