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 MoreHow to Win Legal Rights for South Asia’s Rivers
By: Ayesha DSouza, South Asia Program Coordinator & guest writer Sarah Bardeen What is a river? The dictionary defines a river as “a natural stream of water of usually considerable volume” or, quite simply, a “watercourse.” But at our “Dialogue on the Rights of Rivers,” which took place in Delhi, India from March 6-7, 2020,…
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 MorePRESS RELEASE | Report: Rapid gains in giving rivers rights
Rulings loom as UNGA meets on biodiversity OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA—A new report by the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, Earth Law Center, and International Rivers finds that a movement to grant legal rights to rivers and nature is rapidly gaining momentum globally. The report examines how the ancient notion that nature possesses basic rights…
Read MoreSalween diversion project enters troubled waters
By: Pai Deetes Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director This article was originally featured on the Bangkok Post Over the past few months, the Irrigation Department and the House Committee Review of Integrated River Basin Management have been heavily promoting an inter-basin water diversion scheme. Planned projects will divert water across Thailand, incorporating international river basins,…
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 MoreKlamath River Dam Removal Update: An Urgent Need for Action!
By: Bruce Shoemaker, Klamath Project Liaison The proposed removal of four aging dams on the Klamath River in far-northern California and southern Oregon is at a crucial juncture. Following sustained campaigning by tribal and environmental groups, what is likely the largest proposed dam removal project to date world-wide, one that has huge implications for the…
Read MorePRESS RELEASE | Civil Society Organizations Demand Moratorium on Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Congress
São Paulo and Brasilia – More than 60 civil society organizations and networks, including International Rivers, delivered this Thursday (August 6) to members of the Brazilian Congress, foreign investors and European parliamentarians a letter proposing five emergency measures to contain the deforestation crisis in the Brazilian Amazon. One of the measures is the establishment of a moratorium…
Read MoreDear China, it’s time to talk: Despite saying it takes multilateral cooperation seriously, China has not yet responded to civil society concerns in Latin America
By: Cooperacción, Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN), International Rivers, China-Latin America Sustainable Investments Initiative At the end of April, 263 civil society groups from around the world sent a letter to the heads of various Chinese institutions about financial aid to help coronavirus-affected projects connected to the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global infrastructure program. They…
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….
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