(Ph.D. International Development Education; Stanford University) Chayan Vaddhanaphuti is a human rights defender, an academic and the founding director of Chiang Mai University‘s Regional Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development. A strong advocate for the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples in Thailand, he works to defend their rights to land and natural resources. He is well-known for his activism against development projects that would be detrimental to local communities’ rights, including large-scale hydropower and logging. Chayan Vaddhanaphuti promotes principles of sustainable development with full respect for community rights, including their right to participate in decision-making around development projects.