Radio Free Asia

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 ...

Wildlife traders say that the illegal trade of pangolins remains strong – including on the Internet – despite their listing as a critically endangered species by Laos and even though the government has ordered a crackdown on the trade of endangered wildlife. Laos, a popular transit ...

The Attapeu provincial government signs a contract with a construction company to conduct a survey for pagodite and other soft stones in Khamvongsa village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province, Laos, on Feb. 8, 2023. Residents in southern Laos’ Attapeu province are concerned that more than one-fourth of ...

​But some say providing arable land to poor families around forests would be better approach. The United States has agreed to provide funding and equipment to Laos to help combat illegal logging in its national protest forests, an official at the U.S. Embassy in Laos said. ...

Two weeks after tropical storm Ma-On battered Southeast Asia, northern Laos is digging itself out of the devastation, as authorities contend with damaged infrastructure, inundated farmland, and hundreds of displaced people at risk of disease from lack of access to clean water.  Keep reading ...

Thousands of Laotians are once again leaving their home country to work in the Malaysian fishing industry, where they are susceptible to abuse from employers due to their illegal status. The Lao Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare estimated that about 2,000 Laotians had recently ...

Abnormally high-water levels in the Mekong River at the end of May indicate that dams on the river must release less water during the dry season to protect the ecosystem, experts said at an online panel Monday. Rain levels during the dry season this year have ...

The company responsible for Laos’ worst ever dam collapse more than three years ago announced last week that its rebuilt dam would begin releasing water, scaring downstream residents, including survivors of the disaster. Keep reading ...

Low water levels and a lack of sediment have affected the ecosystem and people’s livelihoods. Experts say the dams make the impact of periodic droughts in the Mekong basin worse and rob the river of the “pulse effect” that spreads water and nutrients that support ...