Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance/Foundation for Ecological Recovery (TERRA/FER) was established in 1991 to focus on issues concerning the natural environment and local communities within the Mekong Region. TERRA works to support the network of NGOs and people’s organizations in Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao PDR*, Vietnam and Thailand, encouraging exchange and alliance-building and drawing on the experience of development and environment issues in Thailand.

Our sister organization, Project for Ecological Recovery (PER) was established in 1986 to support local communities within Thailand in protecting rivers, forests, land and livelihoods. TERRA and PER are registered together in Thailand as the Foundation for Ecological Recovery.

As a result of the 1997 Asian economic crisis, several large scale development projects proposed for the Mekong Region had been slowed down. Meanwhile, international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have attempted to use the weakened economic position of Mekong countries to further enforce the privatization of natural resources and the development of investment-oriented political infrastructures, within a mantle of “poverty alleviation.” Within this context, TERRA supports communities and people’s networks that are challenging and opposing the export- and economic growth-oriented conventional development models that are resulting in social and environmental destruction in the region.

At the moment, TERRA monitors hydropower development projects that will affect riparian communities along the mainstream Mekong River, industrialization project in Dawei, Myanmar, coal-fired power plant in Parlain of Mon State, Myanmar. It has also been joining many environmental groups in ASEAN in promoting the Environment Pillar as ASEAN’s Fourth Pillar.