Poor citizens of Thailand have begun teaming up with non-governmental organizations and academics to protest environmentally destructive development projects being undertaken without their input. Over the past year and a half, thousands of people have demonstrated in the village of Pak Moon against a hydroelectric dam, funded in part by the World Bank, which is blocking the migration of fish that locals depend on. Last month, protestors halted operations at the dam’s hydroelectric plant and got the authorities to agree to open the dam’s floodgates for four months of the year to allow fish migration. “Poor people have been losers in the country’s modernization for a long time, but we won’t accept that any more,” said Boonmee Khamraung, whose family farm is now at the bottom of the reservoir behind Pak Moon Dam.
