In the Media

Last month, the New Yorker detailed the escalating humanitarian crisis near Central Africa's Lake Chad. The author neglected to mention one major cause of the instability: dams and diversions have shrunk the lake 95%. We set the record straight in this month's issue.

After swathes of forest clearance, millions of tonnes of concrete and decades of hydro-expansion, Brazil has raised hopes that it may finally step back from the construction of new mega-dams.

Protesters in the Amazon Photo courtesy of Amazon Watch The Brazilian government has announced it will stop building mega-dams in the Amazon, according to reports in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo and in an article published today in Mongabay. Kate Horner, Executive Director of International Rivers, said, “If confirmed, this announcement is a major victory for indigenous peoples, activists and river communities in Brazil. The Brazilian government’s announcement validates what scientists, indigenous activists and economists have long known: that these costly, corrupt hydropower projects a

Environment China is a new bi-weekly podcast from the Beijing Energy Network. The show features conversations with advocates, entrepreneurs, and experts working in the environmental field in China. The show is looking to learn how they do their work, what new strategies and solutions they have found, and why now is the right time for real and positive changes in China’s environmental field. On December 21, 2017, they interviewed our China Program Director Stephanie Jensen-Cormier about dams and sustainability in China. Listen to the episode here!

As state leaders prepare to finalize a five-year development plan for the Mekong River at a meeting in Cambodia later this month, environmental groups have expressed concern over what it could mean for Southeast Asia’s longest waterway.

Read the article and see the photo essay our Southeast Asia team contributed to Human Rights Defender magazine in April 2017.

This article originally appeared in Mongabay. The Irrawaddy dolphin. Stefan Brending (2eight) via Wikimedia Commons Now critically endangered, the last of the Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) are concentrated in nine deep-water pools over a 190-kilometer stretch of the Mekong between Cambodia’s Sambor district and Khone Falls on the Lao border.Today the Mekong’s dolphins face a new threat. The proposed Sambor Dam on the river’s mainstream would catalyze the extinction of the remaining dolphin population and have disastrous consequences for many other fish species, as well as

Damming rivers may seem like a clean and easy solution for Albania and other energy-hungry countries. But the devil is in the details.

Thailand's Supreme Administrative Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit about the transboundary impacts of the proposed Pak Beng Dam in Laos. Will it be enough to save villagers fighting the ill effects of runaway development?

Some forms of "green energy" can be dangerous. It's time to focus on restoration and resilience — not hydropower.