Environment and land

The number of illegal logs seized in the first nine months of the fiscal year shows that timber smuggling remains rampant in Sagaing Region despite the threat of COVID-19, the head of the regional Forest Department said.  U Aung Tun Win, director of the department, said ...

Despite strict measures and awareness-raising campaigns dedicated to the protection and conservation of Irrawaddy dolphins, illegal fishing remains persistent on the Mekong River, casting a threat to the already-endangered freshwater species. Mok Ponlok, deputy chief of Kratie Provincial Fisheries Administration, said yesterday the administration has, during ...

A team appointed by the Myanmar government to probe a massive landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar has begun its investigation into the deadly accident that killed at least 172 people, a Kachin state official said Tuesday. Heavy rains caused piles of loose dirt ...

The Chana Rak Thin Network has renewed its call for the government to scrap a plan to develop a special economic zone (SEZ) in Songkhla’s Chana district ahead of a zoning meeting concerning the proposed project. Activist Kaireya Ramanyah, known as “daughter of the sea”, renewed ...

Five Yay Ma Hsay – or ‘unwashed’ as the jade miners of northern Myanmar are known – arrived early Thursday at the pit to scrape out a living on a scraggy hillside, lured by the prospect of finding a stone that could transform their lives.  But ...

The coronavirus crisis has severely affected livelihoods, local industries and the economy in general. It has also disrupted world trade, supply chains and also the production of food and agricultural products and commodities. According to Samarendu Mohanty, Asia Regional Director at the International Potato Center, ...

Illegal dumping and waste burning present a challenge to municipal solid waste management in Vientiane Capital, according to authorities. Household waste management in the nation’s capital stands at only 27 percent, while the remaining 73 percent of households in the capital do not use municipal waste ...

The People’s Committee of the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh has decided to provide relief worth more than 40 billion VND (1.7 million USD) to more than 28,000 farming households to revive agriculture, which was severely affected by drought and saltwater intrusion in the 2019 – ...

A leading Thai geologist is warning that a huge new dam proposed in an earthquake-prone region of northern Laos poses a high risk of endangering the famed UNESCO-World Heritage city of Luang Prabang. The 1410-megawatt dam, expected to be Laos’s largest, is being developed by Thai ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday warned of legal action against anyone caught taking advantage of state-mandated land distributions, two days after he ordered several ministries to oversee the transfer of state-protected land to its long-term occupants. The order was given to the Ministries of Agriculture, Land ...