“We have collected enough evidence from our government showing that Vietnamese companies are embroiled in large-scale illegal logging and timber smuggling from Cambodia.”
Category: Mekong
Southeast Asia swapping opium with coffee
Laos and Myanmar are following Thailand, which began the change in the 1980s. Long-term government investment in schools, hospitals and roads has weaned farmers off the crop, leading to its eradication.
Green transformation crucial for adaptation to climate change
Cambodia, Laos and Viet must work closer together to make the shift to using more renewable energy.
New understanding of Mekong River incision
An international team of earth scientists has linked the establishment of the Mekong River to a period of major intensification of the Asian monsoon during the middle Miocene, about 17 million years ago.
Ensuring stability of Mekong nations
When China backs up the development of other countries forcibly in disregard of their financial strength, environment and human rights issues, it could impede their healthy development.
Water conflicts worldwide threaten peace
China is not alone in trying to control Mekong. Laos also plans a dam to generate power for sale to Thailand. Vietnam, where the Mekong flows into the South China Sea, is against the project, but Laos is not budging.
Japan strengthens its Mekong ties
Japan has one more disadvantage in dealing with Mekong River countries: None of them are strong democracies and their governments instinctively lean toward Beijing on questions of governance and human rights.
To Protect the Environment, Buddhist Monks Are Ordaining Trees
“They’re very wary of the monks getting together,” Chantal Elkin, a program manager for The Alliance of Religions and Conservation, told Sojourners. “Forest activism is [seen as] a threat to the government.”
Operation Mekong: China Solidifies Its Influence in Southeast Asia
China’s leadership now breaks with its decades-old doctrine of not getting involved in other countries’ political crises.
Mekong Institute partners with China and Thailand on managing Mekong dams
The project is geared toward collaborative information exchange among concerned agencies in Cambodia, P.R. China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, with emphasis on adaptive management and operation of hydropower projects as well as climate change mitigation.