In the Mekong Region, government concern for rapid economic growth has led to unsustainable development projects. Large scale investments crowd out space for more efficient, localized development projects. At the center of these large scale investments have been large electricity power projects that drive ever higher growth rates. Unfortunately, these projects have extreme impacts on local communities and the environment. Often “success” in stopping a particular project simply leads to the project being moved to a new community -- or country -- less able to mobilize effective opposition. The power sector is also perceived as a technical issue: government/utility experts use technical language that masks important decisions in complex financial/engineering terms that reduce the ability of most civil society to respond. Action by civil society is too often downstream, occurring after decisions have already been made, and are uncoordinated between countries.

The Mekong Energy and Ecology Network (MEE Net) was established in 2008 under the Foundation for Ecological Recovery (FER) as a sister organization of Toward Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA) to work on these issues. MEE Net aims to address this problem region-wide by developing an “energy network” to monitor the electricity sector situation and develop analyses and strategies that are effective in challenging "massive build-out, mega infrastructure" government/utility plans. MEE Net focuses on four main areas:

Through this work, MEE Net strives to develop fair, sustainable, economically rational, environmentally sound, and socially just energy development in The Mekong Region.