Environment and natural resources
Road seems to deliberately threaten protected forest in Kon Tum
Thousands hectares of forest in the central highlands province of Kon Tum, Vietnam are facing extinction as the local authorities are determined to construct a road that seems of little benefit to travellers. The road project, invested by the provincial Department of Transport, was started since ...
Battle over mangrove sees SEZ trump NGO
A special economic zone developer will be allowed to continue bulldozing a mangrove forest in Preah Sihanouk province’s Teuk Thla commune, the provincial governor said on 10 May. Civil society groups had persuaded the provincial Fisheries Administration to ask the governor to protect the ecosystem, which ...
Digging deeper wells costs more
Amid a devastating drought, the need to dig more, and deeper, wells is threatening to overwhelm the government’s relief budget. The cost of wells rises exponentially with depth. And as groundwater continues to drop, itself exacerbated by the digging of more and more wells, deeper is ...
Gold miners face business shutdown
Thailand’s gold mining industry is set to go out of business as the cabinet has decided to stop renewing and issuing licences for gold ore exploration and gold mining following a public outcry over health and environmental issues. Industry Minister Atchaka Sibunruang said the cabinet had ...
Across Thailand, a cruel drought takes terrible toll
In Pathum Thani’s Lam Luk Ka district, the Lam Luk Ka-Thanya Buri Road in Moo 8 of Tambon Lat Sawai has been damaged by subsidence, causing a 1.5-metre-deep and 100-metre-long section to collapse yesterday, prompting authorities to close the road as a safety precaution. In Chon ...
Auctions of illegal timber to resume, officials say
Top officials on 9 May said the government would be auctioning off some of the 70,000 cubic meters of wood authorities have seized in recent months, backtracking on a recent pledge Hun Sen made to stop the sales. In a surprise move at the Education Ministry’s annual ...
New support to protect Lao wetlands from climate change
The Global Environment Facility has pledged US$4.7 million to protect Lao wetlands from climate change. Laos has defined two wetland areas under the Ramsar Convention on ‘Wetlands of International Importance’ which covers all aspects of wetland conservation and wise use. These wetland areas are Xe Champone in ...
HCM City needs over $22m to control air pollution
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment has built a project on an air quality observation center in the phase 2016-2020, which will need a total fund of VND495 billion (U$22.18 million) to build 27 automatic and 200 semiautomatic observation stations.Keep ...
Fires burn large parts of Battambang forest
Fires have consumed more than 2,000 hectares of Prek Toal protected area in Cambodia’s Battambang province, killing some animals and destroying the breeding sites of multiple endangered species, Prek Toal project managers said on 5 May.Keep reading ...
Ten Vientiane industrial plants discharging unclean water
The Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment of Laos has confirmed that 10 industrial plants in Vientiane are discharging unclean and untreated water, some of which contains potentially harmful chemicals. Director General of the ministry’s Department of Pollution Control, Mr Khamphanh Nanthavong, addressed the issue on ...
