News
Myanmar’s environment hit by rare earth mining boom
Kachin State’s Chipwi Township in northernmost Myanmar is known for its pristine forests and crystal-clear water. But 10 years ago, local residents started noticing the patches of land that had been cleared on the lush mountains surrounding their town, which borders China’s Yunnan province. It started ...
Maran
Hundreds of endangered baby giant turtles released into Cambodian river
Hundreds of critically endangered baby giant turtles were released into Cambodia’s Mekong River to mark World Turtle Day on Monday. Cantor’s giant softshell turtles have all but vanished across their former territory in Vietnam and Thailand thanks to poaching and illegal trade, and were only rediscovered ...
AFP
Sustaining the Mekong Delta’s way of life
The Mekong Delta’s famed floating markets, where local speciality produce is sold on boats, provide a unique scene that draws both local and foreign visitors. In addition, the markets illustrate the southerners’ custom of trading and travelling on the river. Nham Hung, a cultural researcher, said floating ...
The Star Online
Cambodian agriculture holds the seeds for success
Sok Solida’s stall in Phnom Penh’s Daeum Kor wholesale market overflows with fruits and vegetables, but almost none come from Cambodia. “You can hardly find anything locally produced in this market,” Solida said. Solida sells longan from Thailand, Chilean red grapes, Chinese pears, Vietnamese oranges and dragon ...
JACK BROOK
Center to be set up for Mekong Delta agriculture development
A center to provide guidelines for agricultural production in the Mekong Delta will be established in Can Tho City. The Mekong Delta Agricultural Product Center would act as a hub connecting farmers, producers and traders, Duong Tan Hien, deputy chairman of Can Tho, said at a ...
Nguyen Anh
Mekong News Agency journalist Maung Maung Myo jailed on terrorism charges in Myanmar
Myanmar authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Maung Maung Myo and stop jailing members of the press for reporting the news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. Around 6 p.m. on May 10, Maung Myo, a contributor to the local Mekong News Agency, was traveling ...
CPJ
US pledges assistance for Vietnam’s climate change adaptation
Receiving visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Boston on May 14 (local time), Kerry expressed his impression of Vietnam’s COP26 commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025, as well its approach to energy transformation and climate change response. He assured Chinh ...
We need new weapons against packaging waste
Last month, researchers found microplastics — small, microscopic pieces of plastic fragments — within human lungs for the first time. This comes on the heels of news that microplastics were found in human blood, which may travel around the body and enter organs. Microplastics find their ...
SIMON BALDWIN
Myanmar state of affairs worsening, ETI warns businesses
In a position statement, the ETI points to a Commission of Inquiry into the decline of workers’ rights in Myanmar established by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in March, noting such a move is the ILO’s highest-level investigative procedure which is generally set up when a member state ...
Hannah Abdulla
Diplomacy is indispensable to manage the Mekong
Milton Osborne mischaracterises the Mekong River Commission when writing last month in The Interpreter that the regional organisation “ignores reality”. To say we were “celebrating” the health of the river at our Mekong Day event on 5 April overlooks the fact that on that day I continued ...
ANOULAK KITTIKHOUN