June 10, 2026
For more than two decades, Pai has been at the forefront of campaigns to defend transboundary rivers—particularly the Mekong and Salween—and the rights and livelihoods of riparian communities who depend on them. Before co-founding Rivers and Rights, Pai served as the Southeast Asia campaigns director for International Rivers, where she led cross-border advocacy on transboundary water governance, accountability, and community participation in natural resources.
The following piece is a guest post by Pianporn Deetes, Executive Director of Rivers and Rights. For six days, I walked alongside monks, Indigenous communities, women, youth, artists, and river defenders along the Kok River, a tributary of the Mekong in northern Thailand near the borders of Myanmar and Laos. We carried out this Peace Walk because people…
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This year, for the first time ever, all six recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize are women. The 2026 Goldman Prize winners—Iroro Tanshi (Nigeria), Borim Kim (South Korea), Sarah Finch (United Kingdom), Theonila Roka Matbob (Papua New Guinea), Alannah Acaq Hurley (United States), and Yuvelis Morales Blanco (Colombia)—represent a powerful group of environmental leaders. Their…
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When asked what it’s like to have a major climate ruling named after her, Sarah Finch responded, “It’s really cool!” A writer and editor from southeastern England, Sarah is now a well-known name in environmental circles thanks to the “Finch ruling,” a 2024 decision by the UK Supreme Court that requires environmental assessments to consider the downstream impacts that fossil fuels will have on the global climate, in addition to local…
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