Environment and natural resources
Biodiversity
Exploring wetland along upper Mekong River in Stung Treng
Trees with aerial roots exposed over the water, white sand islets dotted across limpid water, Irrawaddy dolphin pools and critically endangered fish breeding pools among braided channels and flooded forests; these are just some of the attractions drawing tourists from around the world to the ...
Raksmey Hong
Asean calls for improvement in key biodiversity area identification
A series of workshops held in Bangkok this week aims to help participants identify sites critical to the global persistence of biodiversity in the Asean region. It will also develop visualisation tools to aid the reporting processes for multilateral environmental agreements. Keep reading ...
Some 331 species are endangered in Myanmar
More than 5,000 species are endangered in Asia, around 800 in the Greater Mekong region alone. Plants and wildlife are used to produce traditional medicines, clothes and accessories. Hunting and poaching are practiced in about 70 pe cent of sanctuaries. In Southeast Asia and the ...
EU study boost fight against illegal wildlife trade in Mekong region
The European Union has launched an intensive study about the illegal wildlife trade in the Greater Mekong Region and its threat to biodiversity. The report, entitled “Larger than Tigers”, hopes to encourage the Greater Mekong countries, which include Myanmar, to intensify efforts against the illegal wildlife ...
Laos builds more dams, scientists worry about Mekong’s ecosystem
Instead of requesting additional data used in the building of Pak Lay hydroelectric dam in Laos, Dr Le Anh Tuan, a Mekong River expert and deputy head of the Institute for Climate Change Research at Can Tho University, believes that it would be better to ...
A new method to help track the Mekong’s rare wildlife
Scientists are rapidly developing new DNA-methods to identify what kind of life is present in rivers, lakes and the ocean. Advocates of the method claim that it has the potential to revolutionise the way environmental monitoring is done. Keep reading ...
Asia’s Environmental Apocalypse 2019?
This year’s environmental news kicked off in grisly fashion: a Vietnamese poaching gang recording one of its members straddling and punching a snared and presumably dead tiger (the Thai authorities say they have caught the perpetrators) in one of Thailand’s protected areas. Thailand has always seemed, to ...
Thai police bust animal trafficking gang
Thai police seized more than 1,600 bear claws and other animal parts in central Thailand’s Ayutthaya Province. Three suspects, including one Lao national and two from Vietnam were nabbed during the operation, according to reports. Keep reading ...
WWF-Cambodia announces new ‘accurate’ survey of reptiles
To help conserve the critically endangered Siamese crocodile, WWF-Cambodia has announced it will conduct a survey this year to accurately record the number of the reptiles left in the wild in the Kingdom’s Eastern Plains Landscape. The Siamese crocodile was once widespread throughout much of ...
How wasps saved Asia’s forests
In our recent study, we combined field observations and satellite imagery to show how the tiny pest-killing lopezi wasp (Anagyrus lopezi) helped combat deforestation in Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam by controlling a pest that was devastating cassava crops across the region. Keep reading ...
