Environment and natural resources
Mekong River bird species threatened by dam discharges
The Mekong River ecosystem has been devastated from rising water levels during the dry season, as upstream dams in China discharge water to facilitate navigation in the river. Keep reading ...
PRATCH RUJIVANAROM
Mekong Dam Could Choke China’s Last Rainforest
“It’s like a haircut that has gone awry in the hands of an absent-minded barber.” That’s how many locals described the environmental scars that have been left by construction of the Huilongshan Hydropower Station inside a tropical rainforest in southwestern China’s Yunnan province since October 2015. Keep ...
Du Caicai & Li Rongde
Mekong Nation Leaders to Hold Summit Amid Concerns About Dams
Amid worry about the impact hydropower dams are having on the economically and environmentally critical Mekong River, leaders of four Southeast Asian nations dependent on its waters are scheduled to convene a summit early next month to reaffirm their “political commitment” to a 1995 cooperative ...
Sun Narin
China deepens Lancang-Mekong environmental protection cooperation
The Lancang-Mekong Environmental Protection Center has been inaugurated in Kunming, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan Province. The center aims to deepen cooperation in environmental protection between the six countries along the river, known in China as the Lancang River. Keep reading ...
Xiang Bo
Over 600 endangered turtle eggs found along Mekong River
Conservationists have found 20 nests of the critically endangered Asian Giant Softshell Turtle, containing a total of 663 eggs, in Mekong River sandbars in Kratie province, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced on Wednesday. Keep reading ...
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
Salween Studies Research Workshop - The Role of Research for a Sustainable Salween River
The 2018 Salween Studies Research Workshop gathered researchers and experts from around the world on 26 & 27 February at the University of Yangon, Myanmar to discuss the present situation of this important river as well as the future of the basin, its people and ...
CSDS
How the 2,700-mile Mekong has become a source of beauty and wonder
The long transition from war zone to fashionable holiday place has happened several times before, but never perhaps with such pace and style as that accomplished by Vietnam and Cambodia. []The 2,700-mile Mekong begins as snowfall on the Tibetan plateau among the Himalayas – and ends ...
HENRY PHILIPS
New Climate Change Fears, Old Mekong Problems
The Mekong River, one of the world’s longest and resource-rich rivers, deserves international attention and recognition as a frontier with governments and developers — who see the river an industrial production tool — on one side and the people who live along its vast waterways ...
Luke Hunt
Dramatic Photos Show How Sand Mining Threatens a Way of Life in Southeast Asia
Sand is a key ingredient in concrete, the essential building material of Vietnam’s fast-growing cities. Demand for it is surging—and that is wreaking havoc not only on Vietnam’s rivers, but also on the all-important Mekong Delta. Keep reading ...
Vince Beiser
China is taking action to better protect its rivers
The International Day of Action for Rivers has been celebrated across the world since 1997. Every year, on March 14, ordinary people raise awareness about the importance of healthy watersheds and the equitable and sustainable management of rivers. Keep reading ...
Feng Shuang