Environment and natural resources
Man charged over land grab of hundreds of hectares of protected forest
Battambang provincial court has charged a man who illegally cleared hundreds of hectares of protected forest land for sale as housing lots in Battambang province’s Samlot district since 2015. Long Vuthy, 48, was arrested on September 15 by joint forces from the provincial authority and National ...
Khy Sovuthy
USAID project assists Thua Thien – Hue in forest management
The US Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Green Annamites Project has recently equipped the central province of Thua Thien-Hue with a forest management system. As part of the nearly 10 million-USD-project, the system allows automatic connection to the Google Earth Engine (GEE) based-tool developed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s ...
Tonlé Sap Ecosystem is threatened by Development of Hydropower Dams on the Mekong River
Every year, between May and October, floodwaters from the Lower Mekong Basin reverse the flow of the Tonlé River in Cambodia. That pushes sediment-rich waters into the Tonlé Sap Lake and its surrounding floodplains and forests, which support complex food webs, migration patterns and agricultural ...
Kitila Davies
Kampot mangroves ‘cleared in land grab’
The Changhaon village community claims that many hectares of mangrove forest in the coastal area in a village in Teuk Chhou district’s Prek Tnort commune, in Kampot province, were being cut down to grab land for private ownership. However, they claim that the authorities have not ...
Voun Dara
The salty taste of climate change
Salt water is seeping into freshwater underground aquifers that are used to irrigate crops and provide communities with water for drinking and washing, but because these aquifers are out of sight, they get less attention than surface water, which is also impacted by sea-level rise. U ...
Kyaw Nyunt Linn
Concerns rise over microplastics in stomachs of mackerel
The discovery of microplastics in the stomachs of mackerel caught in Trang Sea have raised concerns, but the 3rd Marine National Park Operation Centre urged Thais on Wednesday to refrain from panicking and shunning mackerel. The centre urged people to instead get full awareness of the ...
Mangrove forest to be planted
An ambitious campaign to plant 100,000 mangrove trees near Kampot province’s coast over nine months has been announced. Eight fishing communities from Trapaing Sangke, Kampong Samaky, Trapaing Ropov, Prek Tnort, Kep Thmey, Toteung Thngai, Koh Kroesna, and Lok districts, civil society organisations, and Kampot provincial authorities ...
Long Kimmarita
Start of Latest Mekong Dam Draws Fears of River's 'Tipping Point'
Critics of the 1,285-megawatt Xayaburi hydropower dam in northern Laos fear recent upgrades to the controversial project won’t be enough to save the Mekong River from a critical tipping point when it starts churning out electricity at full throttle next month. After seven years of construction, ...
Zsombor Peter
Mekong River flooding expected next week
The much anticipated annual flooding season in the Mekong Delta is set to arrive in the next few days, much later than usual. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) reports that the floods have reached Thailand and Laos now, and should reach Cambodia in the next few ...
Minh Nga
A new dam on the Mekong could cause a biodiversity crisis
The Tonle Sap Lake is called the Great Lake by Cambodians for good reason. The scenic lake spans a vast area as the largest freshwater body in Southeast Asia. Its quaint waterborne villages are popular with tourists. Yet Cambodia’s Great Lake does more than just provide for ...
Darunee Sukanan