Radio Free Asia

A Cambodian coalition of NGOs dedicated to raising public awareness about the risks associated with dams on the Mekong River said Thursday that it will boycott a regional stakeholder forum for two proposed hydropower projects in Laos because its concerns were ignored by the organizing ...

As Thailand prepares to extend work permits for 11,000 foreign migrant workers, including many in the fishing industry, a Human Rights Watch official called on the government Tuesday to outlaw forced labor. Phil Robertson, a deputy Asia director for the global rights watchdog, praised the ...

Developers of two proposed hydropower projects in Laos are pressing ahead with plans to build the mega-dams on the Mekong River, despite a recent order by the government to halt new dam investments following a deadly breach in July that killed 35 people and displaced ...

China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are dumping more plastic into oceans than the rest of the world combined. Are Southeast Asian nations doing enough to tackle the ever-growing plastic pollution problem? []The website Mekong Eye says that Southeast Asia’s Mekong region is “the world’s single ...

According to the best estimates, some 100,000 tigers used to roam through parts of Asia. But that was more than a century ago. Today, experts estimate that worldwide only some 3,800 tigers have survived in the wild. This marks a slight improvement for the big ...

Nearly 150 families in six villages in Khong district of southwestern Laos’ Champasak Province say they do not want to give up their homes and land to a special economic zone planned for their area and that they fear that project developers will not compensate ...

At least 1,000 families from 20-some villages in northwestern Laos’ Xayaburi province will be forced to relocate if infrastructure officials move ahead with plans to build a fourth hydropower dam on the Lower Mekong River, a provincial official said Monday. The Pak Lay hydropower project is ...

The Committee on Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel), a respected independent vote monitor, will not sign up observers for July’s parliamentary elections in face of government restrictions on NGO activities, a senior election observer told RFA’s Khmer Service on Tuesday. Keep reading ...

China deserves credit for shutting down the illegal trading in elephant ivory that has contributed in recent years to the killing of thousands of African pachyderms. But much credit should also go to international nongovernment organizations that have championed the elephants’ cause and raised public ...

The governments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must intervene to end Cambodia’s ongoing slide from a democracy into a dictatorship, several human rights organizations said, as member states kicked off the 32nd ASEAN Summit in Singapore. Keep reading ...