Environment and natural resources

The closely watched lawsuit filed by Thai Mekong communities against the Xayaburi Dam’s power purchase agreement (PPA) has reached a critical juncture: the final day that the Administrative Court will accept evidence into the case. It has been just over a year since the Thai Supreme Administrative ...

Beijing hit out at long jail sentences handed to more than 150 Chinese nationals for illegal logging in Myanmar, in the latest tremor to shake relations between the neighbours. The mass sentencing, which has sparked outraged editorials in Chinese state-run media, comes after the loggers were ...

Implementation of the Lower Sesan 2 hydropower project in northeast Cambodia is underway despite civil society organisations and local residents expressing concerns over possible serious impacts on the environment and natural resources. Ouch Vibol, project officer of the Culture and Environment Preservation Association, told journalists at the ...

A company operating a copper mine in northern Laos’ Oudomxay province is polluting the local environment and destroying the livelihoods of residents, according to villagers, who have called for officials to investigate the firm. A resident of Sawang village, in Oudomxay’s Namo district, told RFA’s Lao ...

  China has lodged a diplomatic protest with Myanmar after a court in the southeast Asian nation sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life imprisonment for illegal logging. China’s voracious demand for Myanmar’s raw materials has fuelled resentment in Myanmar towards its giant northern neighbor. Regions along Myanmar’s porous border with China have ...

Residents near the Xebangfay River between the two provinces of Khammuan and Savannakhet are still being spared from the flooding which has started since the river began overflowing on 21 July. A Xebangfay district official Mr Sisomphone Innoula told Vientiane Times that the four branches of ...

Protected areas and other biodiversity hotspots across Southeast Asia are increasingly under threat from expanding rubber plantations, with Cambodia at risk of losing more ecologically important land than any of its neighbours, a recent study reports. According to the study, if current trends continue, Cambodia stands ...

Inlay Lake is one of Myanmar’s natural beauties and a tourist draw. But the ecological situation of the lake is deteriorating at a dramatic rate due to the run-off from the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides, deforestation and climate change. The lake is an important ...

Da Nang government, Vietnam, has threatened to shut down the factory of Coca-Cola if it is found to have violated environmental rules, according to media reports. Keep reading ...

Provincial authorities in Phongsaly, Laos, are cautioning banana growers along the Nam Ou River in an attempt to stop them illegally discarding disused plastic banana bunch covers. Director of the provincial Natural Resources and Environment Department, Mr Khamchanh Sitthilath told Vientiane Times on 14 July that many ...