News
Heart-to-Heart Talk with 6 People of the Mekong
The Mekong Butterfly had a heart-to-heart talk with 6 people of the Mekong — they are from 6 different communities in Thailand located on the Mekong riverbank. Despite informal atmosphere, topics of the discussion were very earnest around problems they have been facing from irregular ...
U.S. criticizes Vietnam ban of glyphosate herbicide imports
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Thursday criticized Vietnam’s move to ban imports of glyphosate-based herbicides, saying the decision would have “devastating impacts on global agricultural production.” Vietnam’s government said in a statement that the toxic level of herbicides containing glyphosate had long been of ...
Tom Polansek, Khanh Vu
Policies aim to better lives of ethnic minority people in Mekong Delta
Around 100 policies and documents related to ethnic minority groups in the Mekong Delta have been implemented to develop essential infrastructure and production, reduce poverty and improve the living standards of local residents. According to Hung Thi Somaly, an official from the Government’s Committee for Ethnic ...
ASEAN green infrastructure gets $1 billion boost
A $1 billion finance facility to support investment in ‘green’ infrastructure across southeast Asia was announced last week in Thailand. The new facility aims to serve as a spur for private capital and will provide loans and necessary technical assistance for sovereign sustainable transport, clean energy, ...
Part 1 – 5 countries, 13,000 km, 1 goal: Challenge the everyday use of plastic
I was on a 3-month bike ride across five countries of Myanmar, Laos, Thailand , Cambodia and Nepal, to challenge the everyday use of plastic through an activity called Plogging – a mix of jogging and picking up trash. Dwarfed by the five-feet jumble of trash ...
Abhimanyu Chakravorty
Irrigation, drought, sea level rise and more are causing salt to build up in soils around the world. What can we do?
The water tastes salty and the rice barely grows in the coastal villages of the Ca Mau peninsula at the southern tip of Vietnam’s Mekong River delta. Thi Tran, a young woman who farms 2 acres (0.8 hectares) of rice and vegetables while her husband works ...
John Vidal
Fading icon? Clash of views over Aung San Suu Kyi’s record — and future
Steel magnolia is a term that comes to Ms Moe Thuzar’s mind when talking of Aung San Suu Kyi. “Daw Suu wouldn’t be Daw Suu without that steely inner core that has been a mainstay of her survival,” says the Myanmar Studies Programme co-coordinator at ...
Derrick A Paulo and Sumithra Prasanna
Mekong Delta region adapts to climate change
Located at the end of the Mekong River, the Mekong Delta is the most prosperous agricultural production region in Southeast Asia. However, it is also one of the areas most heavily affected by climate change. Rising sea levels, saline intrusion, droughts, and landslides have occurred ...
Mekong water level in Kratie set to decrease
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Monday that the river’s water level in Kratie province is expected to decrease by 50cm to 1.5m from April 12-19, as the outflow from China’s Jinghong hydropower station is gradually reduced by half to accommodate the Dai ethnic ...
Khorn Savi
Mangroves deliver research surprise
Rates of growth and loss in mangrove forests are higher than previous estimates, according to satellite measurements of the Rufiji, Zambezi, Ganges and Mekong deltas. And natural expansion and growth of new mangrove forests could partially compensate for declines caused by human activity. “What we see ...