Environment and land

The newly appointed minister of land management and urban planning, Chea Sophara, has announced a working group to handle petitions and complaints lodged by land dispute victims. “The working group has the duty to meet and receive related petitions from protesters, coordinate and solve issues, suggest ...

The nearly 1 million hectares of newly protected forests the Environment Ministry wants to create by the end of the year will add nearly a third more land to the portfolio of an agency already struggling to manage the 3.2 million hectares it has. And ...

The Lao National Rubber Association will be established sometime this year in order to help provide a sustainable income for rubber growers. Many rubber growers, especially in the northern provinces, have been struggling with the low price of rubber on the world market and the limited ...

Pol Lt-Colonel Prawut Wongseenin, who heads the DSI Bureau of Consumer Protection and Environment Crime, disclosed on 6 April that the department in Thailand would ask Justice Minister General Paiboon Koomchaya for help in seeking an order from the junta to block any bulldozing operations pending ...

Vietnam has predicted “very high adverse effects” on the Mekong River environment and economy if 11 proposed dams are built on its lower mainstream. Mekong River Commission said it considers the report an internal document and is not yet releasing it. Vietnam has not released ...

Taing Chhung Ngy, director of market promotion at rice exporter LBN Angkar (Kampuchea), said that March’s sub-par performance was just the first indicator that the sector’s growth was decelerating. The decreasing amount of rice exports in March shows that the issues that rice millers and exporters ...

A huge number of people living in around 30 villages of Hadxaifong district, Vientiane, will have clean water coming from their taps next year after a local company completes the construction of the Thadeua water treatment plant. Work on the project began last year and is ...

After numerous delays, industrial park operator Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone announced on 6 April that it had finalised a timeline for the launch of its upcoming initial public offering, and would kick off a five-day bookbuilding session starting on 18 April and hold a public ...

No more state land will be released under concession for planting rice, coffee, rubber, cassava or maize in Champassak province, as most areas suited to agriculture are already being utilised. Champassak agricultural authorities in Laos advised that prospective investors should go to the province of Saravan ...

A 30-month study by Vietnamese researchers on the impact of 11 proposed hydroelectric dams in the Lower Mekong Basin has found that the economic damage to Cambodia alone will be worth some $450 million per year. According to the researchers, the Mekong River at Kratie could, ...