Myanmar: Karen People Call for a Peace Park Instead of Big Hydropower in Their Homeland

Dec 14, 2016 | Demelza Stokes, Mongabay
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The Salween Peace Park would set aside a 5,200 square kilometer (around 2,000 square miles) swathe of Myanmar’s southeastern Karen state as an indigenous Karen-led protected area — including the site slated for the large, export-oriented Hat Gyi dam. Born out of collective experience of the negative impacts of large-scale development projects elsewhere in Karen state and across Myanmar, the project aims to forge a peaceful and more sustainable economic development pathway for the Karen lands west of the Salween River.