In a letter to President Lula, 140 international organizations repudiate the hydroelectric project of Belo Monte on the Xingu river in the state of Pará and request that the government halt the Belo Monte process.

 

The organizations showed themselves to be informed in detail about the project. They denounce the failings in democratic process of the government in moving forward. They point out the lack of consultation with the indigenous peoples and traditional communities impacted with the work, as called for in the Brazilian Constitution and several international treaties.

 

They denounce the enormous environmental impact devastating a large portion of the Amazon forest and basically annihilating the Xingu river. It further compromises the goal of the government itself for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon and methane.

 

They further denounce the great social impact, including the forced removal of 30 thousand residents; and question the economic viability of the work, citing that during the dry season the hydroelectric would produce very little energy.

 

The organizations do not deny that Brazil needs more energy.

 

see also:

Hydroelectric of Belo Monte: A question of democracy

 

Bishop conference states support of Dom Erwin Kräutler and the entities that fight construction of Belo Monte

 

 

See the complete letter below:

 

10 March of 2010

Presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Praça dos Três Poderes – Palácio do Planalto

Brasília/DF CEP: 70150-900

BRASIL

Fax: + 55 11 3411.2222

 

 

Esteemed President Lula,

We are writing you to express our indignation and urge you to immediately suspend the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project on the Xingu River in the state of Pará be immediately suspended due to the devastating social, environmental and economic risks that the project represents for the Amazon region.

In July of 2009, you met in Brasilia with representatives of civil society and leaders of indigenous communities from the Xingu River basin, promising them renewed dialogue on the looming mega-project and assuring them that “Belo Monte will not be shoved down anyone’s throat”. We understood this to mean that Belo Monte would only be approved once affected communities had been adequately consulted about the project, understood its implications, and consented to its construction.

Yet less than a year later, your government has given the green light to the project, despite the outrage of local communities as well as glaring concerns and warnings by Brazilian experts. Even two senior officials at IBAMA, Leozildo Tabajara da Silva Benjamin and Sebastião Custódio Pires, resigned their posts last year, citing high-level political pressure to approve the project. Regardless of your earlier promise, we see that your government indeed intends to shove Belo Monte down the throats of the directly affected indigenous and riverine communities in the Amazon.

We are extremely concerned not only with the decision to build such an enormous, environmentally destructive mega-project, but also with the unethical process through which the government disingenuously excluded civil society from any kind of open debate. Those who stand to be most impacted by the construction of this project – the people of the lower Xingu River – were particularly kept out of the decision-making process.

 

As you know, Brazil signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which is now a part of International Human Rights Law. The right of Indigenous Peoples to self determination, enshrined by UNDRIP, has clearly been violated as project planners have failed to obtain their free prior and informed consent before approving Belo Monte and sanctioning its impacts on Indigenous territories.

 

The imposition of this corporate-led development model is therefore a crime against the indigenous peoples, who by international human rights standards possess the inalienable right to say “no”.

They have been fighting Belo Monte for more than 20 years on the same grounds that they continue to oppose it now.

 

Traditional populations and indigenous peoples have had their rights violated during this entire process, and we are committed to remedying this situation. We believe the construction of Belo Monte is an illegal pursuit, based on its serious violation of nearly every article of the UNDRIP, such as Articles 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 38, 40, 43, 44 as well as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization. Brazil is also in violation of Article 231.3, Chapter VIII, of its own 1988 Constitution, which guarantees Indigenous Peoples’ right to be heard before the exploitation of water resources from indigenous lands occurs, and of Article 10-V of CONAMA resolution 237 (19 December 1997), which requires public consultation of environmental impact assessments.

 

As you are aware, the Belo Monte dam will inundate some 500 square km of land, and divert nearly the entire flow of the Xingu through two artificial canals to the dam’s powerhouse. This alone will leave indigenous and traditional communities along a 130 km stretch of the Volta Grande without water, fish, or a means of river transport. The lowering of the water table would destroy the agricultural production of the region, affecting indigenous and non-indigenous farmers, as well as water quality. In all probability, the rainforests in this region would not survive. The formation of small, stagnant pools of water among the rocks of the Big Bend would be an ideal environment for proliferation of malaria and other water-borne diseases. Communities upstream, including the Kayapó Indians, would suffer the loss of migratory fish species which are a crucial part of their diet.

Independent investigations have found that the project’s environmental impact assessment is incomplete and underestimates the extent of Belo Monte’s potential impacts.  The flow along the Volta Grande of the Xingú would be seriously reduced by the canals, yet water quality, instream flow, and geological studies for the Volta Grande are incomplete. Francisco Hernandez, an electrical engineer and co-coordinator of a group of 40 specialists who analyzed the project doubts Belo Monte’s engineering viability, and warns that this extremely complex project would depend on the construction of not only one dam, but rather a series of large dams and dykes that would interrupt the flow of water courses over an enormous area, requiring excavation of earth and rocks on the scale of that carried out for digging the Panama Canal. We are particularly concerned with the disregard the government has shown to the opinions of the specialist panel as well as technical analysis issued by IBAMA last November, which is a fundamental piece of the environmental licensing process and which should have been made available to the public.

 

Belo Monte will generate only 10% of its stated installed capacity of 11,233 MW during the three to four-month dry season. Furthermore, there is uncertainty over the total costs of the project; while the Empresa de Pesquisa Elétrica estimates R$  16 billion, private investors estimate R$  30 billion.  The project’s inefficient energy supply and uncertainties over incomplete environmental data do not justify such an enormous investment. We are appalled by the lack of responsibility of corporate and financial actors that seek to make this project viable, such as Brazil’s national development bank BNDES, which is irresponsibly planning to use public taxpayer funding to finance the majority of Belo Monte. Belo Monte is not only a bad investment for the people of the Xingu, it is a bad investment for Brazil.

 

The Belo Monte project is being pursued at the expense of viable and less destructive alternatives such as energy efficiency improvement, and the promotion of renewable energy such as solar and wind. A WWF-Brazil study published in 2007 showed that by 2020 Brazil could cut the expected demand for electricity by 40% through investments in energy efficiency. The power saved would be equivalent to 14 Belo Monte hydroelectric plants, and would save Brazil around R$  33 billion in the process.

 

While viable and sustainable alternatives do exist, Belo Monte is being proposed as a model for Brazil’s renewable energy matrix, an important part of the country’s 38% reduction in domestic emissions by 2020. In fact, the opposite is true: the dam will emit large quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than C02. Big dams also cause considerable direct and indirect environmental destruction, such as widespread deforestation and an increase in emissions. There is nothing clean or sustainable about Belo Monte.

 

In conclusion, we see your government’s approval of this mega-project as an immoral, highly irresponsible and reckless act. Forcing Belo Monte down the throats of thousands of indigenous peoples and riverine families, while laying waste to the lower Xingu River, is an immeasurably high price to pay for an inefficient, costly and environmentally devastating form of electricity.

 

Brazil does not need Belo Monte to secure its energy future. We implore you to consider less-destructive alternatives to fuel Brazil’s economic growth, perform adequate consultation with local communities, and to rescind the provisional license for this disastrous project out of respect for the rights of the inhabitants of the Xingu River and the integrity of the region’s ecosystem.

 

Respectfully,

 

Christian Poirier

Brazil Program Coordinator

Amazon Watch

221 Pine St.

San Francisco, California

United States, 94104

Phone: +1 415 487 9600

Fax: +1 415 487 9601

Email: [email protected]

 

Cc:

Ministro de Minas e Energia, Edison Lobão, [email protected]

Ministro do Meio Ambiente, Carlos Minc, [email protected]

Presidente do IBAMA, Roberto Messias Franco, [email protected]

Procuradora da República, Débora Duprat, [email protected]

Chefe de Gabinete do Ministério de Minas e Energia, José Antonio Corrêa Coimbra

[email protected]

Executive Secretary of Ministry of Mines and Energy, Márcio Pereira Zimmermann

[email protected]

Secretário de Energia Elétrica do Ministério de Minas e Energia, Josias Matos de Araujo

[email protected]

Chefe de Gabinete do IBAMA, Vitor Carlos Kaniak, [email protected]

Secretária Executiva do Ministério do Meio Ambiente, Izabella Mônica Vieira Teixeira

[email protected]

 

 

Carta endossada pelas seguintes organizações:

 

ACCION ECOLOGICA REDLAR, Equador

ACTION POPULAIRE CONTRE LA MONDIALISATION, Geneva, Switzerland

AFRICA YOUTH INITIATIVE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

AKIN

ALLIANCA DEL CLIMA E.V.

AMAZON WATCH, EUA

AMBIENTE E SALUTE (ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH), Bolzano-Itália

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, América Latina, Alemanha

ANAKU ERMET, Aotearora/Nova Zelândia

AQUATIC NETWORK

ASIAN INDIGENOUS WOMENS’S NETWORK, Filipinas

ASIA PACIFIC INDIGENOUS YOUTH NETWORK, Filipinas

ASOCIACIÓN DE ECOLOGÍA

ASOCIACIÓN INTERAMERICANA PARA DEFENSA DEL AMBIENTE, México

ASIA INDIGENOUS PEOPLES PACT, Tailândia

BERNE DECLARATION, Suíça

BIOFUELWATCH

Both ENDS, Holanda

BUILDING COMMUNITY VOICES, Cambodia

CANADIANS FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE, Canadá

CARBON TRADE WATCH

CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE PROJECT, África do Sul

CENTER FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, Paquistão

CHR-CAR, China

CLIMATE ALLIANCE OF EUROPEAN CITIES WITH THE INDIGENOUS RAINFOREST

PEOPLES

CODEPINK, EUA

COECOCEIBA-FoE, Costa Rica

COMITÉ POUR LES DROITS HUMAINS EN AMÉRIQUE LATINE

COMUNIDAD VILLA SALVIANI, Bolívia

CORDILLERA PEOPLES ALLIANCE, Filipinas

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY INTERNATIONAL, EUA

CORPORATE ETHICS INTERNATIONAL, EUA

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS, Canadá

DOGWOOD ALLIANCE, EUA

EARTH CHARTER NARSAQ, Groenlândia

EARTH CHARTER YOUTH VISION ALLIANCE NETWORK, Nigéria

EARTHPEOPLES

ECO LABS, Reino Unido

ECOSISTEMAS, Chile

FERN, Bélgica

FIAN International

FIAN, Holanda

FOREST PEOPLES PROGRAMME, Rainforest Foundation EUA

FLEMISH CENTRE FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, Bélgica

ECOLOGISTAS EN ACCIÓN, Espanha

ENERGY ETHICS, Dinamarca

ENVIROCARE, Tanzânia

FOREST PEOPLES PROGRAMME

FRIENDS OF PEOPLES CLOSE TO NATURE

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Áustria

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Canadá

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Chipre

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Flandres e Bruxelas

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, França

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Mauritius

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Serra Leoa

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, EUA

FUNDACIÓN PARA ADHESIÓN CON LOS PUEBLOS AMAZÓNICOS

FUNDACIÓN PROTEGER, Argentina

GEGENSTRÖMUNG – COUNTERCURRENT, Alemanha

GLOBAL EXCHANGE, EUA

GLOBAL FOREST COALITION

GLOBAL JUSTICE ECOLOGY PROJECT, EUA

GLOBAL 2000 – FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Áustria

GRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL

GREEN ACTION FOE, Croácia

GREENPEACE

GRUPPO AMBIENTE, Bolzano, Itália

HMONG ASSOCIATION, Tailândia

HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT AT THE URBAN JUSTICE CENTER

IBIZA ECOLOGIC

ILO, Support for Indigenous Peoples, Cambodja

INDIAN CONFEDERATION OF INDIGENOUS AND TRIBAL PEOPLES NORTH EAST

ZONE, Índia

INDIAN YOUTH CLIMATE NETWORK, Índia

INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK, EUA

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES COUNCIL ON BIOCOLONIALISM

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CULTURAL SUPPORT TRUST

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS ACTIVE MEMBER, Cambodja

INDI-GENEVE, Switzerland

INDONESIA FISHERFOLK UNION/Serikat Nelayan, Indonésia (SNI)

INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL ECOLOGY, EUA

INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT, EUA

INTERNATIONAL RIVERS, EUA

IPUGAO TRIBAL GROUP, Filipinas

JUSTICE, PEACE AND INTEGRATION IN CREATION

KAHAB ABORIGINAL ASSOCIATION OF NANFOU

KALUMARAN – ALLIANCA OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ORGANIZATIONS MNDANAU, Filipinas

KIRAT YAKTHUNG MANGENNA CHUMLUNG, Nepal

KLIMA-BÜNDNIS, Alemanha

KOALISYON NG KATUTUKO, Filipinas

KoBra

LAND IS LIFE

LISIANG DONGBA CULTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, China

MAGAR STUDIES CENTER, Nepal

MENSCHENRECHTE 3000 e.V. (Human Rights 3000)

MINA SUSANA SETRA, Indonésia

MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION, Vietnã

NAGA PEOPLES MOVEMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, Filipinas

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS, Uganda

NETHERLANDS CENTRE FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

NETWORK OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THAILAND

NOAH FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Dinamarca

NURHIDAYAT MOENIR, Indonésia

ODISHA ADIVASI MANCH, Índia

OILWATCH, Costa Rica

OILWATCH, Mesoamérica

O’odham VOICE Against the WALL

PACIFIC ENVIRONMENT, EUA

PACIFIC INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ENVIRONMENTAL COALITION

PAGGAMISAN TAKO AM, Filipinas

PAKISTAN FISHERFOLK FORUM, Paquistão

PEACE ACTION MAINE, EUA

PENGON-FOE, Palestina

PERUVIAN IN ACTION-NY

PUMC-UNAM, México

QIVI NETWORK GREENLAND

RADIO DIGNIDAD

RADIO URGENTE

RAINFOREST FOUNDATION, EUA

RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK, EUA

RETTET DEN REGENWALD e.V, Alemanha

SOBREVIVENCIA FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, Paraguai

SOCIETY FOR THREATENED PEOPLES INTERNATIONAL

SOS-REGENWALD, Áustria

TARA-Ping Pu

TERRA NOSSA FOUNDATION

THE CORNER HOUSE, Reino Unido

THE ENVIRO SHOW WXOJ-LP & WMCB

THE WITTENBERG CENTER FOR ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES

TIBET THIRD POLE

TIMOR-LESTE INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT MONITORING AND ANALYSIS-La’o

Hamutu

TRAPESE POPULAR EDUCATION COLLECTIVE

TRIBAL PROFESSIONAL AND STUDENT SOLIDARITY, Filipinas

UMPHILO WAMANZI, A WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL CSO IN SOUTH ÁFRICA

UNITED WORLD OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES