Brazil Dam Threatens Indigenous Peoples and Environment:

Rainforest Foundation US Join Community Leaders To Challenge Construction of the Belo Monte Dam

A dam currently planned for the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon will flood lands, forcing indigenous peoples from their lands.

In the hopes of preventing the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, local community leaders and personnel from Brazilian and international NGOs met in Altamira, a city in the Brazilian Amazon, from March 3 to March 5, 2010.

According to a recent study conducted by 42 independent experts in Brazil, the Belo Monte Dam would cause massive, negative environmental and social impacts, including:

• Flood 310 square miles of forests and agricultural land;
• Impact the 24 indigenous communities that inhabit the Xingu Basin, displacing an estimated 12,000 people;
• Reduce fish stocks greatly;
• Dry out of the “Big Bend” of the Xingu River.

Throughout the sessions, community members and NGO leaders expressed their frustration towards the obvious environmental and social problems associated with the dam as well as the possibility that the Provisional License, which approved by the Brazilian government for its construction, is illegitimate and therefore contestable.

The Belo Monte Dam is actually the reinvigoration of a 1989 plan to build a series of dams along the Xingu River. Widespread protests by indigenous groups convinced the World Bank to withdrawal its funding for the project, forcing the Brazilian government to halt construction.

It was during this time that Chief Raoni and Sting first came together to address the displacement of indigenous peoples by the hydroelectric dams. It was a fortuitous meeting that served as the catalyst for the founding of the Rainforest Foundations worldwide.

While it appeared that the idea of damming the Xingu had been abandoned for good, these plans were merely shelved. Today, the Brazilian government is aggressively pursuing the Belo Monte dam—despite pervasive criticisms regarding the negative environmental impacts, the dam’s economic viability, and the politically fraught and manipulated approval process for the dam’s Provisional License.

Instead of relying on international financial institutions, funding guarantees are coming directly from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). On April 20th, the government is holding an auction to find additional bidders to finance the project.

RF-US legal personnel, Brazilian and international lawyers, civil society and community representatives laid out strategies to challenge the validity of the Provisional License and to bring international attention to the issue. Critical to our success is the creation of a focused campaign of international and domestic legal actions combined with a comprehensive media and public relations push both in Brazil and in countries that might financially support the dam.

RF-US’s partner Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre (MXVPS), an organization that is educating local communities about the social and environmental impacts of the dam, organized the meetings. Though obligated to consult the indigenous communities under the International Labor Organization Convention 169 and within the Inter-American Court of Human Rights system, the Brazilian government failed to do so.

The RF-US legal team is prepared to fight tirelessly on their behalf. If you would like to join us by contributing to this important effort, please click here