In an act of defiance targeting the Brazilian Oil and Gas Agency, Brazilian indigenous leaders and activists interrupted a major auction of new fracking concessions set to spread across the Amazon rainforest.
Hydroelectric Dams
The Unseen Truth: Mega-dams and Human Rights
For the people who once lived within and relied upon the forest for survival, industrial development such as mega-dam construction greatly impacts the natural balance, automatically altering their right to live in a healthy environment. That's why talking about human rights abuses in the Amazon requires the acknowledgement that environmental...
How Hydroelectric Power May Undermine Brazil's Pledge to Slash Greenhouse Gases
VICE News | "Brazil is putting these dams into the energy mix, without so much as looking at their carbon footprints," said Brent Millikin, the Brazil-based Amazon program director for International Rivers, a US environmental group. "The dams are a disaster every way you look at it."
Greenpeace Report Slams Brazil Plan for Tapajos Dam in Amazon
Reuters | Greenpeace called on Brazilian authorities on Tuesday to reject an environmental assessment for a hydroelectric dam on the Tapajos River in the Amazon because it was a "marketing tool" that disregarded the indigenous people living along its banks.
Brazilian Indigenous Resistance Movement Wins Prominent UN Environmental Prize
2015 Equator Prize recognizes Munduruku efforts to defend the Tapajós River from new wave of Amazon mega-dams
New York, NY – Last Monday, the Munduruku indigenous people's resistance movement Ipereg Ayu was awarded the 2015 United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) Equator Prize. The announcement recognizes the Munduruku's tireless and innovative struggle to preserve the Amazon's Tapajós River and its vast forests from destruction.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Amazon in Focus 2015
The past year saw many important victories for our partners, yet the next several years will be critical to advancing rainforest protection, indigenous rights, and solutions to climate change such as clean, renewable energy.
Amazon Watch's 10th Annual Luncheon
Thank you to all who joined Amazon Watch at our 10th Annual Luncheon at the gorgeous Bently Reserve in San Francisco. It was a special opportunity to celebrate our accomplishments, learn more about the plans for the coming year and support our work.
Victory on the Xingu: Belo Monte Denied Operational License
Recently we asked the international community to take action by urging the Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA to reject the dam-building consortium Norte Energia's request for Belo Monte's operational license. In a stunning victory for social and environmental accountability – and thanks in part to the many thousands of you that took...
Recollections of Home: Thoughts on the Flooding of Altamira and the Belo Monte Dam
Antonia Melo is standing on her front porch. Behind her sits a room full of memories and photos. Her grandchildren wrap their arms around her legs. She speaks with strength, energy and indignation. At first, I couldn't really feel the sadness in her tone when I spoke with her, but now I can.
Indigenous People in Brazil's Amazon – Crushed by the Belo Monte Dam?
IPS | Ethnocide, the new accusation leveled against the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, brings to light deeper underlying aspects of the conflicts and controversies unleashed by megaprojects in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.
Dirty Business: Unraveling Connections Between Brazil’s Dam Industry and Corruption Scandal
As the investigations of operation Lava Jato have unfolded revealing massive corruption within the Brazilian dam industry, the fundamental reasons for the federal government's obsession with destructive dam projects such as Belo Monte and São Manoel are becoming increasingly clear.
Brazil Pledges on Climate Change, Zero Deforestation Are a "Crushing Disappointment"
VICE News | Brazil announced to much fanfare on this week plans to zero illegal deforestation on its territory by 2030 and restore an area of rainforest the size of Pennsylvania. But experts say the plans are unambitious and activists called the promises "a crushing disappointment" that amounted to nothing more than targets already stipulated by Brazilian law.
Brazilian NGO Publishes Dossier on Social and Environmental Negligence of Consortium Responsible for Belo Monte
Document highlights consequences of disregard for required mitigation and compensation measures, as federal environmental agency evaluates whether to authorize operation of mega-dam project
The document, entitled Dossier Belo Monte – There are no conditions for an Operating License, and an accompanying collection of articles are intended to be instruments for local populations of urban areas, rural settlements, and Amazonian rivers to defend their rights at a late moment when accountability may still be demanded regarding...
Brazilian Indigenous Leader to Address UN Council in Effort to Stop Dam
Ademir Kaba Munduruku will argue Brazil is violating indigenous rights by failing to consult them about the hydroelectric project on the river Tapajós
The Guardian | The Brazilian government has violated its own constitution and international law by developing hydroelectric power plants in the Amazon, according to an indigenous leader due to address the 29th United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday afternoon.
Amazonian Tribe Brings an Epic Battle for Indigenous Rights to the United Nations
Munduruku leader denounces lack of consultation and violations of land rights in Brazilian government's Amazon dam boom
Geneva, Switzerland – In a stirring event at the 29th United Nations Human Rights Council, indigenous leader Ademir Kaba Munduruku denounced the Brazilian government's escalating rights abuses in its rush to build an unprecedented series of hydroelectric dams across the Amazon.
Brazil's Belo Monte Dam Puts Livelihood of 2,000 Families at Risk, Prosecutors Say
Federal prosecutors say Norte Energia, the consortium building the $11bn dam, has violated agreed-to items that are endangering locals’ means of survival
Associated Press | Construction of a massive hydroelectric dam is endangering the livelihoods of at least 2,000 families in Brazil’s Amazon jungle state of Para, according to federal prosecutors who recommend that efforts to move the residents be suspended.
Amazonian Tribe Brings Struggle to International Stage
When Brazilian energy planners proposed to choke the Amazon's Tapajós river and its tributaries with dozens of large hydroelectric dams, they underrated a formidable foe: the Munduruku people. The largest indigenous group in the Tapajós Basin, the Munduruku are proving to be sophisticated adversaries who are throwing a wrench in the dam industry's...
Peru Planning to Dam Amazon's Main Source and Displace 1000s
Over 20 hydroelectric projects proposed for the main trunk of the River Maranon would have devastating impacts
Al Jazeera America | “We live along the banks of the river,” Madolfo Perez Chumpi, president of the Organization for the Economic Development of Awajun Communities on the Marañón (ODECAM), told me. “Where are we going to plant our manioc? Our plantains? Our maize? Where will we find the fish that swim upriver? This is scary for us, for our children. For the government...
"We Will Fight to the End"
Amazon tribe would rather die than see their land destroyed by a new dam
Al Jazeera America | Environmental activists hope that São Luiz do Tapajós will not follow the same course as the Belo Monte, the Xingu River dam that is now nearly complete. Some tribal leaders opposed to that dam were bought off by the government, according to Maíra Irigaray, the Brazil coordinator of the group Amazon Watch. She fears similar tactics will be used...
Dear Li Keqiang: "Please Respect Our Rights and Environment"
Chinese premier’s visit to Latin America raises concerns about the impacts of mining, oil, agriculture and infrastructure projects
The Guardian | "We don't accept, and we will not accept, the exploitation of oil in our territories because our vision of the world, our ideas about development, has no place for it," said Manari Ushiga, an indigenous Sapara leader from the Amazon in Ecuador. "It would be better if the Chinese company gave up on these lots. We are not going to accept the end of...
Indigenous Alliance Demands Brazil Halt Amazon Dams
An indigenous assembly held in April on the banks of Brazil's Teles Pires River, an Amazonian waterway currently being strangled by a cascade of hydroelectric dams, produced the following manifesto of resistance from the Kayabi, Apiaká, Munduruku and Rikbaktsa peoples.
Brazil's Deforestation Rates Are on the Rise Again
Newsweek | "There is basically a climate of impunity," says Christian Poirer of Amazon Watch. "Only one percent of the fines that IBAMA levels on individuals and corporations for illegal deforestation are actually collected." This agency, which is responsible for implementing Brazil's environmental laws, is, he says, "woefully...
Amazonian Tribes Unite to Demand Brazil Stop Hydroelectric Dams
The Munduruku, Apiaká, Kayabi and Rikbaktsa release joint statement as Brazil steps ups efforts to exploit power of the rivers
The Guardian | Four Amazonian tribes have joined forces to oppose the construction of hydroelectric dams in their territory as the Brazilian government ramps up efforts to exploit the power of rivers in the world's biggest forest.
The Munduruku People: A Living History of Resistance
"If you want to take care of the forest, you need to invest in us – indigenous peoples – because no one takes better care of the forest than we do. If it weren't for us, the cattle and the soy would have taken this whole forest. I know we are only of the size of a grain of sand but we make a huge difference. The air you breathe comes...
Private Sector Bows Out of Belo Monte as Vale Slashes Its Stake
Vale clearly couldn't wait to offload its poor investment in a polemic project that's already run more than a year over schedule and $1 billion over budget.
In General Assembly, the Munduruku People Reaffirm Their Right to Be Consulted about Dams
Ministério Público Federal Pará | Last week, the Munduruku people gathered more than 600 people in their General Assembly to discuss questions related to health, education, and the hydroelectric projects that the Brazilian federal government seeks to build on lands inhabited by more than 10,000 indigenous people.
Nobody Listened to Them: Fishing Communities to be Displaced by Dams Want a Say in Their Future
Agência Pública | With little or no help from the state, this is not the first time that the Tapajós ribeirinhos have faced a threat to their land and their way of life from projects coming from Brasília.
Notes from the Front Lines: A Journey with the Munduruku into the Tapajós
Amazon Watch joined a powerful assembly in the Munduruku community of Waroapompu in the Tapajós region of Brazil to discuss how the Munduruku will strengthen themselves in resistance to dams planned within their territory.
Deforestation in the Amazon Aggravates Brazil’s Energy Crisis
IPS | In Brazil water and electricity go together, and two years of scant rainfall have left tens of millions of people on the verge of water and power rationing, boosting arguments for the need to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
