Environment and natural resources
Indonesia: Haze investigators held captive, threatened with death
A large group of about 100 men hired by an Indonesian palm oil firm took several investigators hostage last weekend in an apparent bid to stop their probe into the forest fires blamed for the region’s haze problem. According to Jakarta Globe, the captors, believed to be mobilized by PT Andika Permata ...
Meet the pangolin, the most poached mammal in the world
As the congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources gets underway Thursday in Hawaii, environmental policymakers and conservation experts will discuss managing the environment, protecting wildlife and how best to chart the direction of conservation efforts. High on the agenda and among the most anticipated species up for ...
Melting glaciers may impact hydropower plans
The World Water Week has put the focus back into shrinking glaciers but the jury is still out on the impacts they will have on the flow in snow-fed rivers and hydropower generation. Glaciers are retreating due to climate change. What does that mean for water ...
Mekong Delta region awaits floods
The Mekong Delta, the rice, seafood and fruit granary of the country, is facing landslides and sinking, as it no longer receives enough silt because of limited floodwaters. “We have been living here for several generations and we have never seen such poor floodwaters until the ...
Myanmar forest-cutting continues despite government efforts
The hills of northern Myanmar’s Sagaing region were so legendarily thick with forests that in the days of kings, condemned criminals were ordered into the woods as a death sentence. Today illegal logging has left vast swaths of bare patches, with only a handful of old-growth ...
As Budget Drops, Commission Prepares for New Laos Dam
The Mekong River Commission is still reeling from the blowback over its handling of the consultation process around the Don Sahong and Xayaburi dams in Laos, both of which are expected to have severe environmental consequences on those living downstream. Now, with its budget slashed—its funding ...
More than a thousand furniture plants ordered to shut down
The government has ordered some 1,154 family-unit furniture plants across the country to shut down their illegal operations, a government spokesman announced on September 1. Additionally, more than 20 wood processing plants located in or near conservation and protected forests areas were also ordered to close ...
Climate change could cause rice prices to nearly double by 2030: study
Climate change is threatening the Cambodian rice industry, and it is marginalised communities that will be worst affected unless the government takes action, according to a new study. The study’s authors, Sokuntheavy Hong and Jun Furuya, took historical climatic, socioeconomic and rice-yield data as their benchmark, ...
Indian mining firm prepares to dig deep in Ratanakkiri
The Ministry of Mines and Energy is set to issue the country’s first commercial underground mining license to Indian company Mesco Gold in two weeks, despite opposition by residents of two villages concerned about compensation and environmental damage. The company plans to break ground on its ...
Formosa pays $500 mil compensation for marine disaster in central Vietnam
Taiwanese company Formosa Plastics, which caused deadly marine pollution in the central region by discharging untreated effluents, has paid up the US$500 million compensation it promised to, officials said. The environment ministry said on August 31 Formosa had transferred the second half of the promised amount a ...
