Amazon Indigenous tour Europe to warn of mega dams

[Toruk Makto]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 3, 2011

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Caroline Bennett, Amazon Watch, +1.415.487.9600, [email protected]
Clare Morgan, Rainforest Foundation, +44.77.8868.5667, [email protected]
Brent Millikan, International Rivers, [email protected]
Christian Poirier, Amazon Watch, [email protected]

Indigenous Leaders Complete European Tour Warning of Risky Mega-Dams in the Amazon

Stakeholders listened as delegation revealed Brazil's National Development Bank (BNDES) is bankrolling Amazon destruction

London, UK – Indigenous leaders from the Amazon along with their organizational allies toured Europe to rally public, governmental and press support for their communities' fight against socially and environmentally destructive mega-dams slated to be built in the Amazon basin, and to urge investors to refrain or withdraw support for such risky projects. The delegation addressed European governments and dam builders, put pressure on one of the main financiers of these projects – the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES) – and demanded that preservation of the Xingu, Madeira, and Ene River basins and respect for the rights of local populations whose livelihoods depend on these riverine ecosystems be put first.

"We are here to show the international community that we are not being heard and that the Brazilian government is seriously violating our rights," said Sheyla Yakarepi Juruna, representative from the Juruna tribe of the Xingu River Basin in Brazil at a protest in Paris' Human Rights Square, where the group targeted companies GDF Suez, Alstom, Voith-Siemens and Andritz. "The Government speaks about sustainable development and human rights. How can this be true when they are forcing these projects of destruction on us? We need to tell the other side of the story."

Juruna was joined by Ruth Buendia Mestoquiari, President of Central Asháninka of the Ene River in Peru and Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui, leader of the Suruí tribe of the Madeira River Basin in Brazil; who traveled from their communities to Olso, Geneva, Paris and London to highlight socially and environmentally destructive mega-dams planned for the Amazon basin while emphasizing greener alternatives for meeting Brazil's growing energy needs.

The delegation secured meetings with various stakeholders in each of the four cities, engaging such groups as the Norwegian Environmental Agency in Oslo; Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva; GDF Suez and Green Party Senator Marie-Christine Blandin in Paris; and the All Party Group Tribal Peoples Council in London, among others. The tour culminated in a major rally in front of BNDES offices in London, where dozens of delegates, activists, celebrities and media joined in targeting the bank's key role in violating the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon.

"Our delegation is a timely step in raising international awareness about the serious and irreversible human rights and environmental impacts being caused by mega-dams projects in the Amazon," said Christian Poirier, Brazil Program Coordinator for Amazon Watch. "Responsible parties like BNDES can no longer operate without the scrutiny of Brazilian and international civil society."

The Brazilian Government is planning to build more than 60 mega-dams in the Brazilian Amazon including in the Xingu, Madeira, and Tapajós river basins, and has signed an agreement to finance six dam projects in the Peruvian Amazon, including the Paquitzapango dam in the Ene river basin. While multi-lateral development banks in the region have reduced their direct foreign investment in large-scale dams in the Amazon, BNDES has emerged as the leading financier of such projects. BNDES is now a key lender in Latin America with over $70 billion in loans in 2010, and has committed to financing 80 percent of the Belo Monte Dam Complex in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as being a key financier of the Madeira Dam Complex which jeopardizes the survival of isolated indigenous people.

"By visiting Europe, Amazonian indigenous leaders have made a vital contribution to unveiling the fallacy that dam construction in the Amazon is a source of clean energy, given their gross violations of human rights and other devastating social and environmental impacts," said Brent Millikan of International Rivers. "The delegation called on governments, corporations and financial institutions, including BNDES, to urgently adopt safeguards to ensure full respect for indigenous rights while promoting more integrated and sustainable approaches to energy and river basin planning."

"In its voracious appetite for energy, and facing concerted opposition at home for its plans to dam rivers in the Amazon Basin, Brazil is now looking to colonize parts of neighboring countries for energy production," stated famed musician and environmental activist Sting, who is the founding patron of the Rainforest Foundation. "This does not solve the environmental problems caused by large dams in rainforests nor reduce the impacts on indigenous people – it merely exports them. Peru's Asháninka people have been granted the legal rights to their land in the Peruvian Amazon, and this should not be arbitrarily overturned by a Brazilian company in defiance of international law on the rights of indigenous peoples."

The indigenous leaders were accompanied by Amazon Watch, International Rivers and the Rainforest Foundation UK with financial support from Rainforest Concern.

For more information on BNDES and the financing of large-dams in the Amazon, please visit:

    www.amazonwatch.org
    www.rainforestfoundationuk.org
    www.internationalrivers.org
    www.xinguvivo.org.br

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[Tswusayona Tsamsiyu]

txantsan!!!!!!!!!!!!!