Environmental impact assessments

An environment-monitoring working group from the Environment Ministry and the Council for the Development of Cambodia plans to meet with the owners of nearly 50 special economic zones across the country to promote standards on environmental protection and liquid waste management. ...

Guidelines for mitigating the environmental impact and managing risks of hydropower dams in the Mekong River will be established at the end of March 2018 after discussion between Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Forty-five officials from the four countries have been meeting in Vientiane this week ...

The investor in Cambodia’s first large scale marine fish farm project in Preah Sihanouk province, that was approved by the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) in April, has been asked to submit an environmental impact assessment study to the Ministry of Environment before ...

Fishing communities around the Tonle Sap Lake have called on Laos to scrap a controversial Mekong hydropower project after the consultation period for the project ended this week. ...

The consultation process for the controversial proposed Pak Beng dam in Laos concluded on Monday, allowing construction to begin even as local and international civil society groups continued to urge a delay until a forthcoming Mekong River Commission (MRC) environmental assessment is released later this ...

The Mekong River Commission held its second stakeholder meeting on Laos’s controversial proposed Pak Beng dam on Friday, giving involved parties the opportunity to hear responses to concerns raised at the first meeting in February. ...

Japan has signed a three-year deal to help train government officials on attracting environmentally friendly investment. The Environment Ministry and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) yesterday signed the agreement to educate officials about how to use environmental impact assessments and enforce pollution controls. ...

Environmental organizations and civil society groups have expressed concern at plans to build another dam along the Mekong River in Laos and asked the Lao government to suspend the project due to the effects it will have on communities, water flow and fishery resources in ...

An environmental impact assessment released on Friday for a $245 million mining project slated to begin operations in Mondolkiri province next year has raised concerns about its potential effects on the environment and local communities. The project, proposed by the Chinese-owned Alex Corporation, would see a ...

Civil society groups are getting closer to unveiling a new set of guidelines that will change how the impact of big development projects is assessed across the Mekong region, NGOs said yesterday, following the end of a two-month public consultation period. ...

Youth groups and environmental activists have requested the government release the latest documents concerning the proposed Sambo hydroelectric dam in Kratie province, amid lingering concerns of the possible environmental damage the dam may cause. The dam, if constructed, will be the largest in the country and ...

Over 20 Cambodian NGOs, Chinese government officials, public and private Chinese companies, and Chinese NGOs held a roundtable discussion on Friday in Phnom Penh to talk about Chinese investment in Cambodia. ...

Civil society groups are calling for Laos’ Don Sahong hydropower dam project to be discussed when Southeast Asian leaders meet with U.S. President Barack Obama next week. ...

As airline passenger numbers in the country rocket, Cambodia has taken its first step toward greener air travel by earning the initial level of accreditation from a body that monitors the carbon footprint of airports. ...

Over 200 people gathered on Friday from across Cambodia to join in a campaign against the construction of the Don Sahong Dam, which has been ongoing in the past month on one of the major channels of the Mekong at the Cambodia-Lao border. The campaign, ...

The fate of 70 million people rests on what happens to the Mekong river. With world leaders meeting in Paris next week for crucial UN climate talks, John Vidal journeys down south-east Asia’s vast waterway – a place that encapsulates some of the dilemmas they ...

Conservation experts and residents in Kratie province say they are concerned for the wellbeing of the Mekong River dolphin, especially if a major hydropower project is built upstream. Only about 80 Mekong dolphins are estimated to now live in Cambodia, down from 200 in 1997. ...

More than 6,400 residents of Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia have signed and thumb-printed a statement on the Don Sahong Dam project, airing concerns ranging from the river’s diminishing fish stocks to the lack of transparency of the Mekong River Commission. The statement, presented last week ...

When the Lao national assembly last week approved a potentially destructive dam project just 2 kilometers from the border with Cambodia, the surprise announcement was yet another blow to the regional framework designed to protect the Mekong River.  ...

Youths raised concerns about the potential environmental impact of petroleum discovery and use at a roundtable discuss on Saturday during which they debated with officials eager to continue searching and tapping into new energy resources. ...

China’s state-owned dam builders are failing to keep their promises to protect the planet when developing hydropower projects abroad – increasing the threat of environmental and social problems, according to a new study by green group International Rivers. ...

Representatives of a group known as Cambodia Youth Movement 157, which counts Defense Ministry officials among its leadership, on Sunday handed out money to eviction-threatened indigenous families in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley on behalf of Hun Manet, the son of Prime Minister Hun Sen. ...

Members of local conservation group the Forest Protection Community announced plans last week to use their own staff members to patrol an area of forest in Anlong Veng that could be decimated by illegal loggers within months. ...

An environmental nongovernmental organization and young Cambodians opposed to sand dredging will petition the country’s parliament and relevant ministries to stop companies from digging up sand in a southwestern province, activists said. ...