News
Tiger seizures up in parts of Asia despite conservation efforts - report
Wildlife authorities in some Asian countries are seeing an increase in seizures of tigers and tiger parts despite efforts by conservationists to protect the endangered animal, according to a report by wildlife trade watchdog TRAFFIC. Tiger numbers globally have been decimated by poaching, trade, and habitat ...
Reporting by Rozanna Latiff Editing by Ed Davies
Myanmar could face aid ‘catastrophe’, experts warn, after junta law change
Myanmar’s junta has passed a law that grants it sweeping powers over aid delivery, prompting warnings of a “catastrophic” effect on services to those in need in the crisis-hit nation. Sources inside aid agencies in Yangon, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Guardian that the ...
Emanuel Stoakes
Vietnam struggles to break one of world's biggest coal addictions
Despite Vietnam’s solar boom and ambitious climate targets, the fast-growing economy is struggling to quit dirty energy – leaving one of the world’s biggest coal power programmes largely intact. During the COP26 climate summit last year, the government boldly promised to end the construction of new ...
AFP/fh
Myanmar’s environment hit by rare earth mining boom
Kachin State’s Chipwi Township in northernmost Myanmar is known for its pristine forests and crystal-clear water. But 10 years ago, local residents started noticing the patches of land that had been cleared on the lush mountains surrounding their town, which borders China’s Yunnan province. It started ...
Maran Htoi Awng
Vietnam’s fishermen battle a lack of fish and China
In a cell at Tanjung Pinang in Riau, Indonesia, 64-year-old Vietnamese fisherman Nguyen Van Tu struggles alone with aching legs. He has not been found guilty of any crime, but has been detained for more than 20 months. In the summer of 2020, the pair of ...
Vo Kieu Bao Uyen
Price fluctuations in goods in Mekong Delta
Specifically, the farm-gate price of hogs bred for slaughtering in many localities in the Mekong Delta has decreased by about VND2,000-VND3,000 per kg, to the lowest level in many months. In Can Tho City and many provinces such as Soc Trang, Vinh Long, An Giang, ...
Anh Duong - Translated by Anh Quan
Cambodia’s modern slavery nightmare: the human trafficking crisis overlooked by authorities
t 3.28am on 29 June 2021, Xu Mingjian crept out of a dorm room inside a gated compound in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, and made his way to the second floor, where his friend, another victim of trafficking, was waiting. The two had hatched a desperate plan to ...
Lindsey Kennedy, Nathan Paul Southern and Huang Yan
Vietnam digital economy growth expected to be highest in Southeast Asia
Vietnam will achieve the highest growth in the digital economy in Southeast Asia between 2022 and 2025, a report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company has forecast. It will grow at 31% followed by the Philippines with 20% and Indonesia with 19%, according to e-Conomy ...
Dat Nguyen
Myanmar junta bans Irrawaddy news agency after months of harassment
Myanmar’s junta has officially banned online news outlet The Irrawaddy and charged the outlet’s registered publisher for violating national security laws, state media reported over the weekend, following months of legal harassment. The ban is the latest on at least 20 media groups – news agencies, ...
RFA Burmese
Southeast Asia remains world rice bowl as pockets of region suffer crop disasters
Rice crops in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have taken a hit from flooding and conflict this year, casting a shadow on a mostly sunny outlook for Southeast Asia’s output of the key grain as the region deals with other potential longer term supply troubles, farm ...
RFA Burmese, RFA Khmer and RFA Lao