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Nagare Barro Blanco

Nagare Barro Blanco from Intercontinental Cry on Vimeo.

“We are ready to confront them and defend this resource, this right, this conservation, and we are going to continue doing so for future generations…”
Italo Jimenez, President of the 10th April Movement

The indigenous Ngabe and campesino communities living on the banks of the Tabasará river in western Panama are facing imminent disaster due to the illegal activities of Honduran-owned company, Generadora del Istmo (Genisa).

In less than two months, the 28.85 megawatt Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam will cut off the flow of the river and create a 258 hectare reservoir, flooding numerous homes, precious gallery forests, schools, churches, cemeteries, archaeological sites, and fertile agricultural land that the communities rely upon for subsistence agriculture – these facts have been confirmed by a recent UN field study. The dam will also exterminate vital fish species which form a staple of local diets.

Genisa denies it is taking food out of the mouths of Panama’s poorest people, yet it has never consulted any of the affected communities, and the project contravenes international and national laws. Nonetheless, the Panamanian government continues to side with the company and are currently militarising the area with heavily armed SENAFRONT police troops. Recent clashes with riot squads have left some Ngabe protesters with injuries and the situation remains tense.

Nagare Barro Blanco was filmed in the indigenous and campesino settlements of Kia, Nuevo Palomar, and Calabacito in February 2013. It explores the endangered culture of the Tabasará communities, their fierce resistance to dam development, and their willingness to protect their natural resources and way of life at any cost.

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Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Occupy Belo Monte Dam Site

Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Occupy Belo Monte Dam Site Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Occupy Belo Monte Dam Site

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Altamira, Brazil – Indigenous peoples affected by the controversial Belo Monte Dam complex now under construction along the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon have occupied the Pimental coffer dam that cuts across channels of the river since last Thursday, June 21. Warriors from the Xikrin and Juruna indigenous groups arrived from the Bacajá River and Big Bend of the Xingu River in order to occupy one of Belo Monte’s main dams and work camps, expressing dissatisfaction with the blatant disregard of their rights and the dam building consortium’s non-compliance with socio-environmental mitigation measures. The groups independently organized the action and are demanding the presence of the Norte Energia (NESA) dam-building consortium and the Brazilian government.

The occupiers come from a region of the Xingu downstream of Belo Monte that would suffer from a permanent drought provoked by diversion of 80% of the river’s flow into an artificial dam to feed the dam’s powerhouse.

An indigenous man at the site of the Pimental coffer dam, occupied since June 21, 2012An indigenous man at the site of the Pimental coffer dam, occupied since June 21, 2012
Photo by Mário de Paula/TV Liberal
The indigenous peoples are outraged that promised actions by government-led Norte Energia – many of which constitute legal obligations of environmental licenses issued for the Belo Monte complex – have not been implemented. According to protest leaders, a program designed to mitigate and compensate impacts of the mega-dam project on indigenous peoples and their territories known as the PBA (Plano Básico Ambiental) has not been presented in local villages as promised.

The protestors also claim that a promised system to ensure small boat navigation in the vicinity of the coffer dams has not been implemented by NESA, leaving them isolated from Altamira, a market for goods and the main source of healthcare and other essential services. The interruption of boat transportation along the Xingu is expected to force indigenous peoples to open up access roads to their villages, provoking further pressures from illegal loggers, land speculators, cattle ranchers and squatters.

According to the Xikrin and other indigenous leaders, the coffer dams at Pimental have already compromised water quality downriver on the Xingu due to siltation and stagnation, making it undrinkable and unsuitable for bathing. Norte Energia promised to install wells and potable water distribution systems in indigenous villages, but no such works have been carried out. The protestors at Pimental also point to the lack of legal recognition and demarcation of several indigenous territories in the area of influence of Belo Monte, such as Terra Wangã, Paquiçamba, Juruena do km 17 and Cachoeira Seca, all legal prerequisites for dam construction.

The protestors camping out at the Pimental coffer dam on the Xingu are calling for immediate suspension of the installation license for Belo Monte.

Text written by men assembled in the Bacajá village in the Trincheira-Bacajá indigenous territory declared:

Stop this and let our river run. Let our boats navigate the river. Stop this and let the river run so that our children can drink and bathe in its waters. If they build this dam the river will become ruined, its waters will no longer be good. The river will be dry; how will we be able to navigate and travel?

Let the river run so that our people can continue to hunt in the jungle so that our children and grandchildren can eat, so that the river runs freely and we can fish in the early morning to nourish our children.

Our studies* were poorly completed and now you speak of a dam. We do not like this. The Basic Environmental Plan [to mitigate social and environmental impacts] has not even begun to be implemented and they are already building the dam. We do not like this. We want this Belo Monte dam to stop once and for all! (Translation by anthropologist Clarice Cohn.)

*Referring to a study on impacts of Belo Monte on the Bacajá River, a major tributary of the Xingu located downriver from the Pimental Dam site on the Volta Grande, where 80% of the river flow would be diverted.

Media contacts:
Brent Millikan, International Rivers +55 61 8153 7009, brent@internationalrivers.org
Verena Glass, Movimento Xingu Vivo +55 11 9853 9950, veglass@uol.com.br

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Judge Suspends Dam in the Amazon

By Brent Millikan, brent@internationalrivers.org, +55 61-8153-7009

Saves Falls Sacred to Indigenous Peoples

A federal judge in Brazil has suspended the construction license of the Teles Pires hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon, citing violations of the rights of the Kayabi, Apiaká and Mundurucu indigenous peoples whose livelihoods are seriously threatened by the project.

The dam with an estimated installed capacity of 1,820 MW has been under construction since August 2011 on the Teles Pires River, a major tributary of the Tapajós River in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. The dam is one of six large hydroprojects planned for the Teles Pires River, bordering the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. It is also currently applying for carbon credits from the UNFCCC.

In her decision, Judge Célia Regina Ody Bernardes concluded that prior to green-lighting dam construction, the federal environmental agency (IBAMA) failed to consult with affected indigenous communities, despite serious threats to their "socioeconomic and cultural well-being," constituting a violation of the Brazilian Constitution and ILO Convention 169, which Brazil signed in 2004.

The decision to suspend dam construction was based on a lawsuit filed earlier this month that argued the existence of "imminent and irreversible damage to the quality of life and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples of the region," including flooding of a series of rapids on the Teles Pires River, known as Sete Quedas. According to indigenous leaders, "The rapids of Sete Quedas are the spawning grounds of fish that are very important to us, such as the pintado, pacuú, pirarara and matrinxã. In addition, Sete Quedas is a sacred place for us, where the Mãe dos Peixes ("Mother of Fish") and other spirits of our ancestors live – a place that should not be messed with."

Civil society groups and leaders of the Kayabi community welcomed the news of the the suspension of dam construction, but warned against a possible overturning of Judge Bernardes' restraining order. They are now calling on the Dilma government to respect the country's constitution and rule of law.

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Climate Change, Rivers and Dams: A Video Exploration

This toolkit includes a lesson plan that features a 20-minute video called "Wrong Climate for Damming Rivers," which uses Google Earth to visualize what might happen to the world's major rivers when climate change and the current dam-building boom collide. Students will be encouraged to think critically about the role of dam-building in a changing global environment from a systems-level prospective, at times taking on the role of different stakeholders to understand the complexity of the problem. This toolkit includes the video, extension ideas, and links to additional resources.

Target Audience: This lesson plan can be adapted for a range of students and adults, starting from the ages of 12 and up. This is equivalent to US/Canada: Grades 6 and up; International: Year 7 and up. Some background in basic geography, biology, the hydrologic cycle, climate change science, and chemistry is required.

Learning Goals for this Activity:

  • Analyze the environmental, social, political, and economic impacts of dam building, the potential costs and benefits, and the different values various stakeholders attach to these costs and benefits. This activity is aimed at practicing critical thinking and interdisciplinary skills to problem solving. Through the extensions, students learn that there is often not a right or wrong answer, and that decisions are often made depending on the different values that various stakeholders hold.
  • Clearly describe the challenges that climate change brings to dam building. These include:
    (1) the increased drought and flooding, and thus the increased risks to dam safety and cost-effectiveness;
    (2) the increased importance that healthy rivers can play for climate adaptation; and
    (3) dams and reservoirs in tropical countries are significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Use the video to understand the different impacts of climate change and dams on in three specific regions. These include the following dam building hotspots: Sub-Saharan Africa, the Himalayas, and the Brazilian Amazon.

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Scientists Warn of Catastrophe for Food Security in the Mekong

By Kirk Herbertson, International Rivers Network

To everyone who is nervously watching the Mekong governments gamble with the region’s food security: the situation just became more complicated. Scientists, journalists, and activists have worked for years to raise concerns about 11 proposed dams on the Mekong River that would leave millions of people without enough food to survive. Numerous studies have shown that these 11 dams would block fish migrations, inundate agricultural lands, and uproot communities on an unprecedented scale. A global movement has rallied around the message that these dams should not be built on the Mekong River.

Yet this is not the only problem. A new study, published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), demonstrates that the threat to the Mekong region’s food security extends beyond damming the Mekong River itself. The study presents some shocking numbers about how dams on the Mekong’s tributaries are not getting the attention they deserve.

So far 51 dams have been built or are being built on tributaries to the Mekong River, mostly in Laos. At least 27 more could begin construction between 2015 and 2030. The PNAS study found that “the completion of 78 dams on tributaries, which have not previously been subject to strategic analysis, would have catastrophic impacts on fish productivity and biodiversity.” Many of these dams are not being discussed or monitored at the regional level.

89 dams appear, 100 fish species disappear

The Mekong River Basin is home to 65 million people. Dr. Guy Ziv, the lead author of the PNAS study and an environmental scientist now at Stanford University, told Nature that “Most of the people are poor and get 81% of their protein from subsistence fisheries.” As a result, the fates of the Mekong’s fish and people are closely intertwined. The study warned that if all of the proposed dams are built, fish productivity would drop by 51% and 100 fish species would become critically endangered.

Ziv and his colleagues highlighted the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Cambodia, which will soon begin construction. The dam will block fish migrations on two of the major tributaries of the Mekong River, the Sesan and Srepok rivers. The impacts will likely be more serious than some of the dams proposed for the mainstream river. The PNAS study found that the Lower Sesan 2 Dam alone would cause a 9.3% drop in fish biomass for the entire river basin. Projects like this are not just a local concern, but a regional concern.

Mekong River Commission begins to crumble

Until recently, many of us hoped that the Mekong River Commission (MRC) would resolve regional crises such as these. The MRC was created in a 1995 treaty between Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam with the goal of managing development of the river basin in a sustainable way. The MRC brings together these four governments to jointly decide which development projects should go forward in the river basin.

The past year, however, has revealed glaring holes in the ability of the MRC to make decisions. Legally the four governments must agree on any dams that would be built on the Mekong River. However, the four governments only have to notify one another if they plan to build a dam on a tributary, even if that dam has transboundary impacts. The MRC process has not even worked smoothly for projects on the mainstream Mekong River, where the governments are legally required to reach agreement. In the case of the Xayaburi Dam, for example, Laos and Thailand have defied the regional process and proceeded with preliminary construction although an agreement is not yet in place.

Fixing a collapsing system

So where do we go from here? The obvious solution is to fill the gaps in the MRC’s procedures, but this depends on the political will of the four governments and MRC’s donors. If the MRC cannot be fixed, then it is time to look to other regional bodies to fill in the gaps.

“Food security” is not an empty phrase. Threats to food security are also threats to the region’s economic and political stability, as well as to the basic human rights of millions of people. If this is not enough to motivate the region’s politicians to call for drastic reform, then the Mekong is in serious trouble.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

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Stop Violence Against the Ngöbe Indigenous Peoples

The heavy weight of a law that would let foreign companies build mines, dams, hotels, and other projects on Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous lands in Panama has the local indigenous people quite worried. US energy company AES is already building Chan 75 Dam, even though there was not meaningful consultation or fair compensation for communities. Several mines are already operating in their territories.

The Ngöbe community has been pressuring Panama's National Assembly to rescind the law, and successfully negotiated a new bill incorporating indigenous demands for protection of their territory and the environment. The government agreed to include a ban on open-pit mining in the territories, but refused to exclude hydroelectric projects. However, the government failed to fulfill their promises and presented a version of the mining code that did not take into account many of the demands of the Ngöbe people. The Ngöbe - Panama's largest indigenous group - have been protesting in the streets since October 2011.

On the morning of February 5, Panamanian riot police cut off cell phone communication and cleared roadblocks that members of the Ngöbe-Buglé group had maintained for six days in the western provinces of Chiriquí and Veraguas. Jerónimo Montezuma was killed in the process, dying of a gunshot wound to the chest in San Félix, Chiriquí. Omayra Silvera, a protest leader, said "The riot police fired on us. We were demonstrating so quietly, peacefully, and they repressed us." Police agents "fired bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas."

Ngöbe leaders are asking international citizens to send letters and emails to President Ricardo Martinelli, demanding a halt to the use of lethal force against Ngöbe protestors and a special investigation of Panama's Minister of Security, José Raúl Mulino, and the head of the National Police, Gustavo Perez, for human rights violations. These officials were also implicated in the death of Ngöbe labor leaders Antonio Smith and Virgilio Castillo in Changuinola in July 2010.

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2011 – Day of Action For Rivers

Creativity and passion were the hallmark of the hundred-plus actions for healthy rivers that took place on March 14 as river lovers around the globe celebrated the International Day of Action For Rivers. So far we know of more than 111 actions in 34 countries.

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China’s Rich Natural Heritage Under Threat

Dr. Zhou Dequn is a professor at Kunming University of Science and Technology and guest professor at Virginia Tech. He worked for The Nature Conservancy from 2004- 09 and is currently on the editorial board for the journal Plant Pathology & Quarantine. His expertise in- cludes ecology, fungal diversity and conservation biology. We talked to him about China’s biodiversity crisis.

WRR: What is known about biodiversity losses in China's rivers?

ZD: Currently, our knowledge is relatively limited and mostly focuses on research and active monitoring of a few key rivers. For example, the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan has long been researching and monitoring the hydrobiology of the Yangtze River. They also established a com- prehensive database of China’s inland aquatic organisms. However, as a whole, our inland rivers are suffering from severe losses of biodiversity.

For instance, aquatic organisms living in our largest inland river, the Yangtze, are facing severe challenges due to the rapid development of economic zones along the Yangtze River, which has directly caused the decline of biological resources. Many species are endangered or have already become extinct. Due to overdevel- opment and pollution along the Yangzte River, the Chinese River Dolphin, which was under first-class state protection, has essentially disappeared.

There is a serious lack of conservation measures and a shortage of funding to protect other aquatic species. According to an expert from Changjiang Fishery Resources Managing Committee, there used to be more than 1,100 species in the Yangtze, including more than 370 fish species, over 220 zoobenthos (organisms which live on the riverbed), and hundreds of aquatic plants. The Yangtze is also home to many rare fish species and wild animals. But cur- rently these resources are declining dramatically and many species are facing extinction. For example, the “Water Panda” (Chinese river dolphin) and the “King of Freshwater” (Chinese paddlefish) can hardly be seen. The famous Reeves’ Shad has not been seen for many years. “Living fossils” such as the Chinese sturgeon have also rapidly decreased in numbers and at an even faster pace. The juvenile fish recruitment numbers for the famous four major Chinese carps (the herrings, grass carps, chubs and bigheads) has rapidly decreased since 2003.

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Where Rivers Flow, Biodiversity Grows

Kierán Suckling founded the US-based Center for Biological Diversity in 1989. The highly successful Center uses science, law and creative media to protect species on the brink of extinction, primarily in North America. Kieran talked to us about the Center’s work and the importance of biological diversity to humans and the planet.

WRR: What inspired you to focus on biodiversity?

KS: When I was at university, I was working on a doctoral dissertation looking at both the extinction of species and the extinction of languages. There’s a clear but not well-understood link between the two – the areas of highest biodiversity also have the highest language diversity, and the same forces are killing off both. I had a summer job surveying owls in New Mexico for the US Forest Service, and I became so entranced by owls that I quit school and started the Center.

WRR: How do rivers figure into the Center's work?

KS: Rivers figure very prominently in our work, because it’s all about the water – that’s where all species great and small congregate. And of course water is a critical resource that humans also desperately need. River systems are not only the zone of our highest biological diversity, but also of the greatest human endeavors, which is a recipe for an extinction crisis. So we put a lot of work into trying to protect rivers.

We’ve had a lot of success through the Endangered Species Act (ESA) approach. We don’t have many laws that actually protect the rights of rivers, but there are lots of laws in the US to protect imperiled plants and animals. To protect a river, one of the most powerful things you can do is try to protect species associated with them. One of the primary tools we use is to get a “critical habitat” designation under the ESA. We’ve gotten 10,000 miles of Western US rivers protected this way, as part of efforts to help preserve habitat for raptors, plants, fish. We’ve recently launched a campaign to protect the endangered aquatic species of the US Southeast, whose waterways have gotten less attention than Western rivers. We had our first victory there in October, when US Fish and Wildlife issued an initial positive decision to list 404 riverine species as endangered in this region.

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The Ecological Mysteries of Latin America’s Rivers

Latin America’s watersheds are rich in biodiversity, yet it is remarkable how much we don’t know about the ecology of these rivers. Aquatic and terrestrial species interact in still-mysterious ways, their relationships dependent on rivers’ patterns of flood and drought, of slow and fast currents, of sediment deposit and wetlands and mangroves creation.

With the disruption of healthy riverine ecosystems from deforestation and damming, scientist’s opportunity to understand and appreciate these interactions is rapidly disappearing. Yet, plans to dam most Latin American rivers are proliferating like an infestation of termites. We interviewed a few key scientists working in the area to reflect on the work they do, and the challenges they see. Here is what they told us.

On Extinction and Orchids

American botanist Lou Jost works as a mathematical ecologist, plant biogeographer and conservation scientist. A fellow of the Population Biology Foundation in Ecuador, he is also one of the world's top orchid hunters. In the past decade, Dr. Jost discovered 60 new species of orchids and five other new plant species.

Extinction is the worst crime that humans can inflict on nature. Once a species is gone, it can never come back, and its unique genetic information, accumulated during millions of years of evolution, is erased from the planet. Luckily most water projects do not commit this ultimate crime, but when a project comes along that does put the survival of a species at risk, the world should react.

The animals and plants most vulnerable to this kind of extinction are the species found only in one river and nowhere else in the world. This kind of local endemism is relatively rare.

However, in the eastern Andes of Ecuador, where I live, the hydroelectric projects planned for the Upper Rio Pastaza and for its tributary, the Rio Topo, threaten several locally endemic species. The Abitagua Dam will affect the only place in the world where the orchid Epistephium lobulosum has been found. This mysterious plant was discovered in 1959.

An even more mysterious plant, the critically endangered Myriocolea irrorata, is endemic to the Rio Topo. The extinction of such a distinctive species is a crime even worse than the extinction of a species that has other close relatives. None of this apparently matters to the Ecuadorian government, which has made a conscious decision to approve all hydroelectric projects in the country.

What happens when these species disappear? We really don’t know. The Epistephium orchid on the Rio Pastaza is so rare that it probably plays no role in the local ecosystem, but it nevertheless represents a significant segment of evolutionary history, with unique features and biochemistry that we know nothing about. The Myriocolea, on the other hand, is locally abundant along the Rio Topo, and may well be part of an intricate set of relationships with other organisms. Because it has no close relatives, its biochemistry may be very interesting, but again we know nothing about it.

When we destroy these unique species and their associated ecosystems, we throw away their evolutionary secrets forever. We are like ignorant people burning books before we have even learned to read them. No civilized society would dream of massive government-supported public book-burnings these days. Why then do we so freely destroy the much more remarkable, irreplaceable works produced by nature and evolution?

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