Eco Business – Tom Vater

‘The red line is shifting’: Environmental journalists in Asia feel the squeeze on freedom to speak truth to power, in Eco-Business

July 26, 2023August 29, 2023tom

For some, environmental issues had felt like safe reporting territory a few years ago, but that is no longer the case. Journalists from India to Thailand share the constraints they face when reporting on powerful governments and corporations. Thailand Tom Vater is a freelance journalist and author based in Bangkok. He has written for Nikkei Asia, […]

A forest saved? – Cambodia’s Phnom Tamao Protected Forest escapes logging but faces an uncertain future, in Eco-Business

August 31, 2022August 31, 2022tom

A protected nature reserve was spared complete destruction when Cambodia’s prime minister stepped in after a public outcry. Replanting has begun to restore the forest – but with saplings that could be for a timber plantation. On 1 August, 2022, excavators began tearing down parts of the Phnom Tamao Protected Forest, an area of 2,300 hectares […]

Asia’s coral gardener, in Eco-Business

June 27, 2022June 27, 2022tom

The world has lost half of its coral reefs in 30 years. Malaysian oceanographer Anuar Abdullah has developed a simple, yet effective way to restore coral. He tells Eco-Business that no reef is the same, and successful reef rehabilitation depends on cooperation with local communities. Over the past 30 years, more than 50 per cent of […]