BY: Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre On April 24th, the Canadian mining company Belo Sun released a corporate statement on its website claiming that it “successfully completed” the indigenous component of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its controversial Volta Grande project, a massive open-pit gold mining operation proposed for installation along the Xingu River in the Brazilian…
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By: National River Protection Network (2020) On February 25 and 26 we have met at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University in Lima, defenders of the rivers: Nanay in Loreto, Huallaga in Ucayali, Mashcón and Jequetepeque in Cajamarca, Apurímac in Cusco, Marañón in Amazonas and Rímac in Lima to discuss the need for a policy…
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Permanent protections for free-flowing rivers need to be a centerpiece of every country’s national climate action plan. Chile can lead the way. Originally published on the New York Times, 12/29/2019 By: Macarena Soler, Monti Aguirre and Juan Pablo Orrego Macarena Soler is the founder of Geute Conservación Sur, Monti Aguirre is the Latin America program coordinator of International…
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By: Brent Millikan, Latin American Program Director COP 25: Read the civil society declaration on the crisis of deforestation and burning in the Brazilian Amazon In December 2019, at COP 25 of the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) in Madrid, Brazilian environmental and human rights activists launched a joint declaration on the crisis of deforestation and…
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The Marañón River is one of the most important water sources in Peru and a key Amazon tributary. With its source at the Nevado de Yapura glacier high up in the Andes mountains, the Marañón runs northwest through Peru along the eastern base of the Andes before it turns eastwards to flow into the Amazon plains. The…
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By: Monti Aquirre, Latin America Program Director A convergence of forces this month around Colombia’s largest hydroelectric dam have demonstrated the extreme threats posed to the environment and human life when rivers are mismanaged in an absence of accountability and governance. The Ituango hydroelectric dam on the Cauca River, now at an estimated cost of…
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By: By Monti Aguirre, Latin American Program Director On Saturday, March 13, 1982, a young Maya Achi man named Carlos Chen’s life was forever altered. That day, he painfully learned that his wife Paulina Iboy, children Enriqueta and Antonio, and sisters Marta Julia and Bernarda, had been viciously massacred. They – along with many others –…
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By: Sarah Bardeen, former Senior Communications Director The Puelo River needs your support! The Puelo, which originates in Argentina, is one of the largest rivers in Chilean Patagonia and a great tourist attraction. Divided up in two sub-basins, the Manso River and Puelo Lake, the Puelo is known for its outstanding beauty and untouched, pristine…
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By: Monti Aquirre, Latin America Program Director In 1998, I traveled to Honduras at the request of representatives from the Tawhaka indigenous people, who live by the Patuca River. The planned Patuca II Dam, located near their lands, was threatening their livelihoods and lives. Villages would be flooded, and people would lose their fruit trees…
Read MoreAccording to several Chinese news sources, the government of Yunnan Province has decided to stop all dam construction in the Nu Valley, a biodiversity hotspot of global importance. The decision still has to be confirmed by China’s State Council. If confirmed, this is very good news for China’s last remaining free-flowing river. Peter Bosshard, the Interim…
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By: Monti Aquirre, Latin America Program Director A ceremony to honor Mother Earth was the first thing the Maya Achí did when they learned their first reparations checks were going to be delivered. As I’ve seen in other ceremonies, they burned chocolate, bread, cinnamon, water, sugar, tobacco, flowers and beer in honor of those massacred…
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