Environment and land
Hà Nội launches online air quality index
Hà Nội People’s Committee on January 9 launched an online service with information about weather conditions and environment indexes, including air quality index, rainfall and flooding. The page, hanoi.gov.vn/quantracmoitruong, is part of the People’s Committee efforts to turn the capital into a greener, smarter and friendlier ...
Polluted water causes mass clam deaths in Thanh Hóa
Sea water and wastewater samples related to mass clam deaths in central Thanh Hóa Province have failed to meet environment criteria, said Lê Văn Bình, head of the Environmental Protection Branch under the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment, on January 8. All the ...
Kampot pepper pact keeping prices stable
Kampot pepper prices are set to remain stable for another year as part of an agreement between local producers that caps prices through the end of 2017, a representative of the pepper association said on January 8. Ngoun Lay, president of the Kampot Pepper Promotion ...
Govt evicts Nansibon jade mine scavengers
Jade scavengers who have allegedly overrun mines operated by private companies in Hkamti township have been ordered to move out by the government, with a combat police battalion standing by to enforce the ban. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation gave the itinerant ...
Kayin landmine scare sparks tourism fears
A tripwire triggered landmine set off on January 4 and believed to be a remnant of recent skirmishes that subsided in November, has injured two and sent shockwaves through the Kayin State tourism industry, as well as buttressed displaced residents fears that it is still ...
Digital hub in private sector call
The Digital Economy and Society minister has called on the private sector to work more closely with the ministry to help Thailand become a digital infrastructure gateway in ASEAN by 2020. The evolution of the country’s digital ecosystem, especially in many crucial development areas, needs ...
Luang Namtha targeting rubber for poverty reduction
Luang Namtha provincial authorities are allowing some poor families to grow rubber trees on their small allotments to discourage illegal plantings in forest conservation areas. An official from the provincial Planning and Investment Department, Mrs Phommy Somboun, told Vientiane Times on January 5 the policy was ...
Cambodia’s rice exports fall sharply
Cambodia’s milled rice exports only grew by a dismal 0.7 percent last year compared with 2015 and this was the lowest since 2014, according to government figures released on January 5. “Last year Cambodia only exported 542,144 tons of milled rice and the lowest exports ...
Even as more new species are found, Southeast Asia is in the grip of a biodiversity crisis
Rich in wildlife, Southeast Asia includes at least six of the world’s 25 “biodiversity hotspots”—the areas of the world that contain an exceptional concentration of species in habitats that are also exceptionally endangered. The region contains 20 percent of the planet’s vertebrate and plant species and the ...
Government holds off on paddy purchases
The Ministry of Commerce is suspending plans for a paddy purchase program due to a recovery in market prices, according to ministry spokesperson U Khin Maung Lwin. U Khin Maung Lwin told The Myanmar Times in the first week of December that the ministry had approval ...
