Environment and natural resources

When it comes to flood myths, China’s is not as well known as Noah’s Ark, but just as influential. Legend says that four millennia ago, the Yellow and Yangtze rivers frequently flooded, with devastating consequences for the ancient Chinese. However, salvation arrived when a distant relative ...

Coastal communities in Myanmar are extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change and highly exposed to severe natural weather events such as heavy rain, storm surge, floods and cyclones. To help Myanmar respond to those natural challenges, the Forest Department, with the support from Denmark, ...

Authorities have been doing too little to regrow trees they felled to make way for hydropower projects, experts said. Growing trees is the most effective way to control floods and prevent erosion in downstream areas, Dao Xuan Hoc, chairman of the Vietnam Water Resources Development Association, ...

A sanctioned Chinese casino magnate is backing the construction of a new international port on the Mekong River in Laos, adjacent to his Golden Triangle gambling and tourism complex. Zhao Wei, the chairman of the Kings Romans Group, broke ground on the $50 million port development ...

Born in Phaung Gyi village on an island near the shore of the Ayeyarwady River in Nyaung-U Township, just under 150 kilometers south-west of Mandalay, Ko Aung Zaw Oo feels agitated whenever he returns home. He is now 43. Throughout his life, his village has moved ...

The Green Vietnam Biodiversity Conservation Centre (GreenViet) in coordination with the Labour Federation of Hanoi’s Ung Hoa district and the Youth Union in Doi Binh commune has launched a campaign to plant 4,000 trees to improve the air conditions in the capital city. The campaign, part of the One ...

People living in the Mekong Delta are installing tanks to store water for the dreaded dry season, and authorities are building artificial lakes. Pham Van Tien opens the cement tank which has rainwater from the previous night. During the last dry season Tien’s family and some ...

According to the Ministry of Environment, rangers have cracked down on 11,376 cases of the natural resource crimes cases nationwide, during the first nine months of this year. The report also said that of the cases in which rangers intervened, 420 were filed in court, 606 ...

Thailand’s mangrove forests have increased by more than 200,000 rai, raising the total mangrove coverage to 1.73 million rai, according to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa. Citing satellite data showing the extent of mangrove forests in 24 coastal provinces, Mr Varawut said these ...

Research by the University of Leeds and Utrecht University has helped secure the highest government protection for internationally-important Vietnamese forests. Over the past five years, conservation organization Viet Nature, and its partners World Land Trust, IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands (IUCN NL), Birdlife International ...