Environment and land

In villages around the city of Buon Ma Thuot, Vietnamese farmers wait for the monsoon that normally arrives in April or May. “The fruits look ripe outside, but the bean is crispy and small because there was not enough rain,” says 28-year-old Y Bel Eban from Krong village, ...

It is starting to appear that nothing can save the 800,000 sq. km Mekong River basin, which provides vital sustenance for as many as 100 million people, from environmental depredation from dams all along the 4,350 km length of the mighty river that feeds it. Over ...

The Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Policy Committee will soon submit plans to the Cabinet for the use of land and the development of utilities infrastructure in the EEC. Kanit Sangsubhan, secretary-general of the EEC Office, said the plans will cover the development of the EEC zone ...

Civil society organisation ACNCIPO urged Kampong Speu provincial governor Vei Samnang to enforce a warrant to seize 100ha in the Oral Wildlife Sanctuary that was grabbed and restore its status as state property. ACNCIPO head Chea Hean claimed environment officials did not implement the seizure warrant ...

Myanmar has asked the Norwegian research vessel RV Dr. Fridtjof Nansen to continue its research on the country’s seabed and ecosystem, the Department of Fisheries said. The vessel, which was named after a famous Norwegian explorer, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has visited the country ...

This year has been rough for the 70 million people who call the Mekong River basin home:  a severe drought rocked the region for months before yielding to deadly flooding.  The Mekong slowed to its lowest level in recorded history, knocking the world’s largest freshwater fishery—Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake—out of ...

A toxic smog settled over Malaysia and Singapore for most of September fuelled by fires that had been raging in neighbouring Indonesia for weeks. Schools were forced to close, N95 masks to filter the polluted air’s most dangerous particulates were rationed, and doctors reported a surge in patients ...

Cambodia is one of the most wetland dependant countries in the world. More than 46% of its people live and work on these vital resources and 80% of the population rely on them for food. Yet over the past 15 years half of Cambodia’s wetlands have ...

Myanmar and Thailand have published their nine-point agreement to push through the implementation of the long-delayed US$8-billion (12.23-trillion-kyat) Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in southern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi Region, which is set to be Southeast Asia’s largest industrial complex. After a bilateral ministerial meeting in Naypyitaw, a ...

The environmental impacts of cars, plastics and fossil fuels are well know. But what about illegal drugs? MDMA production is listed as an environmental threat. Due to the limited availability of a crucial ingredient, the drug is damaging the environment with its sourcing and production. MDMA, or ecstasy, is ...