Mekong Government and Civil Society Support Strong Environmental Impact Assessments

In Bangkok, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported Mekong Partnership for the Environment (USAID MPE) project and the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network organized an event that brought together more than 50 government and civil society representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to exchange ideas on environmental impact assessment (EIA)…

Improving Payments for Environmental Services for Green Growth in the Lower Mekong

From November 24 to 25, key stakeholders from Lower Mekong countries participated in a regional workshop on payment for environmental services (PES) co-hosted by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Center for International Forestry Research and Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences in Hanoi, Vietnam.Fifty-five participants from government, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and academia…

RECOFTC Publishes Q&A Booklet on Equity in Forests and Climate Change Context

RECOFTC, the Center for People and Forests, recently published a new addition to its climate change handbook series, “Equity in Climate Change and REDD+,” with USAID and the Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD) support through their respective projects, Grassroots Equity and Enhanced Networks in the Mekong and Grassroots REDD+.The projects identified a need for a…

Mekong Partnership for the Environment Supports EIA Dialogue at First-ever Major Conference on the Salween River Basin

On November 14 to 15, the USAID-funded Mekong Partnership for the Environment (USAID MPE) project helped support the “First International Conference on Salween-Thanlwin-Nu Studies” in Chiang Mai, Thailand.Hosted by Chiang Mai University, the event brought together over 200 experts to examine the basin’s future. USAID MPE held a roundtable discussion with representatives from the governments…

USAID Project Promotes Youth Job Skills and Education in the Lower Mekong

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new project to train hundreds of instructors and students to prepare youth for employment in the Lower Mekong countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.  The USAID Connecting the Mekong Through Education and Training project, to be implemented by the Education Development Center, Inc., focuses on…

FACT SHEET: The President’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative

The White HouseOffice of the Press SecretaryFor Immediate ReleaseToday in Rangoon, Burma, President Obama announced a significant expansion of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) at a town hall with 400 youth from the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).YSEALI is the President’s signature initiative to strengthen leadership development across…

U.S. Government Initiative Promotes Sustainable Development in Lower Mekong through Integrated Research

International experts in environmental research and policy gathered at a workshop on November 13, 2014 at the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program (FETP) Ho Chi Minh City. The event kicked off the new Lower Mekong Public Policy Initiative (LMPPI), supported with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project fulfills goals of the U.S. Government’s Lower…

FACT SHEET: 2nd ASEAN-U.S. Summit

The White HouseOffice of the Press SecretaryFor Immediate ReleaseToday, President Obama met with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders and foreign ministers and the ASEAN Secretariat's Secretary-General at the 2nd ASEAN-U.S. Summit in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. President Obama reaffirmed the importance of U.S.-ASEAN ties as a crucial element of the United States' strategic…

USAID and NASA Using Technology for Development in Lower Mekong

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) today announced a five-year project that will promote the use of satellite imagery to help Asia’s Lower Mekong region better predict and cope with floods and other natural disasters and increase resilience to the negative effects of climate…

USAID/RDMA Signs Agreement with US Environmental Protection Agency to Strengthen Environmental Impact Assessments in Lower Mekong

USAID/RDMA recently finalized a four-year inter-agency agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) as part of a Lower Mekong Initiative deliverable announced by Hillary Clinton and the USAID-supported Mekong Partnership for the Environment. Under the agreement, USAID, USEPA and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) partner to promote regional integration by strengthening environmental and social…

Journalists Learn to Use Environmental Impact Assessments in Reporting at the Mekong Partnership for the Environment Workshop

Sifting through a mountain of government technical documents can be daunting to a journalist, but those who participated in “Mekong Matters: Reporting on Development Projects Using Environmental Impact Assessments” now think differently. The USAID-supported Mekong Partnership for the Environment project held the workshop in Chiang Mai from September 15 to 19 to train Mekong-region journalists…

Mekong ARCC’s Lower Mekong Climate Change Study and GIS Data Available

The USAID Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (USAID Mekong ARCC) program, in coordination with the Greater Mekong Sub-region Environment Operations Center of the Asian Development Bank, has made available a large collection of Geographic Information System (GIS) data generated through the USAID Mekong ARCC Climate Change Impact and Adaptation Study for the Lower Mekong…