Environment and land

The Bình Thuận administration has sought to allay concerns over the proposed dumping of 1.5 cubic metres of “materials” into the ocean, saying these are “natural sea sediment”, not industrial waste.  However, officials have also acknowledged that the concerns are valid and the Ministry of ...

A visiting delegation of agricultural experts suggested that Cambodia’s struggling rice industry should develop a contract farming model that if used systematically would help confront the complicated supply chain dynamics that bog down smallholder farmers. The Global Institute for Tomorrow, a Hong Kong-based think tank, ...

More than half of 50 rice millers that applied for export permits to China passed a health and safety inspection by a visiting Chinese team, though they will have to wait for official confirmation from the Beijing government before they can begin exporting, an Agriculture ...

Chinese farms in Laos’ provinces have been suspended due to their ongoing use of hazardous chemicals which are having negative impacts on people’s health and the environment. The Prime Minister’s Office’s ordered the farms which are preparing to cultivate banana trees to cease their efforts ...

The discovery of two new-born sarus crane chicks in the Huai Chorakhe Mak Non-Hunting area in Buri Ram two months ago has prompted a plan by the Zoological Park Organisation to have the birds de-listed as an extinct species. Instead, they look set to be reclassified ...

Construction of the Laos-China railway in Luang Namtha province has yet to commence as some UXO clearance activities need to be completed before the rail builders can move full steam ahead with the project. The Ministry of National Defence has reported to the Luang Namtha ...

Exports to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam continue to rise due to strong demand in the neighbouring countries, where the economies continue to grow, according to the Office of Industrial Economics. Ittichai Yotsi, director of the OIE’s Bureau of Industrial Economics Research, said exports to ...

Unfavourable weather has delayed Thailand’s sugar crushing season, threatening a reduction in sugar output for the 2016/17 crop. The drop will prevent Thailand, the world’s second largest sugar exporter, from capitalising on rising global sugar prices at a time it is being challenged by Brazil ...

As construction on the Don Sahong dam near the Cambodia-Laos border passes its halfway point, activists and locals are increasingly concerned over the disappearance of Irawaddy dolphins and incidences of illness they suspect are caused by the muddied water. “The waters downstream in Cambodia have ...

Many provinces in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta are taking measures to secure freshwater for farming and household use since drought and saltwater intrusion is expected to be severe in the 2016-17 dry season.  Nguyễn Thiện Pháp, head of the Tiền Giang Province Irrigation Sub-department, ...