Joint Statement by communities and people resisting large hydropower dams

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

Initial 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)