Mekong - U.S. Partnership
USAID Partner Targets Wildlife Trafficking at Major Port in Southeast Asia
On 20 May 2014, Wildlife Alliance, a partner of the USAID-funded Asia’s Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking Program, conducted a wildlife trafficking seminar at Cambodia’s Port of Sihanoukville.Thirty-three participants attended the event including customs officials, immigration police, port authority staff, and private sector shipping companies. The objectives of this training were to raise awareness…
Lao Cai Readies Climate Resilience Action Plan for Provincial People’s Committee
City stakeholders and government officials in Lao Cai, Vietnam, held their final workshop and Shared Learning Dialogue under support from the USAID-supported Mekong-Building Climate Resilience in Asian Cities project to discuss and finalize the city’s Climate Resilience Action Plan for submission to the Provincial People’s Committee.Dang Xuan Thanh, Vice-Chair of the Provincial People's Committee chaired…
Grassroots Equity Tops Agenda at ASEAN Conference on Social Forestry
The USAID-funded Grassroots Equity and Enhanced Networks in the Mekong Program supported 14 forestry officials and civil society representatives from the Lower Mekong countries to join over 200 participants from governments, civil society organizations and other stakeholders at the ASEAN Social Forestry Network annual conference in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia from May 24 to 26.Conference participants…
Next Step in Climate Change Curriculum Development Focuses on Social Soundness and Carbon Measurement
University professors, trainers and USAID’s Lowering Emissions in Asian Forests partners met in Bangkok from May 26 to May 30 to further advance the project’s Regional Climate Change Curriculum Development program.This next step in the program allowed refinement and training for two of the program’s four modules – Social and Environmental Soundness and Carbon Measurement…
Fin Free Campaign Joins Thai Dive Expo to Promote Shark Conservation
From May 15-18, 2014, Fin Free Thailand joined the Thai Travel and Dive Expo to promote the campaign and broader shark conservation awareness. Dive tourism is a large industry in Thailand and with more than 100 million sharks a year being slaughtered for their fins worldwide; the global dive tourism industry stands to lose millions…
Asia’s Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking Program Surveys Document Decline in Wildlife Crime in Vietnam
Over the last few months, USAID partner Education for Nature-Vietnam (ENV) has mounted a campaign of surveys in four districts of Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi to document the illegal use and sale of endangered and protected species. The project team inspected 2,326 restaurants, hotels, bars, traditional medicine shops, pet stores and markets…
Thai-U.S. Partnership Fosters Regional Climate Change Adaptation Capacity
The USAID Adapt Asia-Pacific project facilitated a visit of a high-level delegation of Thai officials to the United States at the invitation of the U.S. Forest Service from April 19 to May 1. The five-member Thai delegation, including the Secretary General of the National Research Council of Thailand and the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the…
USAID and U.S. Forest Service Build Foundation for Carbon Mitigation through Better Management of Mangrove Ecosystems
From April 21 to May 3, experts from the USAID Low Emissions Asian Development program and U.S. Forest Service trained 38 Cambodian participants from eight government agencies and three universities on how to measure the amount of carbon stored in mangroves and other forested wetlands.The 11-day, intensive field training in Koh Kong Province, Cambodia, is…
Launch of Innovative Regional Learning Group on Equity in Forest Governance
From April 28 to May 2, USAID’s Grassroots Equity and Enhanced Networks in the Mekong Program launched its Regional Learning Group on Equity in Forest Governance and organized its first learning event in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand.Twenty-two sub-national government officials from Lower Mekong countries, including Cambodia, Laos PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, participated and will continue…
Earth Week Outreach Raises Wildlife Trafficking Awareness Among Bangkok’s Youth
On April 25, hundreds of students at International School Bangkok celebrated Earth Week with a one-day outreach event on wildlife trafficking. Freeland, the implementing partner of the USAID-funded Asia’s Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking Program, sponsored the awareness-building event.Event activities highlighted the plight of endangered species trafficked in the region, the event activities emphasized…
USAID Partners with Microsoft to Help Thai Students Design Innovative Solutions to Asia’s Development Challenges
A team of four Thai students mentored by the USAID Low Emissions Asian Development program won first runner-up in the World Citizenship category of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Thailand competition on April 24, 2014, in Bangkok.The students, from Chalalongkorn University, Sripatum University, Chidlada School and Assumption University won a cash prize for their “Locaze” mobile…
University Outreach Aims to Reduce Tiger Bone Consumption in Vietnam
From April 14-18, Vietnamese students participated in a series of university outreach events to stop consumption of endangered species and their products. The events focused on encouraging students to refrain from using ‘tiger bone glue’, a substance common in Vietnam promoted to treat a variety of ailments.The outreach event was part of a larger region-wide…
