Jirau and Santo Antonio promise to cost much more than the stated financial value of their construction: deforestation, disease, damage to fish populations, just to name a few.
Brazil
A People Beyond the Riverbanks
Written By Cristiano Navarro, Brasil de FatoTranslated by Natalia TaddeiBolivians will be affected by the dam projects, yet their lands have been not included Brazil's environmental impact study.
Tragic history repeats itself on Brazil's Madeira River
By: Christian Poirier, Amazon Watch Brazil Program CoordinatorAlong the banks of Brazil's Madeira River, the rusty remnants of the Madeira-Mamoré railroad, built a century ago to run steam engines from Porto Velho to Guajará-Mirim in Bolivia, lay in ruins.
"There's an impending catastrophe" Deforestation Increases Mercury Poisoning in Fish
Written by: Cristiano Navarro, Brasil de FatoTranslated by: Natalia TaddeiPorto Velho (RO)Once a year, Pierre-Louis de Catheu, a farmer in the South of France, enjoys the duck-hunting season. In the last two seasons, he has had problems with his ammunition.
Environmental lawsuits filed against Amazon dam projects
Recharge News | Civil lawsuits have been filed against Brazil's environment institute for ignoring environmental concerns when issuing licenses to allow the construction of two dams on the Amazon's Madeira River.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
The Madeira River Complex, Brazil and Bolivia
Photos from an Amazon Watch trip through the Madeira River basin to bring back stories of anguish and hope in the fight to stop the construction of two mega-hydroelectric dams on the Amazon's principal tributary.
Spain's Banco Santander Criticized for Hypocrisy Funding Destructive Dam in the Amazon While Adopting Green Principles
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Washington, D.C., May 14, 2009- Spain's Banco Santander, which has been facing growing criticism for being a lead financier in a highly controversial dam project in the Brazilian Amazon, recently signed on to the "Equator Principles," a set of socially and environmentally responsible financing guidelines adopted by a growing
Varias ONG critican al Banco Santander por financiar una presa en la Amazonía
EFE | Washington, 14 mayo - Una coalición de organizaciones medioambientales instaron hoy al Banco Santander a retirarse de un consorcio que construye una presa en la Amazonía que, a su juicio, provocará graves daños ecológicos y sociales."Si (el Santander) quiere ser considerado como un banco responsable, no puede fina
Brazilian Social Movement Condemns "Dictatorship on the Madeira River"
The Brazilian Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) issued the following statement to denounce the treatment of riverine communities who are being impacted by the construction of the Santo Antônio and Jirau dams on the Madeira River in Brazil's Rondônia state.
With an eye on Copenhagen, indigenous groups talk climate change
Climate Wire | Indigenous people from around the world are meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, this week to discuss climate change – which has led to conditions they didn't create but that they often suffer from disproportionately, many said.And as the world negotiates a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, indigenous groups say they w
Despite Protests, Work Continues on Madeira River Dams
Recent events surrounding the Santo Antonio and Jirau hydroelectric dam schemes underway on the Amazon’s Madeira River highlight the controversial nature of these projects as well as the lack of public consensus around the Brazilian government’s “development” plans for the Amazon basin.
Brazil's Madeira Riverbank Dwellers Call for Help
Members of the riverbank communities on Brazil’s Madeira River sent a letter to Brazil’s President Lula da Silva prior to his visit to see work on the two dam sites of Santo Antonio and Jirau, key projects of the Initiative for the Regional Integration of Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA).
COIAB meets with Prince Charles in Manaus
The coordinator-general of the National Indigenous Organization of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), Jecinaldo Satere, delivered a document to the heir of the British throne detailing the position of indigenous peoples on environmental issues.
S.O.S. Amazon! Over 1700 People Create Human Banner and Urge Global Action
Brazilian Indigenous Leaders Unite International Efforts to Defend the Amazon Rainforest during the World Social Forum
BELEM, Brazil – Indigenous people from across Latin America today led over 1700 participants of World Social Forum to form a human banner, using their bodies to draw attention to the increasingly precarious situation of the Amazon rainforest.
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: "Wake Up, World!" - SOS from the Amazon
Interpress Service | BELÉM, Brazil, Jan 27 (IPS) - A human banner made up of more than 1,000 people, seen and photographed from the air, sent the message "SOS Amazon" to the world, in the first action taken by indigenous people hours before the opening in northern Brazil on Tuesday of the 2009 World Social Forum (WSF).The mass message ref
S.O.S. Amazon
View photos of indigenous people from across Latin America leading over 1000 participants of the World Social Forum to form human banners, using their bodies to draw attention to the increasingly precarious situation of the Amazon rainforest.
Doubt, Anger Over Brazil Dams As Work Begins Along Amazon Tributary, Many Question Human, Environmental Costs
The Washington Post | Porto Velho, Brazil – It is quiet here on the wrong side of progress. Hot wind blows dust across the dry bluffs. The brown river runs wide and placid.In his painted wooden skiff, Francisco Evangelista de Abreu, a fisherman, motors up-current. Two river dolphins crest and submerge. His mind is elsewhere.
Road to oblivion: new highway poses threat to Brazil's uncontacted tribespeople
The Independent | The uncontacted tribes in the forest borderlands of Peru and Brazil, such as those pictured last week pointing a bow and arrow at a plane, are facing a threat from something beyond their wildest imagining. It comes from a thing of which they've never heard, being built to serve a people who they have no idea even exist.
The Amazonian tribe that hid from the rest of the world - until now
The Independent | Three near-naked figures are visible in the forest clearing. Two of them are men, their bodies daubed with a red dye, and they are aiming their bows at the sky.
Environmentalists go to court to suspend the auction of Rio Madeira Dam Project
São Paulo and BrasíliaThe NGO Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazon filed a civil lawsuit on Wednesday (Dec. 5th) in the Federal Courts, requesting the suspension of the Santo Antônio Hydro Power Plant auction, in the Madeira River (state of Rondônia, in the Amazon), scheduled for December 10th .
Coalition Letter to Brazilian Foreign Minister re Madeira River Complex
Celso Amorim, Foreign Relations Minister, BrazilDilma Roussef, Presidential Chief-of-Staff, BrazilCc: David Choquehuanca, Foreign Relations Minister, BoliviaJuan Pablo Ramos Morales, Vice Minister for Biodiversity, Forestry Resources and Environment, BoliviaMarina Silva, Environment Minister, Brazil
Brazilian ministers claim victory in war on illegal loggers
The Guardian | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – The destruction of the world's largest rainforest last year fell to its lowest rate in nearly two decades, according to figures announced by the Brazilian government.
Go-ahead for Controversial Pipeline
Scotsman www.news.scotsman.com | Brazil's Environmental Protection Agency Ibama has said it has licensed a unit of the state-run oil company Petrobras to start building a controversial gas pipeline cutting through pristine Amazon forest.Petrobras and environmentalists have quarrelled since 2001 over the planned 550-kilometre (345-mile) pipeline from t
Environmental Efforts Can't Curb Social Impact of Amazon Pipeline
Inter Press Service News Agency | Manaus, Brazil - While Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras has taken great pains to limit the environmental impact of gas pipelines in the Amazon region, it has proven more difficult to curb the social repercussions of large-scale projects in the midst of dire poverty.The discovery in 1986 of natural gas in Urucú
Remembering Chico Mendes -- The Martyr of the Amazon Lives On
E Magazine | The 1988 murder of Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, better known as Chico Mendes, in Brazil’s Amazon River basin was a major international story.
Remembering Sister Dorothy Stang
E Magazine | When I met Sister Dorothy Stang, I knew I was encountering someone remarkable. I met her in Belém, the capital of Pará state in northern Brazil. Belém has more than a million people. It was not the natural habitat for Dayton, Ohio native Dorothy Stang, who had gone to the city to petition the state government.
Donation Sparks Fury Over Urucu Pipe Plan
Upstream Newsletter | Petrobras and its TNG partners are pushing ahead with controversial plans to build a $350 million gas pipeline from the Urucu field across the Amazon rainforest, despite environmental groups crying foul over the project and taking their fight to the courts.The TNG consortium, formed by Petrobras (50%), El Paso (25%) an
Judge Suspends Provisional Licence for Urucu-Porto Velho Gas Pipeline Project
Amazonia.org -- www.amazonia.org.br | Sao Paulo, Brazil - The Federal Judge Boaventura Joao Andrade,of the State of Amazonas, has suspended the provisional licence conceded by IBAMA, the Brazilian environment agency, to Petrobras for the construction of the Urucu-Porto Velho gas pipeline.
Cuestionan el Tendido del Gasoducto Yabog
El Deber | Santa Cruz de la Sierra - Bolivia, Informe. Organización Amazonwatch teme que se repitan daños ambientales ANF.
