Thais, after which it decided that the gates would stay closed for eight out of twelve months of the year. In 2007, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont decided to close the gates permanently, citing an alleged secret agreement between thousands of villagers and the Internal Security Operations Command. The response from non-governmental organizations has been more favorable. The Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity Programme (MWBP), an international alliance managed by the United Nations Development Programme and World Conservation Union, has published a study on the methodology of Thai Baan research and coordinated their own study in Sri Songkham district in 2004, concluding that it was more useful than top-down styles of village research. The study overseen by the MWBP was cited in an academic journal and submitted to an international conference. Living River Siam's spokesperson Pianporn Deetes was invited to a United Nations Environment Programme conference on dams. In 2002 the Thai government’s department of irrigation met the demands of Living River Siam and the Assembly of the Poor with a promise to halt all future dam projects, which was accepted with cautious optimism. To circumvent the issue of domestic damming, in 2007 the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) announced plans to build a series of dams on Burma's Salween River along its border with Thailand. Living River Siam opposed this plan, citing the threat of environmental destruction in Burma's Shan, Karenni, and Karen states as well as Mae Hong Son Province. Additional research Since 2004, Living River Siam has employed its research methods in other threatened locations across rural Thailand. Chiang Khong District The Mekong River remained free of dams until 1993 because of its complex system of rapids which wreck boats, and the unusual monsoon season which reverses the course of some of its branches. In 2004, the Thai government made an agreement with China to open the river to commercial navigation by destroying rapids, which Thai Baan research had identified as important fish spawning grounds. On the Chinese side, dams were constructed. Living River Siam gathered additional Thai Baan surveys from 146 villagers in the Chiang Khong District, which determined that the blasting of rapids had made the river water unsuitable for drinking and bathing, washed away many local riverside gardens, and decimated the populations of local plants and fish. In response to the 2004 studies, the Thai government suspended blasting on one of the rapids, the Khon Pi