Earth

How environmental change is shaping Southeast Asia.

Earth • STORY OF THE DAY • Jan 25, 2021 • 16 min read

Wildlife trade Infiltrating a tiger trafficking network: From Laos to South Africa and Vietnam

By Lam Anh and Hoang Chien • Jan 25, 2021
The reporters go international in the second instalment of an investigative project infiltrating illegal tiger trafficking networks, visiting tiger farms in Laos and South Africa where they bread the animals to meet a taste for bone glue among wealthy Vietnamese consumers

Earth • STORY OF THE DAY • Jan 22, 2021 • 4 min read

Covid-19 Deadliest catch: Thailand’s ‘ghost’ fishing nets help Covid fight

By Dene-Hern Chen and Pitcha Dangprasith/AFP • Jan 22, 2021
Underwater divers in plastic-choked waters off the coast of Thailand are snipping through discarded nets tangled around reefs in a new initiative helping protect marine life and aid the fight against coronavirus

Earth • STORY OF THE DAY • Jan 20, 2021 • 4 min read

Tourism Tourism on track in the world’s largest cave in Vietnam

By Nhac Nguyen/AFP • Jan 20, 2021
As Covid-19 has swept the globe, international tourists to Vietnam have dropped sharply. But Son Doong cave, among the world's largest, has weathered the crisis thanks to a boost in visitors among Vietnam's fast-growing middle class

Earth • STORY OF THE DAY • Jan 19, 2021 • 12 min read

Land rights As Thai forest aims for UNESCO status, Karen community pushed to the margins

By Wanpen Pajai • Jan 19, 2021
Environmental conservation and indigenous rights are often natural bedfellows – but what happens when the two are at odds? In Thailand's Kaeng Krachan Forest, Karen communities battle to secure ancestral land rights, as officials strive for world heritage status

Earth • Jan 15, 2021 • 8 min read
Analysis

The hidden cost: Are Cambodia’s carbon credits really clean and green?

As global corporations, looking to offset their own emissions, pour money into eco-friendly projects in Cambodia as part of the carbon credits scheme, lurking beneath this seemingly positive initiative is corruption, rights abuses and violence says Dr Sarah Milne
By Dr Sarah Milne • Jan 15, 2021

Earth • Jan 13, 2021 • 15 min read
Wildlife trafficking

Infiltrating a Vietnam tiger trafficking network: Confronting an online kingpin

The trading of tigers and tiger products such as bone glue, claws, skin, bones and fangs in any form is prohibited under Vietnamese law. But in black markets, trade activities are thriving, as reporters found out when infiltrating Vietnam's trafficking rings
By Lam Anh and Hoang Chien • Jan 13, 2021

Earth • Jan 05, 2021 • 9 min read
Urbanisation

What’s to become of Hanoi’s last green holdout ‘Banana Island’?

Famed for its nudist colony and banana plantations, Banana Island is little more than a punchline for many Hanoians. But for the small community living there, a cycle of proposed housing developments, and even foresting projects, has left their livelihoods in doubt
By Ashley Lampard • Jan 05, 2021

Earth • Dec 31, 2020 • 2 min read
Human rights

US bans palm oil imports from second Malaysian firm

For the second time in recent months, the United States has banned imports from a Malaysian palm oil giant over concerns that its workers face a litany of abuse, including sexual and physical violence, withholding of wages and restrictions on movement
By Agence France-Presse • Dec 31, 2020

Earth • Dec 28, 2020 • 7 min read
Opinion

Were human relationships with elephants ever glorious?

While many still invoke romanticised notions of the human-elephant relationship throughout the centuries, today interactions are defined by captive elephant tourism. Sonakshi Srivastava asks, is it still appropriate to use history to justify this industry today?
By Sonakshi Srivastava • Dec 28, 2020

Earth • Dec 23, 2020 • 7 min read
Analysis

Power to the people? Cambodia’s Lower Sesan II Dam, two years on

When the Lower Sesan II Dam began operations in December 2018, the project came with a flurry of promises on how it would benefit the surrounding community, as well as Cambodia as a whole. Two years on, how many of those promises have become reality?
By Horn Chanvoitey • Dec 23, 2020

Earth • Dec 22, 2020 • 7 min read
Pollution

As Singapore’s shores become garbage magnet, group leads the clean-up

Surrounded by the world's worst plastic polluters, the shores of ultra-clean Singapore have become a magnet for waste. With their team of beachcombers, Seven Clean Seas are tackling the issue, while also looking for region-wide solutions to the issue of polluted oceans
By Toh Ee Ming • Dec 22, 2020