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Tribes Decry Dilma's Plans to Build Dams in Indigenous Territory

Fri, 10/14/2011 - 11:05am
By: 
Zachary Hurwitz
The Macuxi Tribe are fighting against the proposed Cotingo Dam in Raposa Serra do Sol territory (Eliane Potiguara)

The Macuxi Tribe are fighting against the proposed Cotingo Dam in Raposa Serra do Sol territory (Eliane Potiguara)

In 2005, after years of fighting, the Macuxi indigenous people finally won title from the Lula administration to their own indigenous territory, called Raposa Serra do Sol. Then followed a heated legal battle to remove non-indigenous people from the lands, including ranchers and rice growers who had illegally invaded the area in the 1970s. The Brazilian Supreme Court decided to enforce the removal of the non-indigenous people from the territory in 2009. Now over 50,000 indigenous people in the area are fighting a new threat: a Dilma administration proposal to build hydroelectric dams inside of their territory. 

Hydropower Industry Needs Standards, not Scorecards, to be Sustainable

Thu, 06/23/2011 - 4:45am
By: 
Zachary Hurwitz
Itaipú dam

Itaipú dam

The International Hydropower Association (IHA) just launched the “Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol” (HSAP) at its bi-yearly Congress in the town of Foz do Iguaçú, Brazil, last week. The Protocol is in reality only a scorecard that rewards hydropower companies and financiers with a greenwashed stamp of approval; it does not represent a true step towards the actual practice of sustainability in the sector.

World Rivers Review: Focus on the New Dam Builders - December 2010

Edited by Lori Pottinger
Special Focus: The New Dam Builders

China, Brazil and India are not only growing global economic powerhouses, they are increasingly fueling a dam-building boom outside their borders. Our campaigners in the field report on these newly powerful dam builders and the regions they are targeting.

 

 

 

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Environmental Impact Studies on Dams Count for Little in Amazon

By: 
Mario Osava, IPS

ALTAMIRA, Brazil, Aug 10 (IPS) - "It's a fait accompli," acknowledges André Villas-Boas, head of the independent SocioEnvironmental Institute (ISA), resigned to the fact that the legal actions and protests have failed to block the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in Brazil's Amazon jungle region.

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Brazil to Build $15.6 Billion in Dams in Amazon Region (Water And Wastewater International)

On Dec. 10, 2007, a consortium of Brazilian companies won an auction to build and operate the 3,150 megawatt (MW) Santo Antonio dam on the Madeira River in the Amazon rainforest near Bolivia. Consorcio Madeira Energetica, led by large construction company Construtora Norberto Odebrecht SA, beat out two other consortiums formed by Spain’s Endesa SA and Franco–Belgian utility Suez.

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4% of Global Warming Due to Dams, Says New Research

Large dams may be one of the single most important contributors to global warming, releasing 104 million metric tonnes of methane each year. This estimate was recently published in a peer-reviewed journal by Ivan Lima and colleagues from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

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Fizzy Science: Big Hydro’s Role in Global Warming

Patrick McCully

This op-ed first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, November 17, 2006

It comes as a surprise to most people, but the reservoirs behind the world’s dams are likely a major source of global warming pollution. In the case of big reservoirs in the tropics -- where most new dams are proposed -- hydropower can actually emit more greenhouse gases per kilowatt-hour than fossil fuels, including dirty coal.

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