Environment and natural resources

Construction had been expected to start next month, but that is now unlikely as Thailand’s environmental authorities have yet to give the project the green light, China’s CCTV reported on Friday, citing Thai media.Experts need to evaluate potential areas of concern, and construction will not ...

Cambodia and Vietnam currently lack a system to effectively forecast and control flooding in the Sesan and Srepok river basins, both at the national and intergovernmental level, according to a study published by the Mekong River Commission (MRC). Keep reading   ...

Banks and regulators in Southeast Asia should strengthen financial-sector rules and guidelines to promote funding for environment-friendly projects in a region threatened by deforestation and climate change, the World Wildlife Fund said. Keep reading ...

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has pledged $1 billion to the Mekong Delta to fund projects aimed at tackling climate change amid warnings that the country’s rice basket is disappearing. The funding will come from the State budget, the World Bank, and other sources, he told ...

The fastest growing ivory market in the world is now Laos, according to an investigation by Kenya-based group Save the Elephants. China is banning all ivory trade by the end of 2017, but business is booming in neighboring countries. Investigators visited a Chinese casino resort ...

Thirty million people depend for a living on the Mekong, the great Asian river that runs through Southeast Asia from its origins in the snowfields of Tibet to its end in the delta region of Vietnam, where it fertilizes one of the world’s richest agricultural ...

Increased investment in climate-resilient housing, mangrove regeneration and early warning systems is urgently needed to ensure the sustainable development of the Mekong Delta, experts said yesterday at an international conference held in Cần Thơ. Experts at the conference agreed that the Mekong Delta is facing existential ...

Hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of muddy water have flooded eight villages in central Laos’ Xaysomboun province after the reservoir of a dam upstream burst its banks last week following heavy rain, damaging infrastructure, farmlands, and water supplies. Keep reading ...

The volume of water in the Mekong River has risen rapidly following discharges from a dam in Yunnan province in southern China, but the impact on the actual water level is in dispute. Keep reading   ...

The Rak Chiang Khong conservation group will file an appeal against the Administrative Court’s dismissal of its complaint against Thai authorities involving the Pak Bang dam, the third dam planned along the Lower Mekong River, as they are worried about its potential impacts. Keep reading ...