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Asia-Pacific N. Resource & Environmental Economics Thailand

Defender of the Mekong, retired Thai teacher wins ‘Green Nobel’

Chayanit Itthipongmaetee | Coconuts Bangkok | 26 May 2022

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/defender-of-the-mekong-retired-thai-teacher-wins-green-nobel/

Niwat Roykaew, who is known around his northern border community as Teacher Tee, was awarded a Goldman Environmental Prize for his role in convincing Thailand to cancel a devastating project.

Niwat along with other local river advocates along the Thai-Laos border, successfully stopped a blasting project that would have devastated about 400 kilometers of the Mekong – all its biodiversity, fisheries, and wetlands – to make way for passage of large Chinese cargo ships. 

It marked the first time Thailand’s government canceled a transboundary project for environmental reasons.

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