‘Vulnerable’ River Tern Population Doubles In Five Years

Khmer Times — The Mekong population of the rare River Tern has doubled in the past five years, raising hope for the species’ conservation, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said yesterday. According to the WWF statement, its research team has so far encountered 68 River Terns during their initial bird surveys which were conducted earlier this month, along the Mekong landscape between Read More…

Mekong River At ‘Worrying’ Low Level Amid Calls For More Chinese…

Reuters — Water levels in the Mekong River have fallen to a “worrying level” in part due to outflow restrictions from Chinese hydropower dams upstream, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Friday, calling on Beijing to share all of its water data. The vital waterway has turned blue along the Thai-Laos border, from its usual murky brown colour – signaling shallow water and low Read More…

Measures Needed To Make Mekong Delta Adaptive To Climate Change

Vietnam Plus — It is essential to promote sustainable development of the Mekong Delta in the direction of effectively adapting to climate change, given the region’s strategic position in national socio-economic development and security defence, experts have said.Covering a total area of 3.94 million hectares across 13 provinces and city, the region is Vietnam’s largest agricultural Read More…

Water Levels Drop, Fail to Rise Again on Mekong River Along Thai-Lao…

Radio Free Asia — Water levels on a stretch of the Mekong River along the border of Thailand and Laos, already low because of equipment testing at China’s upriver Jinghong Dam, have failed to rise again, raising concerns in communities living downstream, sources say. Chinese authorities at the end of December had announced that discharges of water from Yunnan province’s Jinghong Dam Read More…

Floating guard post to protect Irawaddy dolphins in Mekong

The Phnom Penh Post — The Kratie provincial authority in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Cambodia) is preparing to build a guard post in the Anlong Kampi area of the Mekong River in Chitr Borei district’s Sambok commune to watch for illegal fishing activities that may affect the Irrawaddy dolphin conservation area. Irrawaddy dolphins are a critically endangered Read More…

Tonle Sap fishermen claim a decline in fishing yield due to…

Khmer Times — Some fishermen living in core areas of the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve in Kampong Thom province claim that fishing yields have been declining over the last three years due to low water levels in the wet season, forest fires in the dry season and climate change. This was brought up during a recent meeting between the Ministry of Environment, representatives from Unesco, Read More…

Thailand Challenges Laos Dam Building Spree On Mekong

Daily Express — Thailand has threatened to sink plans for a Chinese-developed dam planned for the Mekong River in neighbouring Laos, in a rare rebuke that hints at a rising tide of dissension in an area where all three countries share South-East Asia’s largest waterway, reports Nikkei Asia. Thailand has raised objections to the US$2 billion Sanakham Dam since late last year, when Read More…

On the banks of Thailand’s Mun River, villages are struggling to…

Equal Times — Raiwan Anan-uea, 48, recalls a simple and happy adolescence in the district of Rasi Salai, where a dozen villages shared the abundant resources available in this remote corner of Isan (north-eastern) Thailand. “All year round we could grow rice, beans, cucumbers and potatoes. We could pick bamboo, catch catfish and water snails, cultivate honey, graze cattle, collect firewood Read More…

Award-Winning Thai Community Continues The Fight To Save Its Wetland…

Mongabay — Srongpol Chantharueang remembers his parents telling him as a boy always to protect the local wetland forest when he grew up. They told him that the ecosystem would be important for his life and that of his community. “I didn’t understand what they meant at the time,” he told Mongabay via a video call in December 2020. “I didn’t understand what the true value of the Read More…

Mekong Delta ensures water supply

Saigon Giai Phong Online — Phung Tien Dung, head of the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting’s Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting Division for the Central, Central Highlands and South regions, said the delta would face the highest level of saltwater via the Mekong River in February and March. The Vam Co and Cai Lon rivers, which are the major rivers in the delta, are expected to Read More…