Mekong Eye

🚨 Good news! Two collaborative reports Mekong Eye joined hands on have won #SOPA2024 Awards! 1️⃣ Excellence in Reporting on the Environment: "It's a Wash" led by Earth Journalism Network investigates greenwashing in many forms. Mekong Eye, along with Võ Kiều Bảo Uyên and Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network, explored how wood pellet production for biomass causes deforestation in central Vietnam. (links in comment) 2️⃣ Excellence in Journalistic Innovation: "Beneath The Sands" led by The Environmental Reporting Collective involved journalists/newsrooms from 12 countries to investigate the impact of sand mining globally. Mekong Eye Paritta W., Lam Le, Alan Parkhouse partnered with local journalists in Cambodia: Yalirozy Teng and Sopheavatey Lay, Thailand: Pratch Rujivanarom and Visarut Sankham, and Vietnam: Lê Đình Tuyển to reveal how sand mining affects communities and women. (links in comment) Congratulations to all involved! Find the finalists: https://lnkd.in/d-gjHRA

🤢 Within a 10-kilometer radius of the 700-hectare landfill of Ho Chi Minh City, hundreds of households are choking from air pollution. Their farms lie abandoned, crops wither, streams run black with leachate, and the groundwater is too foul to use. “They say they’ll cover it better, but nothing ever improves,” says resident Lam Van Quyet. The Vietnamese government wants to end this two-decade-long nightmare by constructing waste-to-energy (WtE) incineration plants.  Yet incinerating waste brings its own serious pollution problems, making WtE a controversial solution. STORY: Nhung Nguyen  PHOTOS: Alamy, Pixabay Link: https://lnkd.in/gDEwQg87

🌏 Community representatives from a fishing village in southern #Thailand have traveled to #COP16Colombia to observe the biological diversity negotiation while urging developed nations to mobilize a biodiversity fund. 🪸 They hope this fund will help indigenous people and local communities scale up their conservation efforts. 🔗https://lnkd.in/eVX8jjnv

Weekly News Digest | Oct 22, 2024 | https://lnkd.in/e3WdpVWM 🚅Laos' high-speed railway fueled its durian industry as China's appetite for the fruit is growing ⭕Viet Nam adds nuclear power to its energy plan, ⛏ Myanmar rebels capture a border base near Chinese rare-earth mining hub; and more.

💥As the ethnic armed group Arakan Army and military forces clash for control of areas in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, 🌿conservation efforts at the Nanthar Island and Mayyu Estuary Ramsar site have come to a halt, resulting in increased illegal poaching and habitat destruction. This highlights the devastating impact of conflict on nature, demonstrating how war and military activities contribute to biodiversity loss. Yet, this critical interconnection remains insufficiently addressed in both conflict resolution discussions and international conferences. As the Convention on Biological Diversity convenes its 16th meeting in Cali, Colombia, this week, addressing the critical nexus between conflict and biodiversity loss is more urgent than ever. Link in bio. https://lnkd.in/eX8G_Qp8 #cbd #cop16 #biodiversity

Đã bao thập kỷ qua, ĐBSCL mải miết cho ra những cây lúa năng suất tốp đầu thế giới. Giờ đây, cả đất và người đã gần như kiệt sức. Sau nhiều năm dựa vào hệ thống kênh dẫn nước ngọt, thuốc trừ sâu và phân bón hóa học để canh tác lúa ba vụ, nông dân ĐBSCL đang bắt đầu cảm nhận rõ rệt cái giá phải trả cho việc chế ngự tự nhiên để chạy đua theo năng suất. Những năm gần đây, chi phí sản xuất ngày càng tăng, mất mùa liên miên và lợi tức ngày càng nhỏ giọt. “Tiền lời mỏng như lá lúa,” ông Trần Hữu Lượng, ở huyện Thoại Sơn, An Giang, than thở. Trồng lúa gần 40 năm nay, nhưng toàn bộ những gì ông Lượng có chỉ là một căn nhà tuềnh toàng chưa đầy 100 m2 chỉ có gạch thô không trát, trong nhà không có vật dụng gì quý giá. Đất đồng bằng nay không chỉ bạc màu mà sức chống chọi sâu bệnh ngày càng yếu ớt, chưa kể còn lệ thuộc vào “thức ăn nhanh” phân hóa học, bởi cộng đồng vi sinh vật đã bị biến đổi. Trong khi đó, hệ thống thủy lợi làm thay đổi dòng chảy nước lũ lại dẫn tới thiếu nước, xâm mặn nghiêm trọng hơn vào mùa khô, và khiến cho các vùng hạ nguồn ngập lụt trầm trọng hơn vào mùa lũ. Những người nông dân như anh Lượng không dám bỏ lúa vụ ba, càng không dám bỏ sinh kế do thiếu thốn đủ đường. Thế tiến thoái lưỡng nan khó hóa giải, bởi không sớm thì muộn đất đồng bằng cũng sẽ hoàn toàn kiệt sức. Nhà báo Thu Quỳnh, Tạp chí Tia Sáng, đã dành nhiều tháng trời lần theo lịch sử canh tác lúa ở ĐBSCL để tìm câu trả lời cho hạn mặn, lũ lụt và mất mùa. Bài báo là một phần của Ground Truths (tạm dịch: Sự thật của Đất) - dự án hợp tác báo chí bắt đầu từ tháng 1/2024 giữa 11 nhà báo đến từ 10 quốc gia Đông Nam Á do Mạng lưới Báo chí Trái đất điều phối. BÀI: Nguyễn Thu Quỳnh ẢNH: Thanh Huế, Thu Quỳnh Link: https://lnkd.in/g8axpxPK

🌾 In the Mekong Delta, Viet Nam’s rice bowl, both farmers and soil are tired. After decades of working the soil three crops a year with the assistance of irrigation systems, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, farmers are seeing higher production cost, more harvest loss and less profit than ever. “Profit as thin as rice leaves,” lamented Lượng, a farmer in An Giang province. He has been farming for 40 years, but owns no valueables, and earns only 1,000 VND (approximately US$ 0.04) per kilogram of rice. The delta soil is now depleted of nutrients and healthy microorganisms. The use of chemicals has exacerbated pests outbreaks, irrigation canals alter flood cycles has made dry seasons drier, and allowed more saltwater intrusion during the wet seasons. Farmers like Lượng cannot afford to break the vicious cycle of the Green Revolution. They can’t keep working the land the same way either. Nguyễn Thu Quỳnh breaks down what went wrong in Viet Nam’s five decades of productivity growth in rice farming. This article is part of Earth Journalism Network’s collaborative special report on soil in Asia, Ground Truths, in which 11 journalists spent months reporting on the state of soil in 10 countries. STORY: Nguyễn Thu Quỳnh PHOTOS: Thanh Huế, Thu Quỳnh Link: https://lnkd.in/gf3pHc4H

⛰️The aftermath of the rare earth mining leak in Laos’ northern province has raised villagers’ fears about using contaminated rivers. ⛏️It also highlights the urgent need for Laos to improve its mining strategy and regulations to ensure safety as it plans to extract more rare earth minerals. STORY & PHOTO: Lamxay Duangchan 👉 https://lnkd.in/eGuzy7e2 Earth Journalism Network

Weekly News Digest | October 8, 2024 | https://lnkd.in/gUi49eZp ⛓️💥 Cambodia arrested prominent investigative journalist Mech Dara who exposed scams and corruption; 🔥 Myanmar's Kachin Independence Army seized an important rare-earth mining hub; 🚌 Thailand mourns the tragic deaths of 20 school children and 3 teachers in a tragic bus fire; ...and more.

📢 The world over, Indigenous and local communities are threatened by human rights violations, land grabbing, resource exploitation, and exclusion from political and legal decision-making processes — undermining their role in biodiversity conservation. #COP16, held next month in Cali, Colombia, will be an opportunity for Indigenous communities to advocate for greater recognition of their role as environmental stewards, and their right to manage Indigenous territories. In the lead-up to the summit, join the EJN for a virtual one-on-one conversation to learn about the key discussions related to Indigenous rights and conservation expected at #COP16, and to gather new angles for your biodiversity stories. 🗓️Date: 8 October 🕒Time: 4pm Bangkok 🔗Link: https://loom.ly/ejVH4ds #ClimateJournalism #COP #Webinar #Biodiversity #COP16 #EnvironmentalJournalism #Cali #Colombia