Environment and natural resources
Mixed feelings over COP21 agreement
Cambodia’s delegates are returning with mixed feelings about the agreement to try and save the planet from catastrophic climate change that was adopted on 12 December at the UN Climate Talks in Paris, known as COP21. In an email sent just before the treaty was adopted, government ...
National Assembly stands firm on timber tax
Valuable woods are not subject to a resource tax decrease for fears it might unintentionally trigger worsening deforestation, voted the National Assembly’s Standing Committee (NASC) on 10 December. The debate on wood taxes was sparked as the NASC weighed in on the draft of the amended ...
NGOs condemn dam power at COP21
Major hydropower projects like the large-scale dams under way in Cambodia’s waterways are a “false solution” to climate change, according to a global coalition of 300 NGOs who are calling on parties at UN climate talks in Paris (COP21) to bar such schemes from climate ...
Thai border shooting injures two loggers
Thai soldiers opened fire on a group of 17 illegal loggers on 10 December evening, wounding two, police said. The group had illegally crossed the border into Thailand in Oddar Meanchey province under cover of darkness when they encountered a Thai patrol, according to Brigadier General Men ...
FDA shutters 22 mom-and-pop drinking-water companies
Unlicensed bottled water companies are being shut down by the Food and Drug Administration for fear they could be bacteria-ridden and contaminated, according to officials. Action is so far aimed at small-time businesses which often operate out of the vendors’ homes. However, the results of a secret ...
Vietnam Navy asked to end dredging at southern military port to prevent erosion
Kien Giang Province has requested that the government and the Navy end sand dredging at a military port in Phu Quoc as the activity is starting to cause severe erosion. A statement from the province authorities said the dredging has caused erosion along one kilometer around ...
Urgent need for law to control water pollution
Formulating a specific law to control water pollution in the country’s legislative work programme is a necessary task of Vietnam’s State agencies and scientists to ensure national sustainable development. A consensus on this was reached by participants at a workshop on roles of the Vietnam Union ...
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 ...
Taking on climate change in the dry zone
A UNDP project in the country’s dry zone aims to help villages weather climate change by improving access to water sources and food security. The project will be implemented in Shwebo and Monywa in Sagaing Region, Myingyan and Nyaung-U in Mandalay Region and Chauk in ...
‘Ownerless’ illegal logs seized in Kachin and Sagaing
A thousand tonnes of timber bound for the Chinese border have been seized by police, with the help of local residents amid armed clashes between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army. Investigators are now following up the seizure of the 2206 logs in Bhamaw/Bhamo township, ...
