In 2023 alone, Laos lost more than 136,500 hectares of primary forest – an area 3.5 times the size of Singapore – placing it among the countries with the highest rates of deforestation worldwide, according to Global Forest Watch.
A report published in 2020, based on land transaction data from 2014 to 2017, revealed that deforestation occurred in nearly a quarter of the land deals between Laos and foreign investors.
In addition, the government has authorized investors to use more than 110,000 hectares of land within national conservation and protected forest areas, converting them into “production forests” – meaning areas where trees are planted for the purposes of agriculture and logging.
Quite doomer tbh 
Deforestation for banana and durian plantations to export to China. The article mentioned the companies create jobs and roads but I'm not sure it is enough to justify this destruction of the environment.
Does anyone following the Myanmar civil war know anything that contradict this news about how China has detained one of the Myanmar ethnic force's leader to force them into talks with the current junta (as well as cutting off access to water, electricty to ethnic forces) ?
It seems objectively bad and goes against their supposed non-interference policy.