In the Media

Last week, the Austrian National Contact Point (NCP) concluded a lengthy and ultimately disappointing OECD Guidelines mediation process between Andritz, the turbine supplier for the Xayaburi Dam, and a coalition of Mekong-based and international civil society organizations. The original 2014 complaint against Andritz stated grave concerns about the social and environmental impacts of the Xayaburi Dam.

At dawn on Sunday, July 16th, 200 representatives of the indigenous Munduruku nation occupied the main work camp of the São Manoel hydroelectric dam on the Teles Pires River in the Brazilian Amazon, paralyzing the project. Led by Munduruku women warriors, the occupiers presented a series of demands to dam developers and Brazilian government authorities, including the right to consultation, land titling, and respect for their cultural and spiritual sites. They also demanded that developers repair the grave environmental destruction inflicted by dams on the Teles Pires. In an open letter, th

On Saturday, the gates of the Lower Sesan 2 Hydropower Project in Stung Treng, Cambodia, were opened to commence filling of the reservoir for operations testing. Despite the near completion of the dam, the situation of up to 180 families who remain in Srekor and Kbal Romeas - two villages that will be flooded by the rising waters – remains unresolved.

Researchers say Southeast Asian governments must shift their policies away from hydropower because of the environmental and social fallout of large-scale hydropower development.

New report finds that DRC likely to suffer financial losses, continuing energy poverty if hydropower project advances Tuesday, June 27, 2017 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Today, International Rivers is releasing the first in-depth economic study of the proposed Inga 3 hydropower project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Authored by noted British economist Tim Jones, “In Debt and In The Dark” exposes glaring flaws in the assumptions about the dam’s likely performance. The report finds that Inga 3 will likely plunge DRC deeper into debt, exporting needed power and delivering little, if an

A new study, published last week in Nature, finds that 428 existing, under construction, and planned Amazon basin and Andes headwaters dams could disturb ecosystems on an enormous scale.

Corruption has helped fuel some of the world’s most significant acts of environmental devastation — and now it's behind the destruction of the Patuca River in Honduras.

A year ago, the cabinet issued a resolution recognising an obligation to protect human rights in Thai outbound investments. With Thai companies increasing their operations in neighbouring countries in sectors that carry significant risks for human rights and the environment, further action to put this important commitment into practice is now overdue.

Brazil's government plans to roll back regulation for construction projects. Critics say proposals threaten indigenous groups and cultural heritage.

Peru's indigenous Wampís people have formalized their right to self-government. Will the move help them save their lands and waters from unwanted development?