grantees » Ruangrit Pothiprom
Ruangrit Pothiprom, Thailand
This grantee is still in the process of their leadership development with the JWH initiative. This profile will be completed once the grantee has finalised their activities.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is currently in the process of economically integrating the Mekong region of Southeast Asia in2014. This will potentially lead to an increase in environmentally destructive development projects, partly because of the weakness of environmental law in the nations within this region.
Few people possess the unusual mix of environmentalism and activism that Ruangrit Pothiprom has. Ruangrit finished an intensive training program for environmental and human rights activists at the Mekong School in Thailand. He now works at the Thailand Research Fund (TRF). Here he assists in community research and acquisition. His potential as an environmental leader has been noticed by his nominator, who tells us that “Ruangrit excels at organizing student groups, lecturing, and facilitating discussions and youth camps for the promotion of environmental and social justice among university students and local people in North Eastern Thailand.”
Ruangrit’s goal is to sharpen his knowledge on the environmental consequences of cross-border investment stemming from the economic integration of ASEAN. Ruangrit will use his JWH Initiative grant to study both English and Burmese languages in order to effectively connect with Myanmar environmental organizations. Furthermore, Ruangrit will work on outreach and networking. He will visit the Mekong Alumni Network, EarthRights International and Burma School alumni organizations to expand his network. Finally, Ruangrit will organize joint Thai-Burmese youth activities in order to share experiences and discuss environmental problems facing ASEAN members.
Confident of his success with the grant, Ruangrit has already made plans for the future. He plans to“build up a network of Thai and Myanmar environmental advocates who will support one another in monitoring the environmental impacts of regional investment and advocate for internally accepted standards of environmental protections.” The skills acquired during his leadership development will not fail to assist him in this goal.