By: Ayesha DSouza, South Asia Program Coordinator & guest writer Melanie Scaife Mayalmit Lepcha grew up listening to the sounds of the Rongyoung River, which flows past her village in Dzongu, in the Indian state of Sikkim. This tiny state lies in the heart of the Himalayas between Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, and is a…
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Nestled beside Asia’s last free-flowing river, the Salween Peace Park in Myanmar’s Karen State (officially called Kayin State) is protecting the rights of Indigenous Karen people to self-determination, cultural survival and environmental conservation. By Pianporn Deetes, Thailand and Burma/Myanmar Campaigns Director Introduction In Myanmar’s Karen State, the Indigenous Karen people have turned a war zone…
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Bangkok, July 23, 2020 – Two years ago today, at least 70 people died or disappeared and over 7000 were displaced when a dam collapsed in Laos, submerging homes, families and entire villages under a rushing wall of water. On the second anniversary of the disaster, those affected are yet to see justice….
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An expert study released today reveals serious deficiencies in the environmental impact assessment submitted to Brazilian authorities by Canadian mining company Belo Sun.
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By: Darryl Knudsen, Executive Director THEY WERE BRUTALLY MURDERED BY WHITE POLICE OFFICERS. LET US SAY THEIR NAMES: George Floyd, 46-year old Black man, father to five, who excelled at football and was a mentor active in his religious community. Murdered on May 25, 2020 on camera and with a knee to his neck for 8…
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By: Monti Aguirre, Latin America Program Director (with Brent Milliken, Latin American Program Director) The global COVID-19 crisis has shed a light on the deep-seated inequities in the way our rivers and the people who depend on them are treated. With the exposure created by this crisis comes an opportunity. As International Rivers adapts to current…
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For our environment, and the peoples that rely on our rivers and natural systems for their food and economic security, the time is now. International Rivers and our partners are perfectly placed to map out this new future. But we need your help.
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BY: Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre On April 24th, the Canadian mining company Belo Sun released a corporate statement on its website claiming that it “successfully completed” the indigenous component of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its controversial Volta Grande project, a massive open-pit gold mining operation proposed for installation along the Xingu River in the Brazilian…
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By: Siziwe Mota, Africa Program Director The Kunene River forms part of Namibia’s border with Angola. The idea of damming the Kunene dates back as far as when the Germans occupied Namibia and there have since been a number of dams and weirs on the river. In 1991, the Namibian and Angolan governments began exploring…
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By: Bruce Shoemaker, Klamath Project Liaison After decades of controversy and campaigning by Indigenous and environmental groups, the largest dam removal project to date world-wide is moving forward in far-northern California and southern Oregon of the United States. Four large hydropower dams on the Klamath River are to be removed, restoring hundreds of miles of habitat…
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By: Pai Deeetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director One word stood out on the screen, above all others: Stories. It was the answer to a question posed on Day 1 of the first-ever Women & Rivers Congress, and it appeared above the crowd thanks to an interactive, real-time voting app. The question: What was your…
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