BANKS DODGY DEALS CAMPAIGNS
Sections
Banks Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate
Banks and Human Rights
Banks and Nature
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA
Banks and Russia
Banks and Steel
Tracking the Equator Principles
Tracking the PRBs
Find a Better Bank
Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Raiffeisen Out! Bank.Green End Coal Finance Plastic Banks Tracker Defund TotalEnergies Financial Exclusions Tracker Equator-Complaints.Org Don't Buy into Occupation Banks & Biodiversity Forests & Finance Drop JBS StopEACOP Fossil-Free Finance
BankTrack
About BankTrack Organisation Our team Our board Our annual reports Funding and finances Guiding principles Our history BankTrack in the media Team up with us Our privacy policy Donate Visit us
Successes Contact BankTrack
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Linkedin Login
Home › Partner news ›
Partner News

Environmentalists Blast Construction License for Amazon Dam

2008-08-14 | Sao Paulo
By: Amigos da Terra Amazonia Brasileira
Contact:

Glenn Switkes, Latin America Program Director, International Rivers
+1 510 848 1155, glenn@internationalrivers.org

Gustavo Pimentel, Eco-Finances Manager, Friends of the Earth, Brazilian Amazon
(Office) +55 11 3887 9369; (cell) + 55 11 8622 4682, ef@amazonia.org.br

Iremar Ferreira, Executive Director, Living Madeira Institute
+55 69 3227 7884; +55 69 3224 5926, iremafe@yahoo.com.br

Indigenous people in event to public discuss the project.
2008-08-14 | Sao Paulo
By: Amigos da Terra Amazonia Brasileira
Contact:

Glenn Switkes, Latin America Program Director, International Rivers
+1 510 848 1155, glenn@internationalrivers.org

Gustavo Pimentel, Eco-Finances Manager, Friends of the Earth, Brazilian Amazon
(Office) +55 11 3887 9369; (cell) + 55 11 8622 4682, ef@amazonia.org.br

Iremar Ferreira, Executive Director, Living Madeira Institute
+55 69 3227 7884; +55 69 3224 5926, iremafe@yahoo.com.br

Environmental organizations have condemned the Brazilian government´s approval of a license for construction of Santo Antonio Dam, on the Madeira River in the Brazilian Amazon. The groups say that Brazil´s environmental protection service, Ibama, has caved in to political interests, ignoring the advice of its own technical staff in licensing the dam, and approving a mitigation plan which will do little to decrease its impacts.

Santo Antonio Dam would be the first of two dams to be built on the Madeira, the Amazon´s principal tributary. Environmental impact assessments predict serious impacts on the region´s biodiversity, and on river bank communities, including indigenous tribes living close to the reservoir area.

Glenn Switkes, of International Rivers, says "Environment Minister Carlos Minc´s decision to license the dam demonstrates his mandate is to accelerate the building of large-scale, high-impact projects in the heart of Amazonia. The fact that construction will be permitted without a definitive solution in place for fish passage threatens the livelihoods of thousands of river bank dwellers who depend on high-value fish species for their income".

Ibama required the consortium building the dam to submit an impact mitigation plan to demonstrate how they would comply with 33 conditions that the agency placed on the project. But independent analyses show that the mitigation plans include vague promises that are restricted to monitoring and further studies, rather than concrete measures to reduce the project's impacts. Decisions regarding the project´s social and environmental viability, which should have been analyzed during the preliminary licensing phase, in July 2007, have been in effect deferred until later, when it will be too late to avoid the project´s most serious effects.

Despite the fact that the construction license was issued only today, communities living close to the planned worksite have already been pressured to leave their homes, and accept inadequate compensation terms.

Iremar Ferreira, Executive Director of the Living Madeira Institute in Porto Velho says "This is a serious violation of the human rights of the displaced people. The only assistance they are being given is a small payment for their land. As a result, they will have to find a way to survive on abandoned cattle ranches, miles from the banks of the Madeira where their families have lived for generations.

Friends of the Earth, Brazilian Amazon says the granting of the construction license under these conditions will mean additional challenges to the project in the courts, and predicts further project delays, meaning added risks for investors and financiers of the project.

Gustavo Pimentel of Friends of the Earth says "The project violates the Equator Principles (on project finance), and therefore should not be financed by banks such as Bradesco, Banco do Brasil, Itaú, and Unibanco that have committed to the principles. Brazilian banks have an opportunity to prove that they are truly committed to sustainability by refusing to finance the destruction of the Amazon".

-30-

Banks

Banco Bradesco

Brazil
Active

Banco do Brasil

Brazil
Active

Itaú-Unibanco

Brazil
Active
Dodgy Deals
There are no active project profiles for this item now.

Rio Madeira dams: Jirau and Santo Antonio

Brazil
Project
On record
Hydroelectric Power Generation

Rio Madeira dams: Jirau and Santo Antonio

Brazil
Sections
Banks Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate Banks and Human Rights Banks and Nature
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA Banks and Russia Banks and Steel Tracking the Equator Principles Tracking the PRBs Find a Better Bank Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Raiffeisen Out! Bank.Green End Coal Finance Plastic Banks Tracker Defund TotalEnergies Financial Exclusions Tracker Equator-Complaints.Org Don't Buy into Occupation Banks & Biodiversity Forests & Finance Drop JBS StopEACOP Fossil-Free Finance
BankTrack
About BankTrack Organisation Our team Our board Our annual reports Funding and finances Guiding principles Our history BankTrack in the media Team up with us Our privacy policy Donate Visit us
Successes Contact BankTrack
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Contact@banktrack.org
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Linkedin
©2023 BankTrack
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted