News
Villagers protest Yuam River diversion project
Residents from 46 villages in Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai petitioned the chairman of the National Environment Board (NEB) and Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon to scrap the planned diversion of Yuam River. The petition was filed at Mae Hong Son’s complaint centre in Sop ...
POST REPORTERS
For Thai fishers facing dwindling catches, a Lao dam looms large
In the rustic old town of Chiang Khan on the Mekong River, a tourist haven in northeastern Thailand’s Isaan region, local fishing communities now live in fear of a proposed dam that threatens to devastate their livelihoods. The $2 billion, 684-megawatt dam would sit just 2 ...
Tom Fawthrop
Thailand seeks stricter controls over nonprofit groups
Thai activist Porntin Say Yom and her neighbours fought more than 10 years to shut down a gold mine in northeast Thailand’s Loei province. “We successfully closed the gold mine because we came together as a group to defend our rights,” Yom said. But in late May, ...
JACK BROOK
Indigenous community mounts legal challenge to Thai coal mine development
Local opposition to a planned coal mine in northern Thailand escalated in April when plaintiffs representing more than 600 villagers filed a lawsuit requesting the revocation of an environmental impact assessment conducted and approved more than 10 years ago. Members of Kabeudin village, an Indigenous Karen ...
Carolyn Cowan
Meet the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners
Seven grassroots environmental activists will receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize today, on May 25. Known as the Green Nobel Prize, the Goldman Prize honors environmental activists from each of the six continental regions. The prize was founded in 1989 by U.S. philanthropists Rhoda and ...
Liz Kimbrough
Indigenous activists among Goldman environmental prize winners
Indigenous activists and lawyers who took on transnational corporations and their own governments to force climate action are among the 2022 winners of the world’s pre-eminent environmental award. Taking on powerful vested interests is a risky business, and the recipients of this year’s Goldman prize demonstrate ...
Nina Lakhani
A win for Kru Ti and the Mekong River
Over the past 20 years, Niwat Roykaew, a teacher, activist and founder of the Chiang Khong Conservation Group in Chiang Rai province has been campaigning to bolster the grassroots movement he initiated to protect the Mekong River, a crucial lifeline for countries in the Mekong ...
PASKORN JUMLONGRACH
We need new weapons against packaging waste
Last month, researchers found microplastics — small, microscopic pieces of plastic fragments — within human lungs for the first time. This comes on the heels of news that microplastics were found in human blood, which may travel around the body and enter organs. Microplastics find their ...
SIMON BALDWIN
Thailand taps rice, sugar biomass to wean itself from fossil fuels
Thailand has launched a full-fledged effort to adopt biomass as a major future energy source, a drive that has received a boost from companies looking for relief from skyrocketing fossil fuel prices. Thailand took up the bio-circular-green economic model a year ago as a way to ...
YOHEI MURAMATSU, Nikkei staff writer
Agriculture Ministry issues water plan as rainy season looms
Farmers should also store as much rainwater as possible and use it efficiently, said Agriculture Minister Chalermchai Sree-on on Monday. “We cannot tell how many storms will hit Thailand this year, but we have ordered RID to prepare personnel and drainage equipment to deal with upcoming ...
The Nation