For almost a decade, the people of Koh Lanta — a rugged, idyllic island on Thailand’s Andaman coast — unified to fight against plans for a massive coal plant that would disrupt their livelihoods and damage the untouched nature of their beloved home. And the center of this powerful grassroots movement? A grocery store.
Kwankanok Kasirawat (Kwan) is the owner of Lanta Mart, a bustling supermarket packed with local products on the main road of Koh Lanta. Kwan was one of a dozen local women leaders to catalyze an island-wide movement against coal. Educated and supported by AJWS grantee Save Andaman Network (SAN), the women call themselves ‘The 12 Sisters.’ And once they decided to protect their island, nothing could stop them: in 2023, Thailand’s Ministry of Energy finally caved to the pressure — and plans for the coal plant were cancelled.
Watch this video to meet Kwan — and transport yourself to Koh Lanta:
“My love for Koh Lanta is what powered my fight,” says Kwan, sitting proudly at her desk next to the cash registers. “This island has given me everything: my family, my livelihood, my profession. Koh Lanta is a part of my life, and I had to fight for her.”
The fight began in 2014, when the Thai government announced plans to build a coal-fired power plant in nearby Krabi. Save Andaman Network immediately set to work educating native Lantans about the dangers of coal — and Kwan was one of the first leaders to take up the fight. Protecting the island had always been a passion: Lanta Mart was the first store on the island to ban single-use plastics. Her store runs on solar panels installed on the roof.
“We have the ocean, and the beautiful coral. We have this gorgeous island to call our home,” she says. “We don’t want air pollution here. We don’t want respiratory problems. So we had to fight like this could all go away tomorrow.”
Kwan and a small group of peers — other women business owners, hoteliers and community leaders — met on a beach to solidify their plan. The 12 sisters vowed that they would not let this coal plant destroy their homes. They began hosting community meetings to educate other Koh Lanta locals. They managed complex logistics to bus islanders to Krabi and Bangkok to protest. They didn’t wait for a green light; they sped into the fight.
“Women are so powerful. It’s not like the past, when we were forced to stay at home raising children,” laughs Kwan. “My husband would joke: My wife is never at home, there is nothing in the refrigerator. And I’d tell him: Your wife is in the streets fighting for justice. You’ll need to cook for yourself.”
Soon, many of Koh Lanta’s 20,000 residents, across all demographics, joined this grassroots movement. SAN helped mobilize protests and demonstrations across the Krabi region and even in Bangkok; local hotels hung anti-coal banners and gathered tourist testimonials decrying coal.
“We had to engage different populations on the island about the impacts on their lives,” says Teerapoh Kasirawat (Oh), a local hotel owner empowered by SAN. “If you talk to fisherfolk, you must explain how their livelihoods will be affected. They don’t care about tourism. And if you talk to hotel owners, you must talk about the damage to tourism. It was major, island-wide education campaign.”
At the helm of the movement, the 12 sisters shared a conviction that they were not fighting for themselves, or their businesses — but the very futures of their families, their communities and their island.
“Activism isn’t when you fight just for yourself. It’s when you fight for your children, for future generations. You may die today, but you fight for what comes after you. We fight for the world that we leave to those who come next,” says Kwan. “I knew that if my children asked me: Did you ever fight to protect something you love? I needed to have an answer. So when we fought against the coal plant, I brought my children to the protests. I wanted to show them what it means to take a stand.”
End to end, Koh Lanta’s struggle to halt the coal plant lasted about eight years.
In 2022, Thailand’s Ministry of Energy finally caved to the pressure — and plans for the coal plant were cancelled. But the momentum that SAN sparked on Koh Lanta kept rolling. In 2023, a cadre of island leaders wrote and published “The Declaration of Lanta Bay,” announcing nine ways the island would commit to clean energy, recycling plastic, environmental protection and sustainable tourism and development. To date, dozens of local hotels have switched to solar power (with training and maintenance support from SAN), the island has opened a recycling center, and some stores have banned single-use plastics entirely.
“We’re piloting a model that’ll lead to much bigger change,” says Oh. “We’re seeing lots of global changes to help protect this planet, and it’s all moving very fast. And we want to be part of that movement.”
Today, the sisters and their allies across Koh Lanta continue to advocate for their island to remain clean, sustainable and protected — influencing other businesses to ban plastic and install solar panels. They know the fight to protect Koh Lanta isn’t over.
As Kwan says, “The 12 of us formed a bond that cannot be broken.”