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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Chile Rejects Environmental Approval of Patagonia Megadams FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Berkeley, US: Today Chile’s Committee of Ministers – the country’s highest administrative authority – cancelled the environmental permits for five controversial dams proposed on two of Chilean Patagonia’s wildest rivers – the culmination of an eight-year battle. “This is the right move and an import step…
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By: Monti Aquirre, Latin American Program Director There was enough fish and plantains to feed the more than 500 fisherfolks gathered by the banks of the Magdalena River on a quiet Sunday in early March. Whole families who would be affected by El Quimbo Dam arrived in dozens of canoes to attend an urgent meeting…
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By: Peter Bosshard, former Policy Director The World Bank is eager to re-engage in large dam projects around the world, and other financiers are following in its wake. The US Congress has now poured cold water on these plans. In a landmark decision it has instructed the US government to oppose the construction of large dams…
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