President Dilma Rousseff has announced plans for the construction of five new dams along the Tapajós River in the Amazon state of Pará. The sites are near to the cities of São Luiz do Tapajós, Jatobá, Jamanxim, Cachoeira do Caí and Cachoeira dos Patos. Controversially, the Government will reduce the area of three Amazonian national parks and four other conservation zones in Pará to allow for construction work.
Energy and Mining Minister Edison Lobão has stressed that new approaches and technology will minimise the environmental impact of the Tapajós dams. Most notably, these plans include flying in equipment and construction crews by helicopter to avoid building roads through the forest. Dam crews will also be housed in oil rig-like structures on the water once the projects are complete. Despite such mitigating measures and pledges to re-forest areas affected by construction, the environmental impact is still likely to be significant.
Dams remain a potent symbol for environmentalist, indigenous and landless worker groups so the projects could become targets for activists. Symbolic (but temporary) hostage-takings and sit-ins by indigenous groups are also possible, as we have seen recently. Companies involved in dam projects may therefore face both reputational and physical risk.
Celebrity involvement could increase media attention on the Tapajós project and its likely impact on local communities, including on residents displaced by flood zones and indigenous communities reliant on fishing. In the past there have been demonstrations outside Brazil at the offices of financial institutions funding such projects, highlighting the potential reputational risk for investors.
President Rousseff pledged to protect the environment ahead of the last Presidential elections but energy demand in Brazil is set to soar by an estimated 56% in the next decade. Consequently, the Government regards hydroelectric power as a key driver of economic growth. Thus, even legal cases designed to stop or slow construction of new dams are unlikely to succeed for long - judges overseeing similar cases have temporarily suspended work only to overturn their decision quickly. Nonetheless, the Tapajós decision will further tarnish Brazil’s reputation for environmental protection, coming so soon after the Senate’s approval last December of the controversial Forest Code that will allow for greater deforestation of the Amazon.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports emerged this period that illegal loggers in the north-eastern state of Maranhão used their vehicles last October to destroy a remote indigenous community 440 km south-west of the state capital São Luís, then tying up and burning alive a young child. An investigation has determined that illegal logging took place and that the indigenous camp was destroyed but the local witness who first reported the homicide has since retracted his claims (though officials suspect this may have been the result of intimidation).
In Rio de Janeiro, meanwhile, several dozen members of indigenous tribes are squatting in an old building next to the 83,000-seat Maracanã football stadium, currently undergoing renovation work ahead of the 2014 World Cup. Development plans call for the site to become either a shopping centre or a sports annex. The occupied building once housed the Museum of the Indian and tribesmen want to turn the facility into Rio’s first indigenous academic institution. The stand-off has so far not affected work on the stadium. However, as the World Cup draws nearer, environmental policy, deforestation, illegal logging and attacks on indigenous people, as well as the construction of new dams, could prompt indigenous activists to turn violent.
