UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee will meet from July 16-31 to assess the dam’s potential impact on the Luang Prabang City World Heritage Site.
Category: Mekong
Why Thailand should step in to halt the Luang Prabang dam project
The Lao government may resist the growing pressure to cancel the dam project, but Thailand could readily pull the plug given that dam developer CH Karnchang is based in Bangkok.
Controversy brews over leaked tiger breeding report
More than 8,000 tigers live in captivity in China, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, where they are kept and bred for commercial uses, including for selfies with tourists and illegal trade in their bones, skins, and other parts.
In Mekong region, drug trade thrives
Seventy-one percent of the record seizure of 169 tonnes of methamphetamine in East and Southeast Asia in 2020 were in these five Mekong countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam,
China’s hydroelectric dams on River Mekong leaving region dry, livelihoods of millions affected
The South-East Asian countries are too weak to demand China to stop blocking water. They continue to face the ill- effects of Chinese dam constructions.
COVID or not, ‘the desire to eat wildlife’ continues in Asia
Countries in the region moved to ban the sale and consumption of wildlife after COVID-19 emerged, but coronavirus remains rampant and so does the trade.
Why we should care about fate of the Mekong
An Pich Hatda, chief executive officer of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), highlights the MRC’s new strategic plan, pointing out, among other things, a “need to boost the Mekong River’s ecology” and that “national power generation should be subject to a proper coordination management mechanism, and future plans must consider the full range of viable alternative generation sources that are environmentally friendly, logistically feasible and economically responsible.”
Endangered species are paying the price of COVID-19
For months, we’ve been researching the uptick in logging and poaching, which are gradually emptying out the forests here in Cambodia as well as neighboring Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. And for communities on the edges of wildlife-rich forests, exploiting these resources is increasingly a matter of survival.
Our World Heritage is deeply tied to rivers and they need protection from dams
Despite this World Heritage status, the Mekong River, which flows through and is an integral part of Luang Prabang’s history, culture, and way of life, is under threat. A Thai-led consortium is planning to build a massive hydropower project, 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) upstream from Luang Prabang. Given the proposed dam’s size and location (including its proximity to Luang Prabang City), the dam is categorized as an “extreme risk”.
Ichthyologists wanted for dam greenwashing
Adding a fish pass is not likely to make such an intrusive project sustainable or green. If that pass is only suitable for a single species, no matter how endangered, the whole system is in peril.