Environment and land
Environment ministry looks into illegal posts in M’kiri sanctuary
The Ministry of Environment is investigating a group that erected more than 50 stone and wooden posts and built fences on State land in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province. Its spokesman Neth Pheaktra said he recently inspected the activities while leading a delegation ...
Voun Dara
Laos, EU discuss targets for trade in legal timber products
Representatives of the European Union (EU) and the Lao government have held discussions on an agreement on combating illegal logging and promoting trade in legal timber products. The issue was discussed at the fourth Joint Expert Meeting (JEM) on a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) on forest law ...
Land reform: A vote-winner for the NLD
With the general election only weeks away – notwithstanding the potential impact of the second wave of COVID-19 – political parties are flooding social media with pledges and promises to woo voters. For the National League for Democracy, the November 8 election poses a new challenge: ...
CALLUM FURNESS
Vietnamese minister calls for urgent joint actions to conserve biodiversity
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha, on behalf of the Vietnamese Government, has called on countries to combine strength and coordinate actions in a more urgent, drastic and practical manner to protect biodiversity – a priceless natural resource. Ha made the appeal at ...
VNA
Cambodian farmers to get crop protection insurance cover, thanks to Global Parametrics
Parametric and index-based disaster risk transfer company, Global Parametrics (GP), has announced its support for the AGRIBEE Crop Insurance Pilot to provide extreme weather protection cover for smallholder rice farmers in Cambodia. GP is providing cover for the transaction from its Natural Disaster Fund (NDF). Through ...
Thao Nguyen Phan review – tribute to the Mekong River's myth and might
Thao Nguyen Phan’s Becoming Alluvium opens with sound: an outboard motor puttering in the dark. The tea-brown, silt-clouded water of the Mekong appears, gliding beneath the prow of a little boat. Lines from the great poet Rabindranath Tagore’s The Gardener lap the screen, concluding: “Why did the ...
Hettie Judah
CSOs urge ministry to release the full EIA
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have requested that the Ministry of Environment to publicly release the full details of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to ensure accountability and transparency of environmental governance in Cambodia. The request was made in the workshop on “Using Open EIA Reporting to ...
Sok Srey Lux
Thailand’s ban on hazardous farming chemicals to remain in place
Despite fears to the contrary among those in favour of it, the ban on paraquat and chlorpyrifos is to remain in place. The Hazardous Substances Committee has confirmed that production, possession, and importing or exporting either substance remains illegal, under legislation introduced on June 1 of this ...
Maya Taylor
How a Beloved Gemstone Became a Symbol of Environmental Tragedy in Myanmar
The jade gemstones that generate billions of dollars a year in Myanmar — the world’s biggest exporter of the stone — are beloved in China, where they can sell for more than gold. But they are a symbol of tragedy and suffering for the people who ...
EMILY FISHBEIN AND AUNG MYAT LAMUNG; Additional reporting by Jaw Tu Hkawng.
Asean needs to act on Mekong River
Two events happened last month that went largely unnoticed by most of the mainstream media in Southeast Asia. One was the third Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Leaders’ Meeting between China and the five Mekong members of Asean — Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The other ...
CHEN CHEN LEE