News
Vietnam loses sacred cranes after habitat change
Twenty years ago, Nguyen Van Liet took scientists to the wetlands near his hometown of Tram Chim on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta to find sarus cranes, a vulnerable bird species according to the IUCN Red List, native to Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australia. “We had to ...
Tran Nguyen
Opinion: Floodplain wetlands of the Mekong – going, going, gone?
A rapid and irreversible change is taking place in the Lower Mekong basin. Floodplain grasslands and freshwater wetlands are being lost – bustling ecosystems that once supported thriving communities of large mammals and birds. These include the spectacular sarus crane; the greater adjutant, one of ...
Ding Li Yong, Khwankhao Sinhaseni
Champassak folk benefit from Beung Kiat Ngong Ramsar Wetland conservation project
Households in eight villages surrounding the Beung Kiat Ngong (BKN) Ramsar Wetland in Pathoumphone district, Champassak province, are benefitting from the Lower Mekong Basin Wetland Management and Conservation Project at the BKN Ramsar Site. The project works to improve livelihoods and provide jobs in local communities, ...
Cambodian satellite city near Phnom Penh destroying wetlands with 1 million at risk of flooding, report finds
A damning new report shows a multi-billion-dollar satellite city near Phnom Penh threatens to pave over vital wetlands and unleash untreated sewage into the Mekong River, putting more than 1 million people at risk of dangerous floods and water pollution. The project further threatens to upend ...
Erin Handley
Myanmar shorebirds get four-fold expansion in protected wetland
Twenty years ago, few conservationists knew about the Gulf of Mottama and the secrets hidden within its complex coastline. Its location in southern Myanmar is, like many parts of the country, rugged and difficult to access. However, in the early 2010s, everything changed when surveys lead ...
Ding Li Yong
Exploring wetland along upper Mekong River in Stung Treng
Trees with aerial roots exposed over the water, white sand islets dotted across limpid water, Irrawaddy dolphin pools and critically endangered fish breeding pools among braided channels and flooded forests; these are just some of the attractions drawing tourists from around the world to the ...
Raksmey Hong