Environmental impact assessments

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. ...

The development of two dams on the Lower Mekong River in Laos may have potentially devastating impact on the food security and livelihoods of 60 million people in the area, an international environmental group said. ...

The Ministry of Environment is close to finalising a draft environmental impact analysis (EIA) law for development projects, but NGOs and civil society groups raised concerns that the draft law, as it stands, prevents indigenous people who live on the land from opposing such projects. Speaking ...

Deep in the forest, about an hour from Stung Treng’s provincial capital through a rough and difficult road, just over half of the houses in an ethnic minority village have been tagged with bright orange spray paint saying, “LSS2”. According to a 2010 environmental impact ...

ANGKOR GOLD CORP. (ANK) (“ANGKOR” or “ANGKOR GOLD”) announces that approval from Cambodia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has been received to proceed with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on Cambodia’s first royalty-generating gold mine at Phum Syarung. The total area of 12 sq km ...

Cambodia plans to open bids for concessions on 19 onshore oil and gas exploration blocks to promote investment in the sector, a senior official at the country’s Ministry of Mines and Energy said on Wednesday. The Southeast Asian country is also keen to talk with international ...