Environment and natural resources

Earlier this year, Vietnam’s prime minister called for a ban of the wildlife trade in the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several months later, the government released a directive on the wildlife trade. Hailed as a ban in some media coverage, the move fell short of that, ...

Vientiane authorities will impose a new legal measure designed to control noise as part of efforts to transform the capital into a more peaceful and socially-ordered city. Mayor of Vientiane, Dr Sinlavong Khoutphaythoune, on September 19 endorsed the capital’s decision to limit the noise emanating from ...

The Ministry of Environment is investigating a group that erected more than 50 stone and wooden posts and built fences on State land in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province. Its spokesman Neth Pheaktra said he recently inspected the activities while leading a delegation ...

Representatives of the European Union (EU) and the Lao government have held discussions on an agreement on combating illegal logging and promoting trade in legal timber products. The issue was discussed at the fourth Joint Expert Meeting (JEM) on a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) on forest law ...

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha, on behalf of the Vietnamese Government, has called on countries to combine strength and coordinate actions in a more urgent, drastic and practical manner to protect biodiversity – a priceless natural resource. Ha made the appeal at ...

Thao Nguyen Phan’s Becoming Alluvium opens with sound: an outboard motor puttering in the dark. The tea-brown, silt-clouded water of the Mekong appears, gliding beneath the prow of a little boat. Lines from the great poet Rabindranath Tagore’s The Gardener lap the screen, concluding: “Why did the ...

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have requested that the Ministry of Environment to publicly release the full details of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to ensure accountability and transparency of environmental governance in Cambodia. The request was made in the workshop on “Using Open EIA Reporting to ...

Despite fears to the contrary among those in favour of it, the ban on paraquat and chlorpyrifos is to remain in place. The Hazardous Substances Committee has confirmed that production, possession, and importing or exporting either substance remains illegal, under legislation introduced on June 1 of this ...

Two events happened last month that went largely unnoticed by most of the mainstream media in Southeast Asia. One was the third Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Leaders’ Meeting between China and the five Mekong members of Asean — Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The other ...

Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on Friday said that sea grass, coral reefs and undersea rock formations in Thailand’s four southern coastal provinces are now legally protected. The ministry warned that violators found to disrupt the protected sea treasures will face one-year in prison ...