Environment and natural resources

Electricite du Laos (EDL) has announced that it will no longer supply electricity to cryptocurrency mining operations in Laos, citing long-term outstanding debts.The notice, issued by EDL on Wednesday, states that Laos experienced drought conditions during the first six months of 2023, with extreme heat causing ...

Last week, the Vientiane Province government counseled 65 locals who were caught burning forest land in Phou Phanang National Bio-Diversity Conservation Area to reeducate and raise awareness on the harmful long-term effects of illegal logging and deforestation. The group was sent to a training and ...

As media attention focused on the dissolution of the parliament to prepare for the upcoming national election, news that a Power Purchase Agreement with Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) was signed for the Pak Lay dam slipped by without making much of a ripple. ...

The fire, which was caused by agricultural burning in the area, had spread to 17 different villages in the Sangthong district, causing damage to an area of around 120 hectares of woodland.Around 600 people, including officials and local residents, were mobilized on 20 March to ...

The demand for cassava has seen it become the most profitable agricultural product in Laos, as demonstrated by the country’s February trade figures: cassava was the leading export item, with figures totaling USD 85 million. Laos exports most of its cassava to Thailand and Vietnam, where ...

According to the tourists, who spoke with Laotian Times on condition of anonymity, areas of the park are being cleared for farming and other activities. The photographs show large stretches of land that have been fenced off and destroyed in preparation for agricultural planting.Phou Khao Khouay National ...

Local authorities in Laos last week met with villagers who will be affected by the Pak Beng Dam project to discuss compensation, but the villagers worry that the government’s offer will be too low, sources in the country. The dam, located in northwestern Laos’ Bokeo ...

Illegal logging, concessions to private developers and agricultural encroachment on forest lands are jeopardizing Laos’s goal of achieving 70% forest cover density by 2035.That’s according to a recent survey by Laos’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which pointed to an increase in illegal logging in ...

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) held a groundbreaking ceremony last week to build four decentralized wastewater treatment plants and a city-level excrement treatment facility in Pakse City, Champasack that would benefit around 9,000 people.These facilities are being developed under the Wastewater and Solid Waste ...

Authorities in Luang Prabang expect that it will take longer to extinguish the fire at a landfill in Lak 8 village amid ongoing forest fires due to slash-and-burn agriculture being practiced across the province.Vientiane Mai reports that a fire broke out at a landfill on 13 February ...