Mar 11, 2010

UNPO Members Speak Out Against Brazilian Dam Project


UNPO members are among 140 organisations to sign a letter condemning a proposed dam project in the Brazilian rainforest

Below is an article published by Huntington News:

International groups expressed in a joint letter their outrage and opposition against Brazil's plan to build Belo Monte, a mega-hydroelectric project.
 
Belo Monte would be the third largest dam in the world, and the largest development project in the Amazon, that would devastate an extensive area of the Brazilian rain forest, threatening the survival of indigenous peoples, and severely violating their rights.
 
If constructed, Belo Monte would inundate 500 square km of land and divert most of the Xingu River’s flow through artificial canals. An enormous stretch of the Xingu River’s “Big Ben" would dry out.
 
The letter was signed by 140 organizations, and delivered to president Lula on March 10, 2010.

"The goal of this letter is to publicly denounce the reckless and immoral conduct of the Brazilian government in approving the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project. This letter demonstrates an emerging movement of a broad coalition of international human rights organizations, indigenous peoples and environmental groups firmly opposing this project. " said Tom Goldtooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
 
Plans to build hydroelectric dams on the Xingu river have existed since the 1970s but have repeatedly failed to materialize, partly as a result of fierce pressure from environmental groups, indigenous peoples and local communities of the Xingu Basin, that have fought Belo Monte for more than 20 years on the same grounds that they continue to oppose it now.
 
"We want to make sure that Belo Monte does not destroy the ecosystems and the biodiversity that we have taken care of for millennia," Megaron Tuxucumarrae, a leader of the Kayapo Indians said. "We are opposed to dams on the Xingu and will fight to protect our river."

In the letter, the groups complain that during Belo Monte's approval process, the rights of the population were curtailed in an authoritarian, undemocratic, dictatorial style by Lula's government. That Brazil intends to shove Belo Monte down the throats of the directly affected Indigenous and riverine communities, against their consent, and without a credible consultation process.

Many Brazilian experts raised their concerns about the planned project. Two senior officials at IBAMA, Leozildo Tabajara da Silva Benjamin and Sebastião Custódio Pires, resigned their posts last year, citing high-level political pressure to approve the project.
 
"Belo 'Monster' dam is the most outrageous crime, against humanity, the environment and the climate, to be perpetrated by this developmental insanity and deserves the strongest international campaign and support and visibility we can mobilize, specially because it is emblematic of the consolidation of a larger ongoing territorial strategy to integrate the entire Amazon region into systematic plundering and destruction. " said Brazilian climate expert Camila Moreno.
 
The environment of the Xingu region has already begun to succumb to the advances of unscrupulous destruction and annihilation, making it uninhabitable and causing desertification, as can be observed in some regions.
 
"The hydroelectric plant of Belo Monte is a pharaonic project that will have disastrous consequences, disastrous and irreversible, forcing some 30,000 people from their homes. It will destroy or modify one hundred kilometers of a succession of waterfalls, rapids, natural channels and, apart from the enormous, tragic, irresponsible environmental disaster, the population in the region will not have enough water for their needs, Indigenous and traditional communities will be without water, fish, or a means of river transport." said Dom Erwin Kräutler, Bishop of the Prelazia of Altamira of the Xingu region, and president of the Indigenous Missionary Council CIMI.
 
Brazil's environment minister Carlos Minc said the winning company that would construct the project would be forced to spend around $800m (£501m) offsetting the environmental damage caused by the project.
 
"There is not going to be an environmental disaster," he told Brazilian television.
 
"The decision of the Brazilian Government to go ahead with this devastating project is particularly cynical in the light of the massive amounts of funding they are currently receiving from donors like the Norwegian Government to presumably "reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation"(REDD). " said Simone Lovera, Executive Director of the international group Global Forest Coalition.
 
"In the conversation I had with President Lula he told me he did not intend to repeat the disaster of the Balbina Dam, located in Uatumã river in the state of Amazonas, which can be classified as a monument of insanity. But if Lula's government insist on the construction of Belo Monte, it will go into history as a predator of the environment, of the Amazon, and as the government that determined the extinction of the indigenous peoples of the Xingu. Belo Monte, instead of progress, will bring death." Kräutler added.
 
Read the letter to Brazilian's president Lula, that was signed by over 140 groups from around the world:
 
Your Excellency President Luis Ignácio Lula da Silva,
 
We’re writing you to express our indignation and urge you to immediately suspend the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project on the Xingu River in the state of Pará due to the tremendous social, environmental, and economic risks posed by this project to the Amazon Region.
 
In July of 2009, you met with representatives of Brazilian civil society and leaders of Indigenous communities from the Xingu River basin in Brasilia, promising them renewed dialogue on the looming mega-project and assuring them that “Belo Monte will not be shoved down anyone’s throat.” We understood this to mean that Belo Monte would only be approved once affected communities had been adequately consulted about the project, understood its implications, and consented to its construction.
 
Yet less than a year later, your government has given the green light to the project, despite the outrage of local communities as well as glaring concerns and warnings by Brazilian experts. Even two senior officials at IBAMA, Leozildo Tabajara da Silva Benjamin and Sebastião Custódio Pires, resigned their posts last year, citing high-level political pressure to approve the project. It is clear that there are serious concerns and criticisms originating from numerous groups and figures within Brazilian civil society, including Dom Erwin Krautler, the Catholic Church’s National Council of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB), Leonardo Boff, and many others. Regardless of these concerns from your fellow Brazilians and your earlier promise to them, we see that your government indeed intends to shove Belo Monte down the throats of the directly affected Indigenous and riverside communities in the Amazon.
 
We are not only extremely concerned with the decision to build such an enormous, environmentally destructive mega-project, but also with the unethical process through which the government excluded civil society from any kind of open debate. Those who stand to be most impacted by the construction of this project - the people of the lower Xingu River - were particularly kept out of the decision-making process. The people of the Xingu Basin have fought Belo Monte for more than 20 years on the same grounds that they continue to oppose it now.
 
As you know, Brazil voted for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which enshrines their right to self-determination, including free, prior and informed consent, and is now considered part of International Human Rights norms. Brazil is also a party to Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization which guarantees Indigenous peoples the right to free, prior and informed consultation to development or infrastructure projects that will impact their lives and livelihoods, such as the proposed Belo Monte dam. Leaders of local Indigenous groups have made it clear that this right was completely disregarded in approving Belo Monte and sanctioning its impacts on Indigenous territories.
 
Traditional populations and Indigenous peoples have had their rights violated during this entire process, and we urge you to remedy this situation. We believe the construction of Belo Monte represents the serious violation of nearly every article of UNDRIP, such as Articles 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 38, 40, 43, 44. Brazil is also in violation of Article 231.3, Chapter VIII, of its own 1988 Constitution, which legally guarantees Indigenous Peoples’ right to challenge the exploitation of water resources on their lands, and of Article 10-V of CONAMA resolution 237 (19 December 1997), which requires public consultation of environmental impact assessments.
 
As you are aware, the Belo Monte dam will inundate some 500 square km of land, and divert nearly the entire flow of the Xingu through two artificial canals to the dam's powerhouse. This alone will leave Indigenous and traditional communities along a 130 km stretch of the Volta Grande without water, fish, or a means of river transport. The lowering of the water table would destroy the agricultural production of the region, affecting Indigenous and non-Indigenous farmers, as well as water quality. In all probability, the rain forests in this region would not survive. The formation of small, stagnant pools of water among the rocks of the Volta Grande will be a prime environment for the proliferation of malaria and other water-borne diseases. Communities upstream, including the Kayapó Indians, will suffer the loss of migratory fish species that are a crucial part of their diet.
 
In addition to these devastating impacts to the Volta Grande, an estimated 20,000 people will be forced from their homes, including inhabitants of the city of Altamira, which will be partially flooded. In spite of this, Belo Monte is held up as a model for your government’s ambitious Program for Acceleration and Growth (PAC) program, which promises a future for Brazil’s development with minimal social and environmental impacts. We join the Brazilian opponents to Belo Monte in saying these impacts are an unacceptable price to pay for a project of dubious economic and technical viability that offers questionable benefits to the Brazilian public. Indeed, it risks calling PAC’s entire image into question both in Brazil and worldwide, as the building of the Belo Monte dam would be completely contrary to the sustainable development and social benefits it espouses.
 
Independent investigations have found that the project’s environmental impact assessment is incomplete and underestimates the extent of Belo Monte's potential impacts. While it’s known that the flow along the Volta Grande of the Xingú would be seriously reduced by the canals; water quality, instream flow, and geological studies for the Volta Grande are still incomplete. Francisco Hernandez, an electrical engineer and co-coordinator of a group of 40 specialists who analyzed the project, doubts Belo Monte’s engineering viability and warns that this extremely complex project would depend on the construction of not only one dam, but rather a series of large dams and dykes that would interrupt the flow of water courses over an enormous area, requiring excavation of earth and rocks on the scale of digging the Panama Canal. We are particularly concerned with the disregard the government has shown to the opinions of the specialist panel as well as technical analysis issued by IBAMA last November, which is a fundamental piece of the environmental licensing process.
 
Belo Monte will generate only 10% of its stated installed capacity of 11,233 MW during the three to four-month dry season. Furthermore, there is uncertainty over the total costs of the project; while the Empresa de Pesquisa Energética estimates R$16 billion, private investors estimate R$30 billion. The project’s inefficient energy supply and uncertainties over incomplete environmental data do not justify such an enormous investment. We are appalled by the lack of responsibility of corporate and financial actors that seek to materialize this project, such as Brazil’s national development bank BNDES, which is irresponsibly planning to use public taxpayer funding to finance the majority of Belo Monte. Belo Monte is not only a bad predicament for the people of the Xingu, it is a bad investment for Brazil.
 
The Belo Monte project is being pursued at the expense of viable and less destructive alternatives such as improvements in energy efficiency, and the promotion of renewable energy such as solar and wind. A WWF-Brazil study published in 2007 showed that by 2020 Brazil could cut the expected demand for electricity by 40% through investments in energy efficiency. The power saved would be equivalent to 14 Belo Monte hydroelectric plants, and would save Brazil around R$33 billion in the process.
 
While viable and sustainable alternatives do exist, Belo Monte is being proposed as a model for Brazil’s renewable energy matrix, an important part of the country’s 38% reduction in domestic emissions by 2020. In fact, the opposite is true: the dam will emit large quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than C02. Big dams also cause considerable direct and indirect environmental destruction, such as widespread deforestation and an increase in emissions. There is nothing clean or sustainable about Belo Monte.
 
We believe your meeting last July was a very positive step towards opening new channels of dialogue and trust between your government and local populations on the Xingu River. However, we are seeing that the stark failure to follow through on this promise for dialogue is pushing this issue towards a boiling point, with the prospect of mass mobilizations and violent confrontations growing closer to reality every day.
 
In conclusion, we see your government’s approval of this mega-project as a highly irresponsible and reckless act. Forcing Belo Monte down the throats of thousands of Indigenous peoples and riverine families, while laying waste to the lower Xingu River, is an immeasurably high price to pay for an inefficient, costly and environmentally devastating form of electricity.
 
Brazil does not need Belo Monte to secure its energy future. We strongly urge your government to adopt less-destructive alternatives to fuel Brazil’s economic growth, perform adequate consultation with local communities, and to immediately suspend this disastrous project out of respect for the rights of the inhabitants of the Xingu River and the integrity of the region’s ecosystem.

 

ACTION POPULAIRE CONTRE LA MONDIALISATION, Geneva, Switzerland ASIAN INDIGENOUS WOMENS NETWORK, Philippines ASIA PACIFIC INDIGENOUS YOUTH NETWORK, Philippines ASOCIACIÓN DE ECOLOGÍA    ACCION ECOLOGICA REDLAR ASOCIACION INTERAMERICANA PARA DEFENSA DEL AMBIENTE AFRICA YOUTH INITIATIVE ON CLIMATE CHANGE AKIN  ALLIANCA DEL CLIMA E.V.  AMAZON WATCH AMBIENTE E SALUTE (ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH), Bolzano-Italy AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, Lateinamerica:Berlin ANAKU ERMET, Aotearora AQUATIC NETWORK ASIA INDIGENOUS PEOPLES PACT BERNE DECLARATION< Switzerland BIOFUELWATCH Both ENDS BUILDING COMMUNITY VOICES, Cambodia CANADIANS FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE CARBON TRADE WATCH CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE PROJECT, Durban, South Africa CENTER FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, Pakistan CHR-CAR, China CLIMATE ALLIANCE OF EUROPEAN CITIES WITH THE INDIGENOUS RAINFOREST PEOPLES CODEPINK COECOCEIBA-Foe Costa Rica COMITÉ POUR LES DROITS HUMAINS EN AMÉRIQUE LATINE  COMUNIDAD VILLA SALVIANI, Bolivia CORDILLERA PEOPLES ALLIANCE, Philipines CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE ETHICS INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL OF CANADIANS DOGWOOD ALLIANCE EARTH CHARTER NARSAQ, Greenland EARTH CHARTER YOUTH VISION ALLIANCE NETWORK, Nigeria EARTHPEOPLES ECO LABS UK ECOSISTEMAS, Chile FERN FIAN, Netherlands FIAN International FLEMISH CENTRE FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, Belgium ECOLOGISTAS EN ACCIÓN ENERGY ETHICS, Denmark ENVIROCARE - Tanzania FOREST PEOPLES PROGRAMME FRIENDS OF PEOPLES CLOSE TO NATURE FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Austria FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Canada FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Cyprus FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Flanders And Brussels FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, France FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Mauritius FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Sierra Leone. FRIENDS OF THE EARTH U.S. FUNDACIÓN PARA ADHESIÓN CON LOS PUEBLOS AMAZÓNICOS  Fundación PROTEGER, Argentina  Gegenströmung - Countercurrent GLOBAL EXCHANGE GLOBAL FOREST COALITION GLOBAL JUSTICE ECOLOGY PROJECT GLOBAL 2000 - FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Austria  GRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL GREEN ACTION FOE, Croatia GREENPEACE GRUPPO AMBIENTE, Bolzano, Italy HMONG ASSOCIATION, Thailand HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT AT THE URBAN JUSTICE CENTER IBIZA ECOLOGIC ILO, Support For Indigenous Peoples, Cambodia INDIAN CONFEDERATION OF INDIGENOUS AND TRIBAL PEOPLES NORTH EAST ZONE  INDIAN YOUTH CLIMATE NETWORK INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK INDIGENOUS PEOPLES COUNCIL ON BIOCOLONIALISM INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CULTURAL SUPPORT TRUST INDIGENOUS RIGHTS ACTIVE MEMBER, Cambodia INDI-GENEVE, Switzerland INDONESIA FISHERFOLK UNION/Serikat Nelayan Indonesia (SNI) INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL ECOLOGY  INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT, USA INTERNATIONAL RIVERS IPUGAO TRIBAL GROUP, Philippines JUSTICE, PEACE AND INTEGRATION IN CREATION KAHAB ABORIGINAL ASSOCIATION OF NANFOU, Taiwan KALUMARAN - ALLIANCA OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ORGANIZATIONS MNDANAU KIRAT YAKTHUNG MANGENNA CHUMLUNG, Nepal Klima-Bündnis KOALISYON NG KATUTUKO , Philipines Kobra LAND IS LIFE LISIANG DONGBA CULTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, China MAGAR STUDIES CENTER, Nepal MENSCHENRECHTE 3000 E.V. (Human Rights 3000) MINA SUSANA SETRA, Indonesia MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION, Vietnam NAGA PEOPLES MOVEMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, Philippines NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS, Uganda NETHERLANDS CENTRE FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES  NETWORK OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THAILAND  NOAH Friends Of The Earth Denmark NURHIDAYAT MOENIR, Indonesia ODISHA ADIVASI MANCH, India OILWATCH,  Costa Rica OILWATCH, Mesoamerica O'odham VOICE Against The WALL PACIFIC ENVIRONMENT PACIFIC INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ENVIRONMENTAL COALITION PAGGAMISAN TAKO AM, Philippines PAKISTAN FISHERFOLK FORUM PEACE ACTION MAINE, USA PENGON-FOE Palestine PERUVIAN IN ACTION-NY PUMC-UNAM Sede Oaxaca QIVI NETWORK GREENLAND RADIO DIGNIDAD RADIO URGENTE RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK RETTET DEN REGENWALD E.V SOBREVIVENCIA FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Paraguay SOCIETY FOR THREATENED PEOPLES INTERNATIONAL SOS-REGENWALD, Austria TARA-Ping Pu, Taiwan TAIWAN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION UNION TERRA NOSSA FOUNDATION THE CORNER HOUSE  THE ENVIRO SHOW WXOJ-LP & WMCB THE WITTENBERG CENTER FOR ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES  TIBET THIRD POLE TIMOR-LESTE INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT MONITORING AND ANALYSIS-La'o Hamutu TRAPESE POPULAR EDUCATION COLLECTIVE TRIBAL PROFESSIONAL AND TUDENT SOLIDARITY, Southern Mindanao UMPHILO WAMANZI, A WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL CSO IN SOUTH AFRICA UNITED WORLD OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES Universitario México Nación Multicultural –UNAM VIVAT International VOICE, Bangladesh VOLUNTARY SERVICES ONESEAS, Pakistan WISEREARTH WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT YACHAY WASI, Cuzco, Peru & NYC, USA