The Bangkok Post
A crisis for workers
Venue closure, curfew and state policies enforced to contain the spread of Covid-19 are affecting the labour force severely. Workers experience the impact in different magnitudes, with some getting less pay and seeing their working hours reduced. Others manage to work from home. Some lose ...
MELALIN MAHAVONGTRAKUL
Illegal logging, encroachment found in Narathiwat
A total of 36 rai of forest on Sankalakhiri mountain range in Chanae district of this southern province has been illegally cleared by encroachers, forest protection officials said. Acting on information from local villagers, Gen Jatuporn Kalampasut, director of the intelligence office of the Region 4 ...
WAEDAO HARAI
Elephants' migration to village brings new stress
A thousand elephants threatened by starvation have journeyed through the hills of northern Thailand, making a slow migration home from tourist sites forced shut by the pandemic. Home for some of the animals is the northern village of Huay Pakoot, where generations of ethnic Karen mahouts ...
AFP
Opinion: 'Thais-only' policy is racism, pure and simple
‘This cannot be serious” was my initial reaction to news reports saying the Transport Company is imposing a ban on foreign travellers as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-19. Or it might be fake news? In fact, such news reports are strange enough to ...
PLOENPOTE ATTHAKOR
Saving kingdom's tigers
In the wild, tigers play the role of apex predator. The biggest of the wild cats can roam almost 300 kilometres to find food and mates, and they very rarely come into contact with other tigers or people. Unfortunately, the number of wild tigers in Thailand ...
Sanakam dam anger grows
A conservation group has called for the scrapping of the Sanakam dam which is being built in Laos on the Mekong River two kilometres from Nan province. The group urged Laos and neighbouring countries to embrace more ecological friendly renewable energy projects such as solar cells ...
APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
The Mekong doesn't need more destructive dams
On 11 May, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) announced that the proposed Sanakham hydropower project in Laos will undergo the MRC’s Prior Consultation process. Sanakham is the sixth mainstream dam to be submitted for Prior Consultation. The proposed Sanakham dam is expensive, unnecessary and risky — ...
SAVE THE MEKONG COALITION
Farmers given 90 days to hand in chemicals
Manufacturers or importers of hazardous agrochemicals paraquat and chlorpyrifos — which are banned under Thai law — have 270 days to destroy their stock while a 90-day deadline has also been given to farmers to return the chemicals for destruction as their possession is considered ...
APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
NESDC: 14.4m workers at risk
Thailand may lose up to 14.4 million jobs in the second and third quarters, largely because of the coronavirus outbreak and widespread drought, says the government’s planning unit. Of the total, some 8.4 million workers are estimated to be at risk of job loss, 2.5 million ...
CHATRUDEE THEPARAT
Time to restore human relations with biodiversity
The Covid-19 pandemic is a deep and lasting shock at global level; we all know that returning to “business as usual” is not an option. It is imperative that we perceive the crisis as an opportunity to rebuild — and even improve — livelihoods in ...
QU DONGYU & INGER ANDERSEN