News

The Mekong River has become a new front in U.S.-China rivalry, environmentalists and officials say, with Beijing overtaking Washington in both spending and influence over downstream countries at the mercy of its control of the river’s waters. It’s a confrontation in which the Trump administration – ...

Vietnam’s government faces crucial choices as it draws up a new national energy plan for 2021-2030. Due to be published this summer, the Power Development Plan 8 will provide a vision for power supply up to 2045. Experts are hoping that Vietnam will use the ...

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc today issued a new directive with urgent and powerful measures to restrict wildlife trade and consumption, and reduce further pandemic risk.   With immediate effect, the directive (29/CT-TTg) bans imports of live wild animals and wildlife products, strictly eliminates any wildlife ...

A Michigan State University interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff is working to foster environmental justice in Southeast Asia. The Henry Luce Foundation’s Initiative on Southeast Asia, or LuceSEA, is providing $1 million in funding to help create the Mekong Culture WELL project. The Lower Mekong ...

Forest fires are a major source of transboundary haze in the ASEAN region. It is particularly pronounced in the dry season during the first half of the year for the Mekong subregion and second half of the year, most notably from July to September, for the southern ASEAN region.  The ASEAN region contains over half of the world’s peatland, a valuable ecosystem critical for ...

The forests are rapidly dwindling. But the people living in forest areas need to live off the land. Supporting them to practise sustainable or green farming saves both the forests and the locals’ livelihoods. Why then is this win-win solution only applied to some local ...

While Ministry of Environment officials claim they and relevant departments implement forest protection and conservation measures responsibly, forest protection activists have expressed frustration over their inability to participate in patrols where illegal logging took place. The activists complained they are barred from forest protection efforts and ...

Today, the European Union (EU) disbursed €37.625 million [59.693billion MMK] to further support education reform in Myanmar. The grant is paid earlier than planned to help the Government address the exceptional needs that arose due to COVID-19 and ensure a safe return to school for ...

The Vietnam Plant Protection Association (VNPPA) has called for a 30 percent cut to deal with long-standing pesticide overuse in the country. It says cutting pesticide use by 30 percent will not impact agricultural productivity. Truong Quoc Tung, standing deputy chairman of VNPPA, said recently that Vietnam ...

Few places have suffered more from the COVID-19 pandemic than southern China, the region where the novel coronavirus was first detected in the city of Wuhan. But it turned out that the pandemic is not the only calamity to befall south China this year. The ...