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The Risky Business of Hydropower in the Amazon Summary 3 DAMNING THE AMAZONTHE RISKY BUSINESS OF HYDROPOWER IN THE AMAZON SUMMARY 3 DAMNING THE AMAZON: THE RISKY BUSINESS OF HYDROPOWER IN THE AMAZON 6 The Amazon is under threat 8 HYDROPOWER DAMS IN THE AMAZON ARE NOT A CLEAN ENERGY SOLUTION 12 Demand inflation drives development | The likelihood of cost overruns 14 Transmission infrastructure: the challenge of remote locations 14 Climate threats to hydropower viability | The clean alternatives 16 THE HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF THE SÃO LUIZ DO TAPAJÓS DAM 18 Environmental impacts | An inadequate environmental impact assessment process 20 The impacts of increased mining 23 Social impacts 24 Victims of the SLT dam: the Munduruku and the ribeirinhos 25 Indirect deforestation | The climate impact 26 Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Land, Pará State. © Daniel Beltrá / Greenpeace BELO MONTE: THE MYTHS AND THE REALITY SUMMARY OF AMAZON HYDROPOWER 28 The promises of Belo Monte 30 A GLOBAL TREASURE UNDER THREAT FOR PROFIT TURNING A BLIND EYE TO Environmental impacts 31 Brazil’s Amazon region, which includes most of the world’s largest ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION Social impacts 33 remaining area of rainforest, is under attack by uncontrolled Experience of previous and ongoing Amazon hydropower CONTENT Cost overruns | Too important a lesson to be ignored 34 economic exploitation. Mainly as a result of industrial agriculture, projects has shown that dams can wipe out huge areas of cattle ranching, mines and infrastructure projects such as habitats such as alluvial forest that are dependent on seasonal THE QUESTIONABLE LEGALITY OF THE SÃO LUIZ DO TAPAJÓS DAM 36 hydropower dams, and the illegal loggers and settlers that follow flooding, and have devastating impacts on populations of fish Constitutional and legal norms with which the project must comply 37 in their wake, over 750,000 km² of forest have already been and aquatic reptiles and on the life cycles of mammals such as Failure to consult and absence of consent 38 cleared, putting at risk the region’s unparalleled biodiversity, turtles, caimans, otters and river dolphins. These effects can A familiar tale – the Brazilian government undermines the principles driving traditional forest communities from their land and sometimes be felt hundreds of kilometres upriver and downriver of consultation and consent 39 threatening serious impacts for the world’s climate. from the dam and may even lead to extinctions. The new roads Violations of land rights and subversion of due process 39 From 2004 deforestation slowed, but in 2012 the Brazilian and other infrastructure associated with dam developments also congress passed legislation that created a climate of impunity act as a magnet to settlers and destructive industries such as THE SÃO LUIZ DO TAPAJÓS PROJECT: WHO STANDS TO PROFIT? 42 for illegal deforestation and since then the rate of destruction mining and large-scale agriculture, driving further deforestation. In the frame: the construction consortia 44 has shown some sharp rises. Now the government of President An environmental impact assessment (EIA) commissioned The companies involved 45 Dilma Rousseff, obsessed with economic development at any by a consortium of companies expected to bid for the SLT dam Brazil’s biggest corruption scandal reaches the Amazon: the Lava Jato investigation 45 cost, is pushing a further massive expansion of hydropower in project identified over 2,600 species near the dam site, including Suppliers – waiting in the wings 51 the Amazon. many that are at risk of extinction, as well as several birds and Insurance companies 53 Among the areas liable to be worst affected is the basin of primates that appear to be new to science – emphasising the Banks and institutional investors 54 the Tapajós River, one of the Amazon’s last unobstructed major area’s huge importance in wildlife terms. However, according The UN Global Compact 55 tributaries, which has been called one of the most biodiverse to a 2015 independent study commissioned by Greenpeace, regions in the world. Over 40 medium-sized to large dams are this EIA had multiple failings, including insufficient sampling currently planned or under construction in this unique area, of key habitats, a total failure to look at areas downriver from CONCLUSION AND DEMANDS 56 which is also threatened by utterly inappropriate plans for an the proposed dam, a lack of analysis of the risks to the species industrial waterway to transport soybeans from Mato Grosso recorded, and inadequate measures proposed to mitigate the ANNEX Corporate actors and financial institutions that are or have been involved to the Atlantic. Among the new schemes is a complex of five impacts on wildlife. The study urges the licensing authority in the Belo Monte hydropower dam complex 58 dams on the Tapajós River and its tributary the Jamanxim. The IBAMA to reject both the EIA report and the associated largest of these, the São Luiz do Tapajós (SLT) dam, is expected summary report that presents a distorted picture to decision- ACRONYMS 59 to drown nearly 400 km² of pristine rainforest and lead to a makers and the public, glossing over many of the EIA’s findings further 2,200 km² of deforestation. about rare and endangered species. So far, however, IBAMA BIBLIOGRAPHY 60 Cover: Amazon rainforest near the Tapajós River, Pará State. © Fábio Nascimento / Greenpeace Left: Forest by the banks of the Tapajós River, Pará State. © Valdemir Cunha / Greenpeace SUMMARY | 3 has not done so. The same study emphasises the need for an consultation process on the SLT dam, the Chief of Staff of the long history), also weakens the economic case for investment for the contract. It is likely that global engineering companies integrated basin-wide assessment of the cumulative impacts Presidency of the Republic stated publicly that the consultation in Amazon hydropower, as projects are unlikely to achieve their with extensive Amazon hydropower experience such as General of the dam and industrial waterway developments proposed would make no difference to the government’s intention of predicted financial returns – despite legislation passed in 2015 Electric, Voith Hydro, Siemens and Andritz, as well as insurers for the basin, something that the government has cynically going ahead with the project. In any case the inadequacy of in an attempt to featherbed the industry against drought-related already deeply involved in the sector such as Munich Re, Allianz resisted despite its being required by the country’s National available information on the dam’s likely impacts, and the problems by means of higher consumer prices and a centralised and Mapfre, will also become involved. Finance can be expected Environmental Council. climate of fear resulting from the use of the Federal Police and hedge mechanism. In any case, it has been argued that Brazil’s to come mainly from the national development bank BNDES National Guard to intimidate indigenous opponents of dam target to install 73 gigawatts (GW) of new generating capacity (which collaborates with the development banks of China, STEAMROLLERING TRADITIONAL COMMUNITIES projects in the region, would make meaningful consultation by 2024 – one-third of it large-scale hydropower – is based on Germany and Japan, among others). In addition to its environmental impacts the SLT dam, along impossible. In fact no consultation has yet been conducted, inflated demand projections that assume an unrealistically high But despite the air of respectability lent by these major with two other dams upriver, is set to flood large areas of land and it seems likely that the dam contract will be awarded level of economic growth, and has more to do with a desire international companies and institutions, Brazil’s dash for belonging to the indigenous Munduruku people (including without the Munduruku’s FPIC, violating their rights over their for massive expansion of heavy industry than with ‘keeping the Amazon hydropower is destined to fail its people while sacred sites) and to traditional riverside communities that have ancestral territory – whose demarcation the government has lights on’. According to one estimate as much as 40 % of the enriching the few. It is a legacy of an inflexible dictatorial lived in the area since the 19th century. What is more, these persistently obstructed, most recently with a legal instrument proposed new capacity would be unnecessary if some effort mindset that the country needs to shake off if it is to develop populations’ livelihoods and health are likely to be severely supposed to be used only on grounds of national security. were directed towards energy efficiency. an energy system that is fit to address both climate and impacted by loss of fisheries, reduced fertility of floodplains as development challenges. Banks, insurers, suppliers and a result of interrupted sediment flows, and lower water quality. THE MYTH OF CHEAP, CLEAN HYDROPOWER GLOBAL BUSINESS MUST STOP PROFITING contractors that become involved in these projects face serious Mass fish deaths and health problems apparently linked to Enthusiasts of Amazon development try to justify such woeful FROM AMAZON DESTRUCTION financial and reputational risks. Accordingly Greenpeace is contaminated water have already been reported from other environmental and social impacts by claiming that hydropower Despite the many questions hanging over it, the SLT project demanding that the Brazilian government cancel its plans dams in the Tapajós basin, as well as the part-completed Belo dams are a carbon-neutral source of energy that will help
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