Vietnam and Laos have scaled up bilateral relations to the highest level of friendship and cooperation, known as “Great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation and strategic cohesion”. It is a new framework between the two former Indochinese countries. The emphasis is on strategic cohesion.

Vietnam’s Party General Secretary To Lam’s state visit early this month to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic was not headline news. On the surface, it was a symbolic visit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the LPDR and its strengthened party-to-party relations.

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BANGKOK — A new satellite analysis from U.S. think tank the Stimson Center has identified 517 suspected mines along rivers in Laos, including major tributaries of the Mekong, Southeast Asia’s longest river, heightening concerns about contamination of waterways that sustain local communities.

Stimson has not ground-truthed the mine sites identified through satellite imagery, but Mongabay spoke by phone with several government officials in Laos’s southern border province of Attapeu, home to 188 mines in the data, who said illegal mining remains widespread despite recent crackdowns.

“We still see officials carrying out inspections and confiscating equipment” from illegal mines in Attapeu, said one government official who spoke to Mongabay on condition of anonymity due to the limited press freedoms in Laos.

The analysis shines new light on the scale of mining in river basins across mainland Southeast Asia. The issue previously caught the spotlight in northern Thailand earlier this year after dangerous levels of arsenic were found to be flowing downstream from unregulated gold mines in Myanmar’s Shan state.

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Dec. 3 (UPI) — Unregulated mining across the Mekong region is accelerating at a pace that environmental researchers warn is outstripping governance, enforcement and ecological safeguards.

From Myanmar’s jade-rich northern highlands to informal gold pits along Laos and Cambodia’s riverbanks, mineral extraction is expanding in some of Southeast Asia’s most fragile ecosystems, often beyond the reach of national law and outside public scrutiny.

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The People’s Party (PP) has called on the government to tackle arsenic contamination from foreign mining, spreading from northern rivers to the Mekong in the Northeast. It is urging immediate talks with China, Myanmar and Laos.

PP deputy spokesman and Chiang Mai MP Phattarapong Leelaphat posted on Facebook on Saturday, accusing authorities of ignoring the toxic contamination. Arsenic levels in Mekong River passing Loei, Bueng Kan, Nong Khai and Nakhon Phanom provinces exceeded safety standards, yet officials withheld the information from the public, he said.

The pollution originates from neighbouring countries’ mining operations, but the government has failed to act. While contamination in northern rivers such as the Kok, Sai and Salween has long been known, the problem is now spreading to the Northeast, he added.

The post People’s Party warns of Mekong arsenic threat, calls for urgent regional talks first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

Satellite data show at least 27 new rare earth mines have opened across Laos since 2022, mostly in protected areas and many within the Mekong River Basin, raising transboundary pollution risks for Vietnam and the wider Mekong system.

New data show a recent proliferation of rare earth mines across river basins in Laos, potentially posing a transboundary water pollution threat to Vietnam and the entire Mekong River system. The new findings suggest that Chinese demand for rare earth minerals has led to the industry’s expansion into Laos, even though rare earth mineral extraction is currently illegal there.

Research from U.S.-based think tank the Stimson Center has identified 27 rare earth mines that have opened across river basins in Laos since 2022, including seven identified via satellite imagery analysis as having opened this year. Twenty-three of these mines appear to be in protected areas, but it’s unclear whether or not they’re operating with permission from officials.

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The post Lancang-Mekong countries vow to target telecom and cyber fraud first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The Myanmar junta’s recent raid on the notorious KK Park scam hub near the Thai border in Myawaddy, Karen State was a staged public relations stunt coordinated with the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) designed to mislead the international community into believing it is taking action against cybercrime, according to locals working in the area and international experts.

The regime said Sunday its military raided the infamous scam hub, seizing 30 sets of Starlink satellite internet equipment and related accessories intended for illegal communication, but claimed it found no evidence of criminal activities, including scam operations, at KK Park.

The regime said it found over 250 buildings as well as over 2,000 workers including 98 security personnel in the compound.

The post Myanmar Junta’s ‘Raid’ on KK Park Scam Hub a PR Stunt: Locals, Experts first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The forest in northern Gabon didn’t look like a battleground. It was a patchwork of hunting trails and village paths, home to fruit trees and ancestral graves. When a logging concession encroached and the community of Massaha protested, their pleas traveled poorly through official channels. Then the story was reported, documented and read by people in a position to act. The environment minister took notice, revoked the company’s permit, and the government moved to protect the forest at the community’s request. The victory wasn’t journalism’s alone. It belonged to village leaders who organized, the officials who acted, and the laws that allowed for course correction. Yet none of it would have happened, or not as quickly, had the facts not been gathered, verified and made public.

This is how journalism drives impact at its best. It doesn’t draft statutes, deploy police or plant trees. It supplies the oxygen those actions require: credible information, in time, in public.

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BAN PONG, Thailand — “Look at these ones over here!” calls Chamran Tahpan, as she crouches next to a mound of damp leaves on the forest floor. A cluster of mushrooms sprouts from the center of the earthy-smelling pile.

“These are hed khon, termite mushrooms,” says Rachaprapa Kamphud, 55, who leads the Ban Pong community forest and fire management group in northern Thailand’s Lampang province. Edible mushrooms like hed khon, along with a variety of other nontimber products, such as bamboo shoots, leafy greens and red ant eggs, can fetch high prices in local markets, she says, offering villagers a modest income.

By keeping the forest soil moist using small check dams designed to slow the flow of minor streams, Rachaprapa says they need only pile up humid leaves and soil to yield wild mushrooms year-round. There’s no need to set fire to the leaf litter to stimulate their growth — a common but risky method many nearby communities rely on.

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The post Women-led patrols and fire prevention restore forests in northern Thailand first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

Asia Centre’s first of seven report reveals that climate disinformation puts indigenous people at risk of proper decision-making and action to protect themselves, urging the media to ensure circulation of accurate information

Failure to address climate disinformation could hinder indigenous people’s agency from taking meaningful action against climate change and deforestation, a report found, suggesting that the media should safeguard the circulation of accurate information.

According to Asia Centre researcher Lai Wen-Ling, rapid digital transformation in Cambodia has fuelled the circulation of general disinformation, which in turn has led to the specific dissemination of climate disinformation.

She highlighted four forms of climate disinformation: state-aligned one-sided climate discourses, false climate solutions, corporate greenwashing stances and denial of deforestation narratives.

Collectively, the climate disinformation reflects broader dynamics in which official messaging obscures the environmental and social consequences of development projects, suppresses critical debate and sidelines Indigenous and local community voices, Asia Centre said in a statement on Monday.

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The post Climate Disinformation Can Impact Indigenous People’s Work – Report first appeared on Open Development Mekong.