Our Community Leaders’ Learning Exchange (CLLE) partner Niwat Roykaew or Kru Thi (teacher in Thai) of the Chiang Kong Conservation Group has just been recognized as a 2022 Goldman Prize Winner. The Prize celebrates grassroots environmental leaders who take significant action that inspires all of us to protect our planet.
Through his committed leadership and the harnessing of indigenous knowledge, Niwat led the successful campaign that saw the first canceled transboundary project in Thailand that would have caused wide-scale environmental destruction affecting 65 million people.
The Innovation for Change – East Asia community lauds Niwat and his network of local leaders, Indigenous Peoples, and civil society organizations. We are proud partners and supporters who remain grateful for the opportunity to have visited Chiang Kong with local community leaders from Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand in 2019 for the I4C-EA CLLE project. At the time of our visit, Niwat stressed the importance of framing and shaping effective advocacy armed with informed knowledge. “You need to fight (armed) with knowledge… doing research is part of the fighting. And it can be very powerful.” (See the Process Historian’s notes from the 2019 CLLE in Thailand.)