Renewed attempts by top lawmakers to remove environmental licensing requirements for "strategic" development projects in Brazil have been stalled. Controversial schemes include stalled plans for the São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric complex – which critics warn could infringe on indigenous lands, destroy local biodiversity and trigger...
"Those who have taken power are backing an explicitly regressive, anti-environmental agenda," said Christian Poirier, of U.S.-based Amazon Watch.
Taking advantage of Brazil's present political turbulence, as the battle to impeach President Dilma Rousseff reaches its climax, reactionary politicians are quietly rolling back environmental and indigenous protection laws in defiance of the country's commitments under the Paris Agreement.
The most important project of President Dilma Rousseff's energy program is also a monumental example of how energy should not be produced in the 21st century. In addition to its high price tag, the dam is associated with corruption and massive human rights violations due to its social and environmental impacts.
"It further confirms what we've suspected since the project was rammed forward, in violation of Brazil's legislation and constitution," said Christian Poirier, program director of Amazon Watch. "Today's news sheds further light on the rampant corruption that underpins the construction of Belo Monte. Aside from its looming ethical...
It does not come as a surprise to those who have followed the Belo Monte saga over the last six years that the mega-dam has been allowed to begin operating this year without first complying with most of its legally mandated socio-environmental conditions.
I am filled with hope by the alliance of indigenous Amazonian women who came together in a historic march in defense of the Amazon, Mother Earth and Climate Justice on International Women's Day. It was the first time ever that indigenous Amazonian women from seven nationalities joined forces and marched together in defense of their rights...
Amazon Watch and our allies have long argued that the Belo Monte mega-dam project made no sense in terms of energy production or economics – especially taking into account the enormous environmental and social destruction it was certain to cause. The dam was constructed despite the steadfast resistance of the affected Kayapo and riverine peoples...
In light of last week's damning evidence directly implicating Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor Lula da Silva in a kickback scheme, a driving force behind Brazil's dam-building boom has been laid bare: corruption.
The scale of this change, mind-boggling as it is, is not unusual in this part of the world. Over the last half century, Brazil’s economic frontier reached the region, bringing a huge influx of workers – waves of loggers, gold-panners, cattlemen, miners, road and dam builders.
The implosion of Brazilian businesses with the Lava Jato corruption operation, the devaluing of the Real currency, and the rise in credit rates in Brazil have created an opportunity for Chinese businesses to establish greater participation in the country. Taking advantage of this situation, the China Three Gorges enterprise is preparing to make an...
So many people attended the hearing that in the beginning one group that couldn't manage to enter the public auditorium provoked a bit of a ruckus in response to the attempt to cancel or change the location of the hearing.
The most drastic change in Bel's life was the obliteration of her ancestral identity and the imposition of a new identity when she was compelled to transform from a fisherwoman into a farmer.
"They want to end the history of the Munduruku, but we won't let them," chief Juarez Saw declared. After every pronouncement, his listeners responded with a resounding shout: "Sawé!" – both a salutation and a war cry.
The burning of trees and animal deaths is only the first stage of a vicious cycle that marks the relationship between Belo Monte and the surrounding forest. Authorized to devastate thousands of hectares, the plant should use the timber for its own purpose or donate it for external use. The entry of large volumes of timber into the local market...
The ministry said a decision from the federal court in Brasilia lifted the earlier order blocking the beginning of power generation at Belo Monte, which had been planned for the coming weeks.
Terry's incisive ethnographic work with the Kayapo people, and his longstanding advocacy on behalf of their culture, forests, and rivers, earned him unique respect and admiration from Kayapo leadership, who called him 'Wakampu'.
"This case sets an important precedent for the defence of indigenous rights in the Amazon at a time when the government is set to repeat the Belo Monte disaster by building dozens of dams on the Tapajós River."
A Brazilian court has suspended the operating licence for the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, one of the world's largest, just weeks before its owner, Norte Energia, planned to start electricity generation.
Brazil's massive Belo Monte dam, which is due to be completed this year, "may set a record for biodiversity loss" owing to its siting at a location with an exceptional number of endemic species.
Washington, DC – As the first reservoirs of the Belo Monte Dam are being filled, the Brazilian government is coming under fire from international organizations. On December 21, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights opened a case against Brazil, which was challenged by affected communities represented by the Interamerican Association...
2015 could only be defined as a bad year for Brazil. Economic meltdown, political crisis, social adversity, and environmental destruction defined the last twelve months. Yet rather than striking out in new directions as 2015 drew to a close, the Brazilian government was doubled down on its failing socio-economic model, ushering in a new wave of...
The Amazon rainforest can seem unimaginably vast. Similarly, the fight to defend it from the onslaught of industrial-scale threats like oil drilling, logging, and huge dams can appear overwhelming. But across the region, local indigenous peoples and our work to support them is making the difference and protecting the lands they have known for...
As I reflect on our recent work at COP21 in Paris on the Winter Solstice, I am very proud of what we achieved and filled with great hope for our work ahead. The Amazon Watch team did an incredible job of accompanying and supporting a twelve-person delegation of indigenous leaders, women and youth from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the...
While government officials inside COP21 conference rooms just outside Paris were reviewing the cost-benefit analyses of cutting down on emissions or debating the numerical semantics of the warming of the earth, the human side of climate change and environmental destruction took center stage just a few kilometers south at the Maison des Metallos on...
The final agreement from the Paris climate talks has been the subject of much controversy regarding the language in the document pertaining to indigenous rights. Any semblance of a legally binding measure pertaining to these rights was omitted from the final agreement that was signed by the governments of 190 countries. The agreement concluded a...
At the closure of this year's critical COP21 summit in Paris, the most inspirational stories do not stem from official negotiations. They emanate from the heroic efforts of global indigenous movements, bringing a message of resilience and defiance from the front lines of climate change.
The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office today initiated legal proceedings in a federal court in Altamira seeking recognition that the implementation of the Belo Monte dam project constitutes an act of ethnocide by the Brazilian government and dam concessionaire Norte Energia, citing abundant evidence of "the destruction of the social organization...
"Our struggle is large and dangerous, but we know we shall win. I've been to Belo Monte so I know what these dams represent: if they are built on the Tapajós they will flood our lands, and destroy our fish and hunting. We've come to put an end to this madness," Munduruku Chief Suberanino Saw told Amazon Watch in 2104.
