Zachary Hurwitz's blog

The World Bank's social and environmental standards face an uncertain future as Bob Zoellick leaves this year.

The World Bank's Board of Directors has approved a new lending instrument called Program-For-Results (P4R). The instrument is supposed to fund programs, not provide project finance, and is meant to work within a borrower's existing regulatory framework – what the Bank calls a country systems approach. However, not all country systems are made equal. Some of today's largest dam financiers operate within a highly unaccountable national policy framework, where human rights, transparency, and civil society participation may take a back seat to the "national interest." 

Fish are dying at an alarming rate because of the Santo Antônio Dam. (Instituto Rio Madeira Vivo)

This blog in Brazil caught our eye recently: catfish are now disappearing at an alarming rate from the Madeira River, thanks to the reservoir of the Santo Antônio Dam.

When the environmental license for the Santo Antônio Dam was approved against the findings of fish experts, Lula controversially claimed that the dams would not be stopped because of "some catfish." Now, the catfish are disappearing. Don't say we didn't warn you. 

Kayapó Warrior Readies for a Response at the Belo Monte Dam Occupation (Ivan Canabrava)

Early this morning on the Xingu River outside of Altamira, an estimated 600 indigenous people from 21 tribes, as well as fishermen, occupied the construction site of the Belo Monte Dam, demanding a definitive end to the project. Events are very fluid on the ground, and internet has been out in the region, so information is coming in bit by bit. We know that early on, the mobilization declared their intent to not leave the site until the Belo Monte Dam was cancelled for good.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the Regional Federal Tribunal reconvened 10 days after judge Selene Maria de Almeida voted that the Belo Monte project licenses are illegal because the government failed to consult the affected indigenous tribes prior to congressional approval, thereby violating Article 231 of the Constitution. At the reconvened trial, the second of three judges of the tribunal, Judge Sebastião Fagundes de Deus, voted against judge de Almeida's decision. 

The Xikrin Kayapó recently told Public Prosecutor Felicio Pontes about the government's lack of prior consultations (Marcelo Salazar/Instituto Socioambiental)

On Monday, federal judge Selene Maria de Almeida voted in a landmark opinion in Brazilian courts that the Belo Monte Dam licenses are illegal and must be cancelled due to what is now widely-accepted evidence that the Brazilian government did not hold proper consultations with indigenous tribes that would be affected by the project. De Almeida argued that while the dam reservoirs do not flood indigenous territories, the project's diversion of the Xingu River will directly impact the tribes' abilities to reproduce physically, culturally, and economically, as 80% of the Xingu River would be channeled away from their lands to the reservoirs. The vote shined a stark spotlight on the project's astronomical risks, and on a growing gap between the implementation of Brazil's legislative framework and the standards of international best practice.  



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. 

Great Bend of the Jinsha (upper Yangtze) River, China

The International Hydropower Association launched its non-binding sustainability guidelines scorecard in Beijing today, hoping to attract Chinese dam builders to what is turning out to be the world's latest industry-led greenwash.

Yet the scorecard, called the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP), may do little to fill the accountability gap that exists between country regulatory systems.  The HSAP makes no requirement of developers to comply with national and international legislation.

The Brazilian government has built a legal house of cards for Belo Monte

In June of this year in Foz do Iguaçú, Brazil, at the International Hydropower Association's bi-yearly Congress, Eletrobras Director Valter Cardeal declared: "All of the indigenous people, even the Kayapó who live upstream from the area of impacts, are in favor of Belo Monte."  Cardeal made the declaration with a straight face, speaking to the audience of dam industry CEOs, financial officers, and government representatives who were probably ecstatic to hear such a development.  Too bad it wasn't true.  Sitting in the front row were indigenous leaders Sheyla Yakarepi Juruna and Patxon Metuktire.  In fact, they said, indigenous people were not properly consulted.  And that's against the law.

Curt Trennepohl approved the Belo Monte installation license in June 2011

In early July, a rather courageous 60 Minutes Australia reporter confronted IBAMA President Curt Trennepohl in Brazil about the agency's polemic approval of an installation license for the Belo Monte Dam.  Mr. Trennepohl's off-camera comments made him sound like an apologist for genocide – rather damaging to the credibility of an environmental agency.  The video was even removed from YouTube, presumably following the complaints of someone in the Brazilian government.  Below, we've embedded the relevant section of the televised report so you can watch and judge for yourself:

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.

Kayapó leader on the Xingu River (Christian Poirier/Amazon Watch)

Brazil's environmental agency IBAMA stepped further into controversy last week when it granted Belo Monte Dam consortium Norte Energia a full installation license to begin construction. By doing so, the agency drew the Belo Monte project further into what will be a long, drawn-out quagmire of doubt, legal and technical problems, growing social unrest, and – more likely than not – large cost overruns. The fight over the Belo Monte Dam is not over. It's just getting good.