Pianporn DEETES

Pianporn (Pai) Deetes is the Executive Director of the Rivers and Rights Foundation, a Thailand-based organization advancing environmental justice, community empowerment, and river protection across the Mekong region and Southeast Asia. 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 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. Her work bridges local voices with regional and global policy platforms, bringing community perspectives into spaces where decisions about rivers, rights, and natural resources are made.

Pai holds a Bachelor of Arts with First-Class Honors from Chiang Mai University. She is an Ashoka Fellow (since 2006) and a Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Institute and the Equity Initiative, recognizing her leadership in social innovation and environmental equity.

Her recent efforts focus on addressing cross-border riverine pollution from illegal gold and rare earth mining in Myanmar, a rapidly escalating crisis that threatens water security, ecosystems, and public health in the Mekong basin and beyond. Through her leadership, the Rivers and Rights Foundation works with local communities, civil society groups, and regional and national institutions to strengthen cross-border accountability and transboundary environmental governance.