Floating store on Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia's largest freshwater lake, home to thousands of dispossessed people. The lake faces numerous threats, including a dam-building boom in China and Laos. Photo by Erica Gies.

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A Giant Lake that Sustains Millions of People Is in Danger

Dams, overfishing, and pollution threaten Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia and one of the world’s most productive fisheries.

In Luang Prabang, Laos, two elephants connect during an elephant caravan that drew locals' attention to the illegal logging that threatens the country’s 900 remaining pachyderms. Photo by Erica Gies.

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Laos’ Elephants Take to the Road to Save Their Forest Home

An elephant caravan draws attention to the illegal logging that threatens the country’s 900 remaining pachyderms.

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Investors Are Grabbing a Japan-Size Chunk of the Developing World for Food and Water

Activists tracking these deals say rich countries are buying up land—93 million acres—and displacing local people and wildlife.

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‘Killing Contests’ Target Pregnant Cownose Rays

Scientists fear the hunts will decimate the cownose ray before they can learn of its role in the marine ecosystem.

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First Nations Test the Political Water with Fish Farm Protests

First Nations’ occupations of fish farms are rooted in a deeper conversation about Indigenous land rights.

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Cambodian Activist Wins Goldman Prize for Exposing Illegal Logging

Leng Ouch has risked his life to go undercover and gather evidence of collusion between timber companies and government officials.

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Designing Marine Protected Areas in a Changing Climate

How can vulnerable marine species be protected when climate change is a reality?

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Canada Has New Rules Governing Its Marine Protected Areas. Do They Go Far Enough?

Fisheries and Oceans Canada cites public backlash as one of the motivating factors for changing the rules governing marine protected areas.

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Is Canada Taking Shortcuts to Hit Its Marine Protection Targets?

The government is counting fisheries closures as protected spaces in order to hit a 2020 target. Many scientists argue this is not meaningful conservation.

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Proposed Amendment Could Actually Protect Marine Protected Areas

New legislation would give planned MPAs interim protection during the years-long approval process.

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Who Owns Groundwater?

California drought underscores the need to improve how the state – and the rest of us – divvy up a resource in demand.

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Canada’s New Marine (Less) Protected (Than It Could Have Been) Areas

A string of concessions to the oil and gas and fishing industries has severely weakened the protective value of Canada’s largest planned marine protected area.

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Are Massive Projects Really the Right Answer to Our Water Supply Woes?

Conservation and recycling can reduce the need for massive municipal water infrastructure.

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Nitrates on Tap

As contamination worsens, an oft-ignored groundwater pollutant is drawing new attention – and solutions.

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Our Drinking Water Systems Are a Disaster. What Can We Do?

In the wake of the Flint crisis, communities turn to innovative technology and financing to prevent the next crisis.

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California’s Underground Water War

California has been the only western state without groundwater regulation – but now that looks set to change.

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