While ELCs do have some positive impacts, like employment opportunities, new technologies, access to health and improved infrastructure, the negative impacts outweigh these and local communities as well as forest and wildlife are threatened by loss of land, culture and traditions.
Tag: forests
Protected birds come under threat
A protected bird species has come under renewed threat after land-grabbers invaded Preah Vihear province’s Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary and destroyed their habitat.
As Thailand Ramps Up Its Palm Oil Sector, Peat Forest Feel the Pressure
Thailand is aiming to increase its domestic palm oil production 50 percent over the next nine years while at the same time trying to reclaim encroached peat forest from smallholders.
Elites are threatening Cambodia’s forests
Large-scale plantations have resulted in Cambodia exhibiting one of the world’s highest rates of deforestation. The major driver of forest policy during the 1990s, and now, concerns elites who deploy the state to manage and exploit Cambodia’s natural resources.
World Wildlife Day 2017: Survey of Myanmar finds Southeast Asia’s last great wilderness
Surveys in Myanmar found at least 31 mammals including tigers, leopards and Asian Elephants. 17 of the 31 are categorised as Near Threatened, Vulnerable or Endangered
Will Hydropower Turn the Tide on the Salween River?
Will efforts to sustainably steward the Salween, Asia’s last free flowing, international river, parallel those launched a half-century ago and half a world away?
Chain Saw Injuries in Myanmar Tied to Illegal Logging
As darkness fell in the forests of central Myanmar on a rainy evening last July, May Thu and her husband Myint Swe*, were wrapping up their day’s work: illegal logging. May Thu, a petite 27-year-old with long black hair and shining black eyes, clambered on top of some logs assembled in a pile. It was monsoon season and the wood was slippery. She fell and landed on the buzzing blade of her husband’s chain saw.
Before the Flood: can the Bunong culture survive Cambodia’s Sesan II dam?
At a time when much of Cambodia is developing at a breakneck speed, where smartphones and BMWs have become almost as ubiquitous on the streets of Phnom Penh as saffron-robed monks, the village of Kbal Romeas inhabits a world apart. Tucked deep into the jungles of the country’s untamed northeast, the village has no convenience stores, streetlights, or paved roads. Instead, a visitor would be more likely to find a stretched snakeskin nailed to a piece of teak, drying in the midday sun as a testament to the animist beliefs of the people who live there.
Unchecked Development, Poor Planning Set Stage for Flood Crisis
More than blaming the flooding which has devastated the south just on record rainfall, those familiar with the issue say mismanaged water resources and unplanned development are to blame.
The Salween Peace Park: A Radical, Grassroots Alternative to Development in Karen State
A path has opened for environmental conservationists and rights advocates to strengthen their fight against gold mining and other socially and environmentally destructive projects in the rich forests of Karen State in eastern Burma: the Salween Peace Park.