Environment and natural resources
Biodiversity
Activists claim arrests by Lao authorities at dam site
Two Cambodian activists say they were briefly detained by authorities in Laos on 24 January after sneaking across the border to take photographs of the planned site of the Don Sahong hydropower dam, which regional governments and environmentalists fear could cut into critical fish stocks downstream. Chum ...
$1.3m of ivory, scales seized en route to Laos
An air shipment of illegal ivory and pangolin scales, worth an estimated $1.3 million, was intercepted and seized by the authorities on 13 December at the Changi Airfreight Centre. In a joint release on 17 December, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and Singapore Customs ...
Several primate species teeter toward extinction
Primatologists have identified the 25 most endangered primates globally, of which three are endemic to Vietnam, according to a press release from the Fauna & Flora International- Vietnam Programme. The Cat Ba langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus), Delacour’s langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) and Tonkin snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus avunculus) are ...
Laos’s threat to the Mekong River
Sipandon – meaning 4,000 Islands – is an area of immense biodiversity, ecotourism and abundance of fish migration, but its survival is at serious risk from the hydropower Don Sahong dam, which is on the verge of construction. “If this special wetlands zone is protected, it ...
Mining destroys local way of life
The mining of minerals has caused serious harm to the public’s environment, experts warned. A recent report presented at a workshop held by the People and Nature Centre (PanNature) and the Vietnam Mining Coalition showed that mining activities is a direct cause of hunger and poverty ...
11 primate species in Vietnam are critically endangered: study
A new study by global primate experts found Vietnam in a dire situation with an increase in critically endangered species, several of which are endemic to the country. Experts assessed the threat of extinction for 182 kinds of primates in South China, South and Southeast Asia, ...
NLD urged to make environment a focus
After five years in which the government had concentrated on economic reforms, it was now time to protect the neglected environment, activists say. Speaking at a 25 November conference on environmental laws organised by the Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability, participants said the incoming government ...
Mekong yields first giant catfish of year
One of the largest and rarest freshwater fish in the world was netted by local fishermen near Phnom Penh earlier this month. A two-metre Mekong giant catfish, weighing an estimated 90 to 114 kilos, one of only a handful left of a species that faces extinction, ...
Rare giant catfish signals hope for species
A group of Cambodian fishermen caught quite a surprise earlier this month: a massive Mekong giant catfish, the first one seen in the country in a year. Caught near Phnom Penh, the fish was nearly seven feet long and weighed an estimated 200 to 250 pounds ...
Lower Sesan 2 dam putting livelihoods and environment at risk
The giant Lower Sesan 2 dam is one of the most controversial construction projects in Cambodia. The electricity-generation potential of the Lower Sesan 2 is massive but, for the Mekong River’s aquatic life and nearby villagers, the price of such progress could be colossal. The mighty Mekong River ...
