<p>Environmental protection groups have filed a petition against the junta order to ease regulations on the construction of power plants, saying the order violates human rights.</p> <p>A network of eight provincial environmental protection groups and the&nbsp;<a href="http://enlawfoundation.org/newweb/?p=2688">EnLawThai Foundation (EnLaw)</a>&nbsp;on Monday, 18 April 2016, filed a joint petition to the Administrative Court of Bangkok against National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Order No. 4/2016.</p>

<div> <div>An environmentalist has been given a one-year suspended jail term because of a Facebook post criticising a coal ash project.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> </div> <div>On Thursday, 17 March 2016, Nakhon Si Thammarat Provincial Court sentenced Kumpol Jittanang, a marine environmentalist and coordinator of the Disaster Management Centre, Nakhon Si Thammarat, to one year in jail after finding him guilty of defaming an academic. The court also fined him 40,000 baht, iLaw <a href="http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/case/705#progress_of_case">reported</a>. </div>

<div>The Thai junta enacted a new order to cut short the process to conduct Environmental Impact Assessment on mega project constructions. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Tuesday, 8 March 2016, the public website of the <a href="http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2559/E/059/46.PDF">Royal Gazette</a> published the latest order of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), Order 9/2016, to cut short the process of conducting Environmental Impact Assessments on mega project constructions. </div>

<p dir="ltr">Military and police officers intimidated a key anti-mine leader in northern Thailand, telling her not submit a petition against a gold mining operator.</p> <p><a href="http://manager.co.th/Local/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9590000021828">The Manager Online</a>, reported that on Tuesday at 7 pm, 1 March 2016, 20 military, police, and other officers visited Tanyarat Sintathammatat, key leader of an anti-mine activist group in the lower northern province of Phichit.</p>

<p>Administrative Court officials have said that Thai governmental agencies accused of failing to safeguard the public interest by giving the green light to the construction of a controversial hydroelectric dam on the Mekong River should be acquitted. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The Administrative Court, on Monday morning, 30 November 2015, held the final hearing on a case over the Xayaburi Dam, a controversial hydroelectric dam on the main stem of Mekong River, east of Xayaburi Town in northern Laos.</p>

<p>The Thai military government has agreed to amend the Town Planning Act to deregulate industries in city areas. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Atchaka Sriboonruang, Minister of Industry, on Tuesday, 10 November 2015, revealed that the Cabinet has given the green light to the Ministry to amend the 1975 Town and City Planning Act to be more ‘flexible’ in order to facilitate industry.</p>

<p dir="ltr">With an increasing need for energy, the Royal Cambodian Government has spent nearly a billion US dollars on a hydroelectric dam that it claimed was necessary for industry. However, the real social and economic cost of the dam, which will flood an area equivalent to a small province and submerge thousands of families’ houses, might far exceed its construction cost as it might deprive millions of Cambodians of their most important food staple.</p> <p></p>

<div> <p>An anti-dam committee in Northern Thailand has submitted complaints over the provincial governor’s secret meetings to construct controversial dams in the area.</p> <p>Villagers in Sa-iap Subdistrict, Song District, Phrae Province in northern Thailand are outraged at the revelation that the governor has been pushing for dam construction on the Yom River.</p> </div>

<div><span>The military demanded an Isan environmental activist to shut down his personal Facebook and a campaigning Facebook on the controversial Pak Moon Dam and order him to report in. The activists defied, however. &nbsp;</span></div> <p></p>

<div> <div>Military and police officers on Tuesday interrupted a private meeting between a lawyer and her clients in northeastern Udon Thani Province, while they were discussing a case related to the environmental impact of a dam. The military also told the lawyer to ask for permission for every meeting with her clients.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Four military and three police officers interrupted the meeting at a hotel in central Udon Thani Province and forced the lawyer to write and sign a letter asking for permission to hold the meeting. </div></div>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Hydroelectric dams are technically thought of as clean energy. In fact, their construction and operation have serious impacts on the health of rivers and communities. Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are meant to prevent such negative consequences. </div>

<div>News about the visit to Myanmar of Gen. prayuth Chan-O-Cha, Thai Prime Minister and Head of the junta, on 9–10 October indicates that there will be talks between the Thai and Myanmar governments to revive the stalled Dawei Deep Seaport and Industrial Estate projects. Recent daily press reports refer to the economic advantages that could benefit Thailand, and predict the resumption of the project in November. </div>