Introduction

The Chiang Khong Conservation Group (Rak Chiang Khong) is a grassroots environmental network founded in 1995 in Chiang Khong, northern Thailand. Working with local communities, youth, researchers, and civil-society networks, the group brings together local ecological knowledge, community-based research, environmental education, citizen science, and public advocacy to protect the Mekong River and its tributaries. Its work addresses the socio-ecological and cultural impacts of large-scale development across the Mekong Basin and contributed to the cancellation of the Mekong rapids-blasting project.

In 2015, the group established the Mekong School: Institute of Local Knowledge as a platform for studying and monitoring development-driven changes in the Mekong Basin. Conceived as a “learning field,” the School brings local historical, ecological, and cultural knowledge into dialogue with scientific research. Through participatory learning, it enables communities, researchers, and civil-society networks to analyse shared concerns, develop place-based initiatives, and formulate alternatives to policies affecting local resources and cultures at local, national, and regional levels.