Mekong - U.S. Partnership
USAID Partner Promotes WildScan Species Identification App to Tourists in Thailand
USAID partner, Freeland, promoted their WildScan species identification app in December to tourists visiting Thailand. Through public outreach events, Freeland encouraged them to report wildlife crime. Banners at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport reached more than 100,000 passengers a day and there were also demonstrations to tourists in the beach resort towns of Pattaya and Phuket.Many of…
Mekong Neighbors Learn Counter Wildlife Trafficking Techniques Together
From November 27 to December 9, as part of the USAID-supported Asia's Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking Program, Freeland provided a two-part wildlife trafficking investigation training course for law enforcement officials from Laos and Thailand.The ASEAN-Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) Nature Crime Investigator course included a basic and an advanced course for forestry officials, environmental…
Final Call for Registration: Mobiles for Development Asia Forum
Are you curious about how mobile technology is already being used in your sector? Wondering what products are out there that might be worth scaling up?Would you like talk to experts to understand whether and how to integrate mobile solutions into your work?Join the Mobiles for Development (M4D) Asia Forum, hosted by USAID and FHI…
Three Universities Introduce Climate Change Curriculum in Thailand
From December 2 to 3 at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, 47 professors from 16 Thai universities came together for the National Seminar on Integrating Climate Change into University Curricula. The seminar served as the national rollout of the USAID Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (USAID LEAF) project’s regional climate change curriculum, which is part of…
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…
Training Provides Leaders with Tools for Better Management of Protected Natural Resource Areas
From November 17 to 20 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the USAID Low Emissions Asian Development (USAID LEAD) program provided training for 25 policymakers, national park managers, academics and other practitioners from Cambodia, India, Laos, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam on a methodology for guiding decisions related to management of protected natural resource areas.The workshop on “multi-criteria…
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…
Leaders from M-BRACE Cities Meet to Share Challenges, Opportunities and Regional Linkages
Core stakeholders from four cities—Hue and Lao Cai, Vietnam and Phuket and Udon Thani, Thailand—met in Hue last week for the USAID Mekong-Building Climate Resilience in Asian Cities (USAID M-BRACE) project’s final workshop.The participants learned how their colleagues have been assessing and responding to the complex challenges posed by urbanization and climate change. The challenges…
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…
