Hydro Dams and Environmental Justice for Indigenous People. a Comparison of Environmental Decision-Making in Canada and Brazil
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Hydro Dams and Environmental Justice for Indigenous People. A Comparison of Environmental Decision-Making in Canada and Brazil by Rebeca Macias Gimenez LL.B, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 2005 LL.M, University of Calgary, 2010 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Law ã Rebeca Macias Gimenez, 2021 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This Dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. We acknowledge with respect the Lekwungen peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day. ii Supervisory Committee Hydro Dams and Environmental Justice for Indigenous People. A Comparison of Environmental Decision-Making in Canada and Brazil by Rebeca Macias Gimenez LL.B, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 2005 LL.M, University of Calgary, 2010 Supervisory Committee Professor Deborah Curran, Department of Law Supervisor Dr. Pooja Parmar, Department of Law Departmental Member Dr. Michele-Lee Moore, Department of Geography Outside Member iii Abstract This research project focuses on decision-making about large hydropower dams, particularly the process and outcomes of impact assessment, involving state, corporations, and local Indigenous communities. The objective of the study is to investigate whether state-led impact assessment, as one tool of regulatory decision-making, can be a way to address environmental justice concerns for Indigenous peoples affected by natural resource infrastructure. The core of this research is a case study comparison between the Belo Monte dam (Brazil) and Site C dam (Canada) to examine the effectiveness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and decision-making. I analyse these processes’ ability to address the inequities caused by disparate adverse effects of dams on Indigenous peoples. Despite evidence of the impacts of large dams on Indigenous peoples, there is limited literature on their experiences with large hydropower projects and their decision- making processes, and mechanisms that would account for Indigenous peoples’ experiences. This research aims to fill in that gap in the literature by exposing the limitations of impact assessment and proposing recommendations for environmental decision-making to address Indigenous peoples’ concerns and experiences. I start with a review of the development of the environmental justice (EJ) literature as the research’s analytical framework. Environmental justice focuses on diagnosing the inequities caused to localized communities under the argument of a necessary ‘smaller evil,’ so that the larger society may benefit from natural resources development. However, the research participants’ experiences pointed to the need to revise the EJ framework towards a more integral approach to environmental decision-making, recognising the fundamental relationship between land and human beings. This research project concludes that EJ for Indigenous peoples helps reinstate decision-making purposes – evaluating the impacts, proposing alternatives to projects, promoting transparency and accountability, and considering the possibility of rejecting projects – when done within a genuine government- to-government collaborative framework between state and Indigenous governments. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. ix Dedication ........................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 2. The Impacts of Hydropower Dams and Adverse Effects on Indigenous People ........ 3 3. State Environmental Impact Assessment of and Decision-Making about Dams ....... 9 4. Environmental Justice ............................................................................................... 11 5. Structure of the Dissertation ..................................................................................... 15 Chapter 2: Research Methodology .................................................................................... 20 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 20 1.1. Chapter organization .......................................................................................... 21 1.2. Literature review ................................................................................................ 21 1.3. The concept of environment and natural resource in this research project ....... 23 1.4. The concept of development in this research project ......................................... 25 1.5. The concept of equity in this research project ................................................... 26 1.6. The concept of reconciliation and the relevance of this research project to advance reconciliation .............................................................................................. 27 1.7. Why researching colonial law? .......................................................................... 28 1.8. Positionality: Locating the researcher in the research project ........................... 29 2. Research Design ........................................................................................................ 31 3. Research Analytical Framework ............................................................................... 32 3.1. Environmental justice literature ......................................................................... 32 3.2. Why using environmental justice and not a sustainability framework? ............ 35 3.4. Why using environmental justice and not a political ecology framework? ....... 36 3.5. Why using environmental justice and not Indigenous resurgence and sovereignty frameworks? .......................................................................................... 37 4. Comparative Case Study Methodology .................................................................... 39 4.1. Why these case studies? ..................................................................................... 42 4.2. Conducting empirical research .......................................................................... 44 4.3. Field questions ................................................................................................... 46 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 48 Chapter 3: Literature Review: Environmental Justice in Impact Assessment and Decision- Making .............................................................................................................................. 50 1. Introduction: Situating the Chapter in the Dissertation ............................................ 50 2. Environmental Decision-Making .............................................................................. 52 2.1. General Concept, Purpose, and Challenges ....................................................... 52 2.2. Knowledge Selection in Environmental Decision-making ................................ 55 2.3. Public Participation in Environmental Decision-making .................................. 58 3. Environmental Impact Assessment ........................................................................... 61 v 3.1. Concept and Purpose .......................................................................................... 61 3.2. General Environmental Impact Assessment Stages ........................................... 64 3.3. Public Participation in EIA ................................................................................ 65 3.4. Consultation with Indigenous Peoples ............................................................... 67 3.5. Free, Prior, and Informed Consent ..................................................................... 69 4. Critiques to Environmental Decision-making and EIA ............................................ 72 5. Environmental Justice ............................................................................................... 75 5.1. The development of an environmental justice literature .................................... 76 5.2. Critiques of environmental justice in the environmental decision-making literature .................................................................................................................... 85 5.3. Environmental justice for Indigenous peoples in natural resources decision- making ......................................................................................................................