News
River of change: hydropower dams and the Mekong River’s uncertain future
From the snowy plateaus of Tibet to the mountain gorges of China’s Yunnan province and beyond to the jungled borders of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and down to the plains of Cambodia and paddy fields of Vietnam – the Mekong River is of crucial importance to ...
Grain drain, Laos' sand mining damaging the Mekong
Grain by grain, truckload by truckload, Laos’ section of the Mekong river is being dredged of sand to make cement—a commodity being devoured by a Chinese-led building boom in the capital. But the hollowing out of the riverbed is also damaging a vital waterway that feeds ...
ASEAN can no longer sidestep its rights obligations
In 2007, the 10 members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations celebrated the adoption of the Asean Charter that for the first time in the region’s history includes human rights as one of its principles and objectives. The charter seeks to implement a human ...
As clouds head for the poles, time to prepare for food and water shocks
A changing climate means less rain and lower water supplies in regions where many people live and much of the planet’s food is produced: the mid-latitudes of the Northern and Southern hemispheres, including the U.S. Southwest, southern Europe and parts of the Middle East, southern ...
Land used for palm oil could double without damaging forests, say researchers
The area covered by palm oil plantations worldwide could double without damaging protected areas or sensitive forests, Austrian researchers said on Tuesday (July 26).Researchers from the Austria-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) studied satellite maps from South-east Asia, Africa and Latin America to ...
Laos benefits from regional cooperation
Laos is benefiting from regional projects supported by the Republic of Korea and India through Mekong-ROK and Mekong-Ganga cooperation. The Sixth Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers’ Meeting hosted by Laos in Vientiane on Sunday welcomed the endorsement of seven projects under the Mekong-ROK Cooperation Fund, to which the ...
Vietnam busts illegal transport of 18 bear legs from Laos
Police in the central province of Thanh Hoa seized 18 frozen bear legs transported aboard a bus by its driver without a license Tuesday.The limbs, weighing 38 kilograms in all, were identified as belonging to red-listed sun bears, news website VnExpress said.Dinh Hong Phuong, 47, ...
Agriculture abandoned by Vietnamese entrepreneurs
Vietnam has great advantages for agricultural production, but in the last 10 years, domestic enterprises have been focusing on the services sector and abandoning the field. The 2015 Business Annual Report released by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently showed a very low proportion ...
Rosewood exports to Vietnam achieved with fake signatures: official
housands of cubic metres of endangered Siamese rosewood were sent to Vietnam in 2014 with export permits bearing the Photoshopped signature of a retired Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) secretary of state, a ministry official said yesterday.The trade in Siamese rosewood was internationally ...
Thailand and the obesity epidemic
Obesity has reached alarming levels in the Asean Economic Community and especially in Thailand, where 32 per cent of the population are overweight, pushing the country into second place in terms of prevalence of obesity after Malaysia at 44 per cent and ahead of Singapore ...
