Environmental Crimes in the Mekong | The Index Podcast

The Mekong Region spans six countries - China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. This fertile land is rich in biodiversity, home to rare, threatened, and endemic species of animals and plants as well as pristine forests - but its also a global epicentre for environmental crimes and its having a devastating impact on local on local ecosystems.How has the Mekong region become such a hub of environmental crimes? What is fuelling them? And how can we effectively fight them?Presenter: Thin Lei WinSpeakers:Trang Nguyen, founder and executive director of Vietnam-based non-governmental organisation, WildAct.Simone Haysom, Senior Analyst and Thematic Lead on Environmental Crime at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized CrimeJulian Newman, Campaigns Director at the Environmental Investigation Agency.Additional Links:China ProfileMyanmar ProfileLaos ProfileVietnam ProfileCambodia ProfileThailand ProfileOCIndex.net