Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
Hundreds of civil society organisations have urged the government to formally abandon plans for coal power plants and large-scale hydropower projects and instead embrace renewable energy.
Some CSO leaders have also criticised the National League for Democracy for excluding the public from a review of the country’s energy policies.
The disappearance of Sombath Somphone remains one of the most enduring and heartbreaking mysteries of modern Laos as the abduction of the world-recognized rural development activist at a police checkpoint four years ago remains unsolved.
“As the fourth anniversary of Sombath’s disappearance approaches, my heart becomes heavier by the day,” his wife Shui Meng Ng told RFA’s Lao Service on Tuesday. “I never expected that I would still have no news of Sombath after so long.”
The murder of a Burmese reporter investigating illegal logging and the roadside beating of another, both in Myanmar earlier this week, have raised new fears about media safety in the country.
Soe Moe Tun, a 37 year-old Burmese reporter with Daily Eleven newspaper, was found “severely beaten” to death by the side of a highway near the town of Monywa in Myanmar’s central Sagaing region on Dec. 13. Police are investigating his murder but robbery doesn’t appear to be the motive: his valuables were found at the crime scene.
The USAID Cambodia Supporting Forests and Biodiversity Project (USAID SFB), implemented by Winrock International improves conservation and governance of the Eastern Plains and Prey Lang Landscapes. To assist forest communities to improve governance and obtain equitable benefits from forest resources, USAID SFB developed this NTFP-Based Livelihoods Enterprise Development and Management Training Manual.
Mekong Partnership for the Environment (MPE) partner Development and Partnership in Action (DPA) improves the ability of their network of NGOs and the public to constructively engage in the development of related EI laws and work toward effective and responsible investment.
THE National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) yesterday exercised its absolute power to tackle conflict and alleged impacts caused by gold mines by ordering them to suspend operations from January 1, 2017.
The killing in Myanmar of a journalist who covered issues related to illegal logging in the country must be investigated thoroughly and all findings made public.
Soe Moe Tun was based in the Sagaing region, working with Eleven Media News in Myanmar. According to initial reports today (December 13), he was found with extensive head and facial injuries; local police have begun an investigation into his death.
Chinese state-funded renewable energy firms are spreading the net overseas, as quality new projects become harder to come by at home, and have already been successful in snapping up some prime operational projects, while bidding for others, both in developed and emerging markets.
The two most active are China General Nuclear Power Group, the nation’s largest nuclear reactor developer, and China Three Gorges, the country’s biggest hydro power projects developer.
While the media coverage of the environment in Cambodia is still limited, the Cambodian Environmental Journalism Network (CEJN) has urged media organizations to make more comprehensive coverage of the environment for the public in cooperation with the media in the neighboring countries.
Vietnam has strongly committed to develop renewable energy. Experts expect implementation of these commitments will create a “Resolution 10” for the energy sector. Resolution 10 is the name of a critically important Vietnamese reform in 1988. This policy helped to liberalize the freedom and the production potential in rural and agricultural economies.
