Environment and natural resources
How To End Deforestation? Two Decades of Lessons Learned in the Greater Mekong
It’s home to spectacular beauty, abundant natural resources, and more than 300 million people spread across Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, and China. Yet the Greater Mekong has been gripped by conflict and political crises, creating in many places conditions ripe for illegal forest ...
Michael Jenkins, Kerstin Canby, Genevieve Bennett
Thailand returns orangutans to their Indonesian homeland
Wildlife authorities in Thailand sent two orangutans back to Indonesia on Friday as part of a collaborative effort to combat illicit wildlife trade. Ten-year-old female Cola and 7-year-old male Giant were transported from wildlife sanctuaries in the western province of Ratchaburi to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where ...
Busaba Sivasomboon
Currents of Time
A river can be timeless, but on no two days will its flowing course ever truly be the same. So it goes on the mighty Mekong. For thousands of years, this river has wound its way through much of Asia, shaping the land and lives of ...
Andrew Haffner
Patrol finds 200 snares in forest community
More than 200 illegal snares have over the past two weeks been removed from the Prambei Mom Forest community area in Kampong Speu’s Thpong district. Liv Sarum said on Thursday that patrols of the forest community in Prambei Mom commune found the traps, with 117 of ...
Long Kimmarita
Mekong countries strengthen river management cooperation
The Mekong River Commission and the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center have signed a memorandum of understanding to improve the management of the Mekong river. As part of the agreement, both organisations will research on drought and low flow scenarios in the lower and upper Mekong ...
Pech Sotheary
How the scramble for sand is destroying the Mekong
A crisis is engulfing the Mekong River, its banks are collapsing and half a million people are at risk of losing their homes. The entire ecosystem of this South East Asian river is under threat, all because of the world’s insatiable demand for sand. Extracted from the ...
Beth Timmins
Mekong basin's vanishing fish signal tough times ahead in Cambodia
Tbong sits in the shade of a makeshift stilt hut over the edge of Tonlé Sap lake, surrounded by curious children. “Snake, catfish, elephant fish ” he says, his eyes crinkled against the sun. “Before, a long time ago the lake had a lot of ...
Tigers Extinct in Laos
Are tigers extinct in Laos? That’s the conclusion of a detailed new study that found no evidence wild tigers still exist in the country. What researchers did find during a five-year camera survey of the biodiversity-rich Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area was evidence of snares — lots and ...
John R. Platt
China closes Mekong River stretch
China has declared a 60-kilometre section of Mekong River off-limits to all types of boats indefinitely while rock blasting is undertaken to widen the channel for commercial shipping operations. China announced on Friday that operators of all types of boats should avoid entering the river from ...
Germany offers $2.2 million to cross-border water cooperation
The German government today provided an additional 2 million euro ($2.2 million) to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to increase cross-border water dialogue, cooperation, and support efforts in monitoring trans boundary environmental impacts from Mekong mainstream dams. The funding agreement was made in a signing ceremony ...
Taing Vida
