Thailand

On November 9th, the Northern Peasant Federation of Thailand (NPF) will be leading a walk to ask for the cessation of the arrests and evictions of forest community members since the issuance of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Order # 64 and a moratorium on the implementation of the Forestry Master Plan until public consultations are conducted. We will begin our walk from Chiang Mai and plan to walk to Bangkok to present our grievance s to the NCPO. We will be joined by allies from all regions of Thailand.   Background

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is pivotal for creating demand and the conditions for widespread privatization in virtually every sector in the Asia Pacific region, from transportation, energy and urban development to agriculture, water and finance. Based on an infrastructure-led ‘growth’, the corporate sector is aggressively pushed in ADB supported projects through public-private partnerships (PPPs), loans, co-financing and another series of financial instruments.

In Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar it remains common until today that the wife will be the one who ‘owns’ the land of the paddy or upland rice fields. . Women therefore can be the ones fully responsible for maintaining those resources for the next generations.

Letter sent by the Save the Mekong Coalition, to the Mekong countries Prime Ministers demanding the immediate cancellation of the Don Sahong Dam and moratorium on decisions over other mainstream projects for the overall benefit of people throughout the Mekong region. The Don Sahong Project will irreparably damage the Khone Falls and our mother river – the Mekong.

Solo disponible en inglés - Agribusiness large-scale land acquisitions and human rights in Southeast Asia - Updates from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Timor-Leste and Burma Forest Peoples Programme, August 2013 By Marcus Colchester, Sophie Chao, Jonas Dalliner, Su Mei Toh, Chan Kiev, Indriaswati Saptaningrum, Mark Anthony Ramirez and Juan Pulhin Ed: Sophie Chao, Forest Peoples Programme

Agribusiness large-scale land acquisitions and human rights in Southeast Asia - Updates from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Timor-Leste and Burma Forest Peoples Programme, August 2013 By Marcus Colchester, Sophie Chao, Jonas Dalliner, Su Mei Toh, Chan Kiev, Indriaswati Saptaningrum, Mark Anthony Ramirez and Juan Pulhin Ed: Sophie Chao, Forest Peoples Programme

On 15 and 16 September, representatives of community networks from northeastern Thailand gathered in Bangkok to protest against the Xayaburi hydropower dam, whose construction on the mainstream of the Mekong River in the territory of Laos is being strongly pushed.

In Thailand, indigenous communities have been and continue to be threatened to be expelled from their traditional territories as a result of the implementation of the country´s REDD+ policy. This human rights violation is due to the fact that communities have been accused of contributing to the climate crisis because they would deforest, they would destroy natural resources and they would cause forest fires, all activities that result in carbon emissions. At the same time, they use not to be consulted when this type of analysis and, based on this, policies are being formulated.

On the first week of November, International Rivers launched an international petition calling on the Prime Ministers of Laos and Thailand to cancel plans to build the Xayaburi Dam. They expect to collect as many signatures as possible to help add pressure on these governments before the upcoming Mekong River Commission Council meeting that will take place from next December 7-9th.

Indonesia: Since April 2005, two companies involved in the building of a mega-dam in Indonesia, both owned by the a former Vice President of Indonesia, have been compulsory purchasing land from people around the Sulewana river in Poso, Central Sulawesi to make way for the construction and the displacement it will cause. The project, known as, Poso II will affect the lives of up to 2,000 people. Residents of Peura Village are attacked by police officers as they try to prevent construction access.