s night falls on the Areia Homestead Project, forty kilometers from the town of Trairão, in the western portion of Pará state, the silence is cut short by the roar…
t least eight mammals not yet cataloged by science were discovered during the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Brazil’s Sao Luiz do Tapajós hydropower plant, proposed for the western part…
magine a fish isolated in an Amazonian lake — part of the vast freshwater ecosystem of the Amazon basin, an ever-changing network of rivers, lakes and floodplains that extends to…
Commission in the Brazilian Senate — cloaked by the political turmoil in Brasilia — has quietly approved a constitutional amendment that would shred the environmental safeguards currently required for public…
atin America’s largest electrical company operates 45 hydroelectric dams, and is responsible for 34 percent of Brazil’s generating capacity. The company, Eletrobras, makes laudable claims about its corporate values, including…
The São Luiz do Tapajós mega-dam, whose construction would lead to “social and environmental disaster” according to a Greenpeace report published last week, received a significant setback on Wednesday when…
s we moved up the Iriri River, the water level rose at a gathering pace. We landed at a welcoming house one evening, scrubbed our clothes on a washing board…
razil’s BNDES (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social) is the largest development bank in the Americas. The largely taxpayer-funded bank has played a key role in Brazil’s economic development…
e left the indigenous village of Tukaya early in the morning, and later that day reached our final destination: the ESEC-TM (Terra do Meio Ecological Station), which we’d come to…
In this the fifth of sixth articles, Sue Branford delves into the history, and likely future of IIRSA and its relationship to BNDES. ore than 400 hydroelectric dams are already…
aking our way up the Iriri River, we encountered another voadeira (motorized canoe). Sitting motionless along the river bank, it was packed full of indigenous Xipaya Indians — men, women…
The province of Morona Santiago is located in the middle of Ecuador's Amazon region, and is home to the Shuar and Achuar indigenous peoples. Its most famous landmark, Sangay National Park, was…
In this, the fourth of six articles, Sue Branford traces the troubled history of the Belo Monte dam. hree years ago I travelled by bus through the vast Belo Monte…
aribel is a small, pleasant river port, situated in the Indigenous Territory of Cachoeira Seca on the opposite side of the Iriri River from the Terra do Meio Ecological Station…
In this, the third of six articles, Sue Branford traces the rise of the Four Sisters, and notes how BNDES loans helped empower the influential firms. he “Four Sisters”, as…
efore leaving Altamira, I spent an afternoon with Raquel Rodrigues Santos, one of two botanists going on the trip into the remote heart of the Amazon basin. We bought massive…
In this, the second of six articles, Sue Branford explores the history of BNDES and examines some of the criticisms that have been levelled at the lender. razil’s BNDES (Banco…
Adélia Marinho de Souza’s cottage garden is a hidden treasure. You leave behind the rough pavement, rank-smells, and sewage-contaminated streets of the city of Altamira in the state of Pará…
hinese construction companies are trying to gain a larger foothold on infrastructure projects — especially hydroelectric dams — in the Amazon, a region and sector in which large Brazilian construction…
Tomorrow, Brazil's Senate could be voting on a new measure which would speed up the process required to obtain environmental licenses for infrastructure projects. Dubbed as PLS 654/2015, the bill is…
earing a red-feathered headdress, torso painted in black swirls, with microphone in hand, chief Juarez Saw made a bold declaration: “The [Brazilian] government is coming here to get rid of…
Pedro López Macusi recalls the day in 2013 when a boatload of government officials moored at his village on the Urituyacu River, a remote waterway in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon,…
he Amazon’s freshwater ecosystems are at risk because current policy and existing protected areas fail to protect the connectivity of the water cycle, scientists warn. The new study, published in…
esearchers examining changes in forest cover encircling the Amazon’s oldest mega-dam have found that hundreds of square kilometers of forest have been lost each year of the dam’s 25-year history.…
Executive editor's note (15-Jan-2016): Prior to publication, BNDES was not offered an opportunity to respond to allegations reported in this story. This was a serious oversight on our part and…
hen the Balbina Dam was completed in 1987, it flooded primary forest in the state of Amazonas along Brazil’s Uatumã River, forming a massive reservoir speckled by 3,546 flood-induced islands. In…
by 23 December 2015
razil’s Public Federal Ministry (Ministério Público Federal, MPF), an independent state body, has started legal proceedings to have it recognised that the crime of “ethnocide” was committed on seven indigenous…
dam-building boom is underway in the Amazon. More than 400 hydroelectric dams are in operation, being built, or planned for the river’s headwaters and basin. Scientists know that tropical dams…
evere droughts that turn hydroelectric power stations in the Amazon into white elephants. Epidemics of dengue fever, malaria and leptospirosis. Heavy crop losses. These are some of the possible scenarios…
overnment disarray often offers opportunities for lobby groups, and Brazil is no exception. With President Dilma Rousseff fighting for her political survival, as opposition politicians threaten to impeach her, the…