By: Darryl Knudsen, Executive Director & Bruce Shoemaker, Klamath project Liason The struggle of the diverse and broad coalition of tribes and others who value the fundamental importance of a healthy and free-flowing Klamath cleared a daunting and important hurdle today with the announcement by PacifiCorp, the States of California and Oregon, the tribes and…
Read MorePRESS RELEASE | Amazon Communities Protest to Maintain the Xingu River Alive
By: Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre Original post in Portuguese. This Monday morning (11/09), over 150 representatives of fishermen, riverbank communities, family farmers and the indigenous Curuaya and Xipaya peoples occupied a section of the Transamazon Highway in a protest against Norte Energia (NESA) the concessionaire of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam complex located in the state of Pará (Brazil). The…
Read MoreA legal challenge to dams on the last free flowing stretch of the Teesta: Ms. Mingma Lhamu, a Sikkimese lawyer up for the challenge!
A young women lawyer working with indigenous Lepcha activists to protect the last free flowing stretch of the Teesta from a destructive dam. By: Ayesha DSouza, South Asia Program Coordinator & guest writer Melanie Scaife The Teesta River originates in the eastern Himalayas, winding its way through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal…
Read MoreSpeaking up for a silenced river
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…
Read MorePeace on the Salween
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…
Read MorePRESS RELEASE| Two Years After Lao Dam Collapse, Call for Justice Persists
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….
Read MorePRESS RELEASE | Expert report: Proposed gold mine in Brazilian Amazon presents unacceptable risk
An expert study released today reveals serious deficiencies in the environmental impact assessment submitted to Brazilian authorities by Canadian mining company Belo Sun.
Read MoreSolidarity and call to action on racial justice in the United States of America
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…
Read MoreCovid-19 Impacts in the Amazon and Patagonia: Crisis to Opportunities Series
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…
Read MoreStaying safe, informed and active: Setting a new future for freshwater and rivers
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.
Read MoreBelo Sun signals a restart, but controversial gold mining project in the Amazon remains suspended by three court decisions
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…
Read More