Brazil’s huge hunger for energy led the Brazilian government to approve the construction of the third largest dam in the world – right in the middle of the Amazon region. However, the Belo Monte dam, planned as a flagship project to showcase Brazil’s development, is increasingly becoming a problem: Tens of thousands of indigenous peoples will have to be relocated. Environmental organizations are up in arms against the project and now there has been a flurry of court cases. In late September a court halted construction, citing the threat to four unique ornamental fish species. In October, a court ruled the dam project was unconstitutional because local indigenous groups were not consulted. This was a victory for activists like Erwin Kräutler, a bishop of Austrian origin, who was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize for his work against the Belo Monte dam in 2010.

The Brazilian project is representative of the growing conflict on the South American subcontinent between economic development and resource use on the one hand, and the protection of indigenous peoples and biodiversity on the other. Recently a large dam project in Chile was similarly stopped. A road construction project backed by Bolivian President Evo Morales that was to cut through a rainforest region was met with repeated protests from the local indigenous population in recent months. In Peru a law now ensures the participation of local indigenous communities in decision-making processes related to mining, deforestation or oil and gas exploration projects that may affect their livelihoods. This could be an important step toward achieving greater acceptance for such projects, thereby playing a role in conflict prevention.

In the case of the Belo Monte dam, the problem lies primarily in how constitutional rights are implemented or not, specifically as they pertain to participatory decision-making mechanisms. A paper by the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) asserts that rule of law is deficient in Brazil, particularly in the Amazon region, and that this hinders civil society participation. The court rulings against the project consequently offer the country an opportunity for a more equitable reconciliation of stakeholder interests. Rather than focusing on Brazil’s technological maturity, the international community will be watching to see how the country is able to meet its responsibility of balancing human rights and nature conservation with economic development. That would be the country’s true flagship project. (Stephan Wolters)

For further information on recent developments, please see here.

The GIGA paper “Der Belo Monte Staudamm: Paradebeispiel für eine erfolgreiche Zivilgesellschaft in Brasilien?” (“The Belo Monte Dam: Prime Example of Successful Civil Society in Brazil?”) is available here.

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, 5/2011