News
Thao Nguyen Phan review – tribute to the Mekong River's myth and might
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 ...
Hettie Judah
CSOs urge ministry to release the full EIA
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 ...
Sok Srey Lux
Thailand’s ban on hazardous farming chemicals to remain in place
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 ...
Maya Taylor
Champassak folk benefit from Beung Kiat Ngong Ramsar Wetland conservation project
Households in eight villages surrounding the Beung Kiat Ngong (BKN) Ramsar Wetland in Pathoumphone district, Champassak province, are benefitting from the Lower Mekong Basin Wetland Management and Conservation Project at the BKN Ramsar Site. The project works to improve livelihoods and provide jobs in local communities, ...
How a Beloved Gemstone Became a Symbol of Environmental Tragedy in Myanmar
The jade gemstones that generate billions of dollars a year in Myanmar — the world’s biggest exporter of the stone — are beloved in China, where they can sell for more than gold. But they are a symbol of tragedy and suffering for the people who ...
EMILY FISHBEIN AND AUNG MYAT LAMUNG; Additional reporting by Jaw Tu Hkawng.
MRC releases new guidelines for Mekong hydropower development
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) released new guidelines yesterday assessing the risks of hydropower development through an assessment of five major themes. This is the third volume of Hydropower Mitigation Guidelines, and the themes include river hydrology and downstream flows, geomorphology and sediments, water quality, fisheries ...
Dina Huon
Asean needs to act on Mekong River
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 ...
CHEN CHEN LEE
Palm Oil Labor Abuses Linked to World’s Top Brands, Banks
Jum’s words tumble out over the phone, his voice growing ever more frantic. Between sobs, he says he’s trapped on a Malaysian plantation run by government owned Felda, one of the world’s largest palm oil companies. His boss confiscated and then lost his Indonesian passport, he ...
Associated Press
Sea Bed along Southern Coast is Now Protected by Law
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 ...
Xinhua News Agency
10-year implementation of Law on Gender Equality reviewed
The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) co-hosted an event on September 24 to release the independent Review of Ten Years of Implementing the Law on Gender Equality. In her remarks, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi ...
VNA
