Environment and natural resources
Documentary raises alarm over Shan region threatened by Salween dam
Activists on September 28 released a 30-minute documentary as part of a campaign against a mega-dam in central Shan State. The documentary, called Drowning a Thousand Islands, includes local people from the remote Kunhing area voicing their concerns that the proposed Mong Ton hydropower project will irrevocably ...
WHO: 90 percent of world's population breathe dirty air
Nine out of 10 people globally live in places with poor air quality, the World Health Organization has said, blaming a worldwide air pollution crisis for being a major factor in millions of deaths per year. In a new report released on September 27, the health agency ...
Farming mega-mergers threaten food security, say campaigners
Deals would put the majority of seeds, chemicals and GM traits in the hands of three companies, deepening poverty for small-scale farmers. When an Indian farmer plants his cotton crop, there’s at least a 75% chance the seeds have been been bought from a company owned ...
Thailand pledges $1m to kick off ASEAN science development fund
Thailand will invest an initial US$1 million to establish a Science, Technology and Innovation Development Fund for ASEAN. After the first ASEAN Science & Technology Innovation Forum, held in Bangkok last week, Science and Technology Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj said the forum had come up with three plans to ...
World Bank funds environmental protection projects
The Environment Protection Fund and the World Bank recently provided funding for the second phase of four environmental and social protection sub-projects in Laos at a cost of more than US$4 million. The first sub-project named Capacity Building for Pollution Control, Waste and Hazardous Chemicals Management ...
Philippines to suspend 12 more mines in environmental crackdown
A dozen more Philippine mines, mostly nickel projects, are in danger of being suspended in an ongoing environmental crackdown on the sector, an environment undersecretary said on September 21. The Southeast Asian nation, the world’s top supplier of nickel ore, has already halted the operations of ...
Waste management capacity on the rise
The country’s capacity for industrial and toxic waste management will rise to 37.6 million tonnes this year, up from 25.8 million last year, as more treatment factories begin operatations, the Industry Ministry’s Department of Industrial Works predicts. The government’s plan to set up industrial waste management ...
Govt vows to standardise wood processing plants
The government has instructed authorities in charge to inspect wood processing plants nationwide to ensure the plants’ operations meet production and environmental quality standards. Inspection will be launched into all licensed 1,595 plants across the country and a number of criteria will be used to assess ...
Civet species thought to be extinct found in central Vietnam
The large-spotted civet species recently discovered in the Phong Dien Nature Reserve in Hue city was previously considered to be extinct in Vietnam and China by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to the Forest Protection Department of Thua Thien – Hue province, ...
Gov’t urged to install technical barriers to filter FDI projects
Consultants and experts have recommended that Vietnam take measures to prevent foreign-invested projects from using outdated technologies, causing pollution and consuming national resources. First, oil refineries. The projects licensed so far in the field have total capacity of up to 50-60 million tons. It is estimated ...
