Environment and natural resources

Forest experts and officials are trying to redefine “forest”, in an attempt to improve forest management in the country amid a variety of definitions applied for different government plans and policies, leading to frustration and lack of unity among concerned authorities.Keep reading ...

A temporary Royal Forestry Department official in Chiang Rai has been sacked for allegedly helping illegal loggers transport timber near the Mekong River. More than 20 logs and at least 100 processed planks were trucked to the department’s Forest Protection Unit in Chiang Saen district ...

Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Medicine yesterday (April, 2) handed out a more protective type of face mask, the N95, to help its staff cope with serious air pollution. The distribution of 6,000 N95 masks was aimed at raising public awareness of the problem and ...

Thai bottled water producers have responded well to a plan to stop using cap seals, which will not only decrease plastic waste but also reduce unnecessary production costs.Keep reading ...

The Mekong has long cast a mystical spell over adventurers, wildlife experts, and scientists enchanted by its spectacular rapids and waterfalls, along with its endangered dolphins, giant manta rays, and Siamese crocodiles. The river’s biodiversity is second only to the Amazon.Keep reading  ...

City Hall has dusted off a draft regulation to impose a wastewater treatment fee on Bangkok residents, 15 years after it was first flagged. Like it or not, the regulation is expected to win approval by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s (BMA) executives by the end ...

In September 1957, representatives from the four countries in the lower Mekong basin met in Bangkok to take the first steps towards cooperative development and management of their shared water resources. The agreement they signed established the Mekong Committee, the predecessor of the Mekong River ...

A governor’s directive to bar entry to reserve forest lands and parks to reduce hazardous pollution in the North has so far failed to reverse the amount of PM10 particulates in Mae Hong Song.Keep reading ...

Fire-fighters and volunteers in Mae Hong Son are battling brush fires along highways and on mountains day and night despite woodlands being officially sealed off. The fires have for almost five consecutive days smothered the northern province in a haze of small-particle dust that is ...

Chiang Rai has ordered its forests conditionally closed off for seven days and placed authorities on 24 hour alert after man-made fires continued to occur despite a 60 day order against such activities, in place until April 20.Keep reading ...