News
Vietnam's Mekong Capital plans Southeast Asia climate fund as early as 2024
Vietnam-focused private equity firm Mekong Capital is looking to build a climate fund worth up to $200 million as early as next year, focusing on investments that will help with the regeneration of forests in the Mekong region. The Ho Chi Minh City-based firm is setting ...
Yantoultra Ngui
As Laos develops, can it make space for wild elephants?
Mae Sengchan and Mae Kham meandered down the banks of the Mekong River in Laos, munching on bunches of bananas and piles of sugarcane. In their mid-to-late-fifties, the rescued pair of endangered Asian elephants are far past their logging days. The two are now in the ...
BEATRICE SIVIERO and ANTON L. DELGADO
NASA satellite network bolsters Mekong River observations
Unevenly split across a half-dozen country borders, the will for transboundary management of the Mekong River rises and falls like its water levels. But now, with the help of the U.S. space agency NASA, satellite data is set to play an increasingly prominent role in taking ...
ANTON L. DELGADO
Bangkok’s ‘Hazibition’ points finger at corporations for toxic haze in lower Mekong
Thailand’s clean air campaigners are staging an exhibition in Bangkok to show how industrial-scale maize cultivation to produce animal feed is partly responsible for the toxic annual smog in the lower Mekong region. “Hazibition,” an exhibition on haze pollution by environment group Greenpeace, started Tuesday at ...
Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA
Some 100 rare fish released into Mekong
The Wonders of the Mekong project and the National Fisheries Administration – in collaboration with the Fisheries Administration in Stung Treng province – released 100 endangered fish into the Mekong River on May 16, said a Fisheries Administration official. Srey Sam Vichet, head of the provincial ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
Hundreds of newly discovered species under threat in Southeast Asia’s Mekong region
Nearly 400 species only just discovered in Asia’s Greater Mekong region could soon become extinct due to loss of habitat caused by human activity, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warned in a report published Monday. The discoveries – including an orchid that looks like a “Muppet ...
Kathleen Magramo
Generative AI: A Threat to Copyright?
ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI, provides many new opportunities, yet concerns have been raised over copyright issues as it seems unclear who owns the generated content: the users, tech companies or data owners? ChatGPT generates search results based on the data ...
Rov Hongseng
Vietnam climate campaigner Nguy Thi Khanh released from prison
Human rights groups have welcomed the early release from prison of Nguy Thi Khanh, a prominent Vietnamese climate campaigner. Khanh was incarcerated for allegedly not paying tax on her winnings from the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize in the summer of 2022, a charge human rights and climate groups have condemned. She ...
Robin Hicks
Finding opportunity in Asia’s net-zero transition
The Asia-Pacific region is witnessing a surge in climate action, with nearly all countries in the region committing to achieving net-zero emissions, albeit with varying timeframes and specifics for implementation. One of the primary driving forces behind this growing momentum for climate action is the economic benefits it ...
Muyi Yang
Democratising data for more inclusive governance to strengthen conservation in the Mekong Basin
From 14-16 March 2023, the Sustainable Infrastructure Partnership, which aims to promote the stability, peace, prosperity, and sustainable development of the Mekong sub-region, hosted the Mekong Research Symposium in Chiang Rai, Thailand. The event brought together researchers, civil society organisations (CSOs), donors, and international non-governmental ...
IUCN
