Brazil licenses dam on the Xingu River

Twenty years ago, indigenous peoples and their allies rallied against the construction of dams that would have flooded their lands and ruined their livelihoods. They were successful in halting construction of the dam, and today the region remains part of one of the largest mosaics of protected tropical forests in the world.

On Monday, February 1, however, Brazil’s environmental agency issued a provisional license for a new dam, Belo Monte, which though less damaging than the original plans, will still cause extensive environmental and social impacts. Belo Monte would be the world’s third-largest dam, and would serve primarily to furnish energy for industries in the region. A panel of independent experts has found that the dam would affect the land and livelihoods of nearly 40,000 people in the Xingu basin, including 10,000 indigenous people from 18 ethnic groups.

Despite the serious environmental and social issues posed by the dam, the licensing process has been extremely hurried, without proper observance of Brazilian environmental law and constitutional requirements that indigenous peoples be consulted regarding such projects on their lands. The environmental license was issued with a series of 40 conditions intended to address the dam’s impacts. In a November 2009 report, however, the agency’s own technicians stated that “Some areas could not be analyzed in the appropriate depth, among them indigenous issues and the suggestions coming from public hearings”. They found a number of flaws in the Environmental Impact Assessment, and recommended a series of additional measures to be taken. A short two months later, the license was granted.The government seems willing to push ahead with construction of the dam, regardless of the costs, environmental, social, and economic.

Local people in the Xingu are mobilizing. In a joint letter, they state: “We, people who live along the Transamazon and along the rivers, on Extractive Reserves and indigenous lands, in the rural areas and towns of this region, have built our lives over decades, with much love, sweat and dedication, along the Xingu, the heart of our region and our communities. We’ve organized our lives around the river, which was always a source of life and often the only link between our communities; a main road to our lands, schools, burial grounds and sacred sites; and gateway to the rest of the world. We, who have love and respect for the river, for the life and the peoples it holds, will not sit with arms crossed while those in Brasilia, who think they have legitimate power to decide the future of our region, make bad decisions without consulting us, without hearing us or respecting us, and some of them without ever having stepped foot in our region”.

The RF-US is supporting a group of local grassroots organizations, the Xingu Alive Forever Coalition, in providing information on the dam, its impacts, and local peoples’ rights, to communities. Click here for more information on this project

More info on the dam: http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/5032