Heavy metal contamination from Myanmar's mining sector has tainted six rivers in Thailand, triggering a public health crisis for hundreds of thousands.

As critical minerals flow through Thai companies to China, people are calling for an immediate ban on imports.

@geraldrflynn.bsky.social reports.

Mekong countries lost a combined area of forest 10x the size of Singapore in 2025 - story by @geraldrflynn.bsky.social @mongabay.com news.mongabay.com/2026/09/desp...

Latest for @mongabay.com looks at the murky mineral trade fueling transboundary river pollution in Myanmar and Thailand, with Thai companies buying from the very mines contaminating their rivers w. arsenic & worse. Food & water security for thousands has been jeopardise by the critical mineral rush.

Deforestation across the Mekong region fell in 2025 due to fewer wildfires and enforcement, continuing a multi-year drop.

However, total tree cover loss reached 746,168 hectares, with nearly 200,000 hectares destroyed inside protected areas.

@geraldrflynn.bsky.social reports for #Mongabay.

A powerful Cambodian senator (one sanctioned by the US) is building two dams in the rainforest of the Cardamom Mountains, but satellite imagery suggests illegal logging operations are being run from the dam construction sites, targeting old-growth forest.

My latest for @mongabay.com

Cambodia has defied a UN call to release five Mother Nature Cambodia environmental activists jailed in 2024.

A UN working group declared their six- to eight-year sentences arbitrary, while rights advocates point to a broader crackdown on defenders.

@geraldrflynn.bsky.social reports for #Mongabay.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says the five Mother Nature Cambodia activists should never have stood trial, let alone been imprisoned - the Cambodian government stands by its decision to jail the activists, which the UN has branded arbitrary detention. Latest for @mongabay.com