Joint Statement
By Communities and People Resisting Large Hydropower Dams
Across Southeast Asia, Latin America and Worldwide
This statement is issued by community representatives from the Mekong River in Thailand, the Mentarang River in Indonesia, and from Latin America, who convened in Thailand in February 2025 to exchange experiences and strengthen their ongoing struggles against destructive dam projects. These struggles do not exist in isolation — they represent and stand alongside dozens of other struggles resisting large-scale dam projects and plans along the rivers of the Mekong region, from China to Vietnam; across Indonesia, from Papua to Sumatra; throughout Latin America; and in many other parts of the world.
On this International Day of Action Against Dams, we, Indigenous Peoples and grassroots communities whose survival depends on our rivers — stand united to reject the false claim that large hydropower dams are clean energy.
For decades, our lands, waters, and ways of life have been sacrificed under the banner of so-called development. The empty promises of jobs, prosperity, and clean energy have instead delivered flooded homes, destroyed livelihoods, collapsing fisheries, and irreversible environmental devastation.
As the climate crisis is weaponized to accelerate the global push for renewable energy, we reaffirm — with absolute clarity and conviction:
Large hydropower dams are not clean energy. They are engines of violence, displacement, and destruction.
Governments, corporations, and financial institutions continue to impose destructive dam projects across mainland Southeast Asia — from the Mekong to the Mentarang — as well as on other vital rivers in Latin America and around the world. These projects are fraudulently marketed as green energy, even as they ravage rivers, forests, and Indigenous communities. Behind these dams stand powerful, centralized power trade schemes such as the ASEAN Power Grid, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Indonesia’s National Strategic Projects — all advancing corporate profits at the direct expense of communities and ecosystems.
The threats extend far beyond hydropower dams. Across regions, other types of dams — including mine tailing dams driven by relentless mineral extraction for the so-called low-carbon economy — endanger nearby communities with grave risks, as tragically demonstrated by Brazil's Mariana and Brumadinho dam collapses. At the same time, irrigation dams built to serve large agribusiness projects are causing severe environmental and social harm, while further deepening the worsening water crisis.
We, communities united across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and around the world, demand:
1. An immediate end to the financing and purchase of power from destructive dams.
2. The rejection of all large-scale dam projects that devastate rivers, force community displacement, and accelerate the climate crisis.
3. A genuine, community-led energy transition — one rooted in the rights of communities and grounded in ecological restoration, not corporate mega-projects.
We stand together, resolute in our collective struggle to defend our rivers, forests, and futures from false green solutions and corporate greed.
14 March 2025
SIGN IN SOLIDARITY HERE
(deadline May 31)
Signatories:
1. Gerakan Selamatkan hutan, tanah dan Manusia Malamoi (Tolak Bendungan Warsamson) — Save Forest, land and Malamoi people movement (Against Warsamson River Dam), Indonesia
2. Hug Chaingkhan Community group, Thailand
3. Hug Mekong Association, Thailand
4. Komunitas Masyarakat Hukum Adat suku Muyu ( Tolak Bendungan kali Muyu) — Indigenous People Muyu Tribe Community (Against Muyu River Dam), Indonesia
5. Living River Association, Thailand
6. MAB (Movement of People Affected by Dams in Brazil)
7. MAR (Movement of People Affected by Dams), Latin America
8. Northeastern Mekong River Protection Network, Thailand
9. Northeastern Network for Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand
10. People’s Network to Protect the Mekong River, Thailand
11. Punan Sekalak Community, Mentarang-Tubu River, North Kalimantan, Indonesia
12. Thai Mekong People in 8 Provinces
13. Southern Peasants' Federation of Thailand (SPFT)
14. Tamui Community-Based School, Thailand
15. Lao Highlander Network
16. Mekong Community Institute Association (MCI), Thailand
17. Ubon Monitoring Group on Flood and Mekong Dams (UMFD)
18. Earthrights international. Mekong
19. ETOs Watch Coalition
20. Focus on the Global South (FOCUS)
21. Human Rights and Environment Association, Thailand
22. Just Energy Transition in Thailand (JET in Thailand)
23. Land Watch Thai
24. Laos Dam Investment Monitor (LDIM)
25. Mekong Energy and Ecology Network (MEENet)
26. Nature care, Thailand
27. NUGAL Institute for Social and Ecological Studies, Indonesia
28. Project SEVANA South-East Asia
29. School of Democratic Economics, Indonesia
30. The Association of Northeast Thailand Community Network in 7 Provinces along the Mekong Basin (ComNetMekong)
31. The Mekong Butterfly, Thailand
32. Towards Organic Asia (TOA)
33. World Rainforest Movement (WRM)
34. AIUFWP, India
35. Centre Tricontinental – CETRI, Belgium
36. Verein zur Förderung der Solidarischen Ökonomie, Germany-Latin America
37. Rural Development Outreach Trust, Uganda
38. Maiouri Nature Guyane, France/French Guyana
39. Biofuelwatch, UK/USA
40. Young Environmentalists Volunteers, Gabon
41. ICRA International, France
42. Keighley workers party, UK
43. CESTA AT, El Salvador
44. New Motility, UK
45. Ecologistas La Parrilla, Spain
46. Ecologistas En Acción, Spain
47. IMDEC, Mexico
48. North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE), USA
49. Lembaga Bentang Alam Hijau (LemBAH), Indonesia
50. Justiça Ambiental, Mozambique
51. Unión Universal DESARROLLO SOLIDARIO, Spain
52. Groundwork-FOE South Africa, South Africa
53. Struggle to Economize Future Environment (SEFE), Cameroon
54. CBNRM, Mozambique
55. PUIC-UNAM oficina Oaxaca, Mexico
56. Proyecto Gran Simio ( GAP/PGS), Spain
57. Cuarta Internacional Posadista, Argentine
58. The Cornerhouse, UK
59. Perspectivas Interdisciplinarias en Red, Mexico
60. People and Water, Slovakia
61. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth), Malaysia
62. Consumers' Association of Penang, Malaysia
63. KONPHALINDO (National Consortium for Natural and Forest Conservation in Indonesia), Indonesia
64. Ecopaper, Switzerland
65. Forum Ökologie & Papier, Germany
66. Agro é Fogo Coalition, Brazil
67. Reentramados para la vida, defendiendo territorios, Mexico
68. COECOCeiba - Amigos de la Tierra Costa Rica, Costa Rica
69. Ecosystem Restoration Alliance, USA
70. Colectivo de Reservas Campesinas y Comunitarias de Santander, Colombia
Individuals:
1.Prof Nicholas King, Kenya
2.Abraham E. van Wyk, South Africa
3.Luis Fernando Novoa Garzon, Brazil
4. Hans Schoolenberg, Netherlands
5. Miriam Knödler, Sweden
6. Judith Pincemin, France
7. Hugh Lee, Ireland
8. Dr I.P.A. Manning, EIA Dam expert, Canada
9. Henry Sak, Canada
10. Peter Dam, Papua New Guinea
11. Valerlie Tomlinson, England
12. Kathleen MCroskey, Canada
13. Natacha Campos, France
14. Mark Miyoshi, Tribal Historic Preservation Office, USA
15. Dr. Egla Martinez, Canada/Guatemala
16. Christian Asse, France
17. Ricardo Guadagno, Argentine
18. Daniel Salvador Loscalzo, Argentine
19. Jim Loveland, USA
20. Simone Raquel Batista Ferreira, Brazil
21. Fred Caheté, Brazil
22. Jay Richards, USA
23. Jean-Michel Amillard, France
24. Amanda Bergamin, Australia
25. Teobaldo Pinzás, Peru
26. Jesus Antonio Espinosa Pineda, Colombia
27. David Bernard, France
28. Antonio Palazuelos Manso, Spain
29. Christine Pilz, France
30. Marc Reina, France
31. Claire Desmichelle, France
32. Silvana Garcia, Colombia
33. Antoinette Kunda, USA
34. Philippe Favreliere, France
35. James Brunker, Bolivia
36. Louise Taylor, Canada
37. Mucio Tosta Gonçalves, Brasil
38. Catherine Facerias, France
39. Dominic Czarnota, USA
40. Julio Prudencio, Bolivia
41. José Antonio Martínez Montaño, Bolivia
42. Georgia Owen, England
43. Antonio Muñoz Díaz, Spain
44. Ellen Förster, Germany
45. Catherine Roche, France
46. Nina Werbole, Slovenia