Thailand’s experience indicates that rural communities, espe- cially those outside the cultural and economic mainstream, face a double threat from this kind of development. First, development demands extraction and expropriation of natu- ral resources upon which communities depend. Forests are logged, labelled ‘degraded’, and then offered up to private companies for industrial tree farms. The destruction of fish- eries becomes a “trade-off” or “acceptable environmental cost” of hydroelectric development. Not only does this process de- prive people of the resources needed for survival but alienates these people from the knowledge and traditional practices that once helped sustain their communities and culture.