Belo Sun signals a restart, but controversial gold mining project in the Amazon remains suspended by three court decisions

Belo 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…

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PRESS RELEASE | 265 Civil Society Groups Call on Chinese Authorities to Ensure that Covid-19 Financial Relief Does Not Bail Out Harmful Projects

PRESS RELEASE | 265 Civil Society Groups Call on Chinese Authorities to Ensure that Covid-19 Financial Relief Does Not Bail Out Harmful Projects

April 30, 2020 – Today, International Rivers joined 265 civil society groups around the world in calling upon the Chinese government to ensure that COVID-19 related financial relief for struggling Belt and Road projects flows only to high-quality overseas investments that meet stringent criteria aimed at protecting people and safeguarding the environment. The organizations urged China to…

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Day of Action for Rivers 2020: Resilient Hope in Uncertain Times

Day of Action for Rivers 2020: Resilient Hope in Uncertain Times

By: Margaret Zhou, Partnerships Manager This March 14, International Day of Action for Rivers, thousands of river stewards, defenders, and allies took action both in person and online. Despite the health and safety challenges faced by many countries around the world with the COVID-19 pandemic, over 50 direct actions were registered across 23 countries/nation-states with…

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IN THE NEWS | Karen fear ravages from river diversion schemes

IN THE NEWS | Karen fear ravages from river diversion schemes

BY: Pai Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director Originally published on the Bangkok Post Muesaw Chokedilok, an ethnic Karen woman from Thailand’s Kaburdin Village in Chiang Mai’s Omkoi district, hops aboard an old pickup truck for a rugged ride up the mountain. With her are a group of housewives from the same village, all clad…

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STATEMENT | National River Protection Network to FOSPA

STATEMENT | National River Protection Network to FOSPA

By: National River Protection Network (2020) On February 25 and 26 we have met at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University in Lima, defenders of the rivers: Nanay in Loreto, Huallaga in Ucayali, Mashcón and Jequetepeque in Cajamarca, Apurímac in Cusco, Marañón in Amazonas and Rímac in Lima to discuss the need for a policy…

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PRESS RELEASE | Thai Mekong communities submit evidence of impacts in Xayaburi lawsuit

PRESS RELEASE | Thai Mekong communities submit evidence of impacts in Xayaburi lawsuit

By: Pai Deetes, Thailand & Myanmar Campaigns Director FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Today, the Network of Thai People in Eight Mekong Provinces submits additional evidence to the Thai Supreme Administrative Court in the ongoing lawsuit regarding the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River in Laos. The lawsuit targets five Thai state agencies and challenges the legitimacy…

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For Hasankeyf the Bell Tolls

For Hasankeyf the Bell Tolls

Guest blog by Gokce Sencan Gokce Sencan, a Turkish water policy researcher based in California, shares the experience from her recent visit to the ancient town of Hasankeyf along the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey. Hasankeyf, which has been continuously inhabited for the last 12,000 years, is slowly being drowned as the reservoir behind the…

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Victory on the Upper Mekong: Thai Cabinet Terminates Rapids Blasting Project

Victory on the Upper Mekong: Thai Cabinet Terminates Rapids Blasting Project

By: Pai Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director In a momentous win for the Mekong River, this week the Thai Cabinet formally called for cancellation of the Lancang-Mekong Navigation Channel Improvement Project, popularly known as the Mekong “rapids-blasting” project. The cabinet decision is the culmination of decades of campaigning by Thai Mekong communities and civil…

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Restoring the Klamath: What we’re learning from the largest dam removal project in history

Restoring the Klamath: What we’re learning from the largest dam removal project in history

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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IN THE MEDIA | Our Cherished Rivers are Under Threat

IN THE MEDIA | Our Cherished Rivers are Under Threat

Permanent protections for free-flowing rivers need to be a centerpiece of every country’s national climate action plan. Chile can lead the way. Originally published on the New York Times, 12/29/2019 By: Macarena Soler, Monti Aguirre and Juan Pablo Orrego Macarena Soler is the founder of Geute Conservación Sur, Monti Aguirre is the Latin America program coordinator of International…

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