Another Video, YouTube too

A further short has been added to Vimeo, and is embedded below:

This is about the proposed Belo Monte dam, which the Brazilian government is driving through the licensing process with reckless haste.

The Belo Monte dam would be the third largest in the world. As much earth moving would be required to build it as was needed to build the Panama Canal.

Yet the Brazilian government has been trying to railroad the scheme through on a very tight timescale, riding roughshod over the tatters of Brazilian environmental legislation and ignoring the requirements of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Brazil voted to endorse less than a year ago.

A development of this size, with the potential to reverse much of the progress Brazil has made in the last few years in reducing the rate of deforestation, should be fully discussed, with all its ramifications explored in detail to reach a balanced and reasoned decision about its environmental, social and financial viability before deciding if it should be built or if it should be abandoned forever.

This video includes footage from the demonstration and attempts to highlight the problems the scheme will bring to this so-far well preserved area of the Amazon.

For anyone who has problems viewing the Vimeo embeds, the two videos are available on YouTube here:

Belo Monte

Heart of Brazil

And Finally, the Heart of Brazil Video

It has taken a long time to get together the resources to edit and produce a video based on the footage we shot during the Heart of Brazil Expedition.

The full length cut is nearing completion and should run to about 35 minutes. The video below is a 4-minute trailer. If you would like to purchase a copy of the full video on DVD, check back in a week or two.

Our thanks go to Andy Fairgrieve for his unstinting efforts and the many, many hours he has put in to directing and editing the video.

We would like to thank Sydney Possuelo, the renowned Brazilian sertanist and expert on ‘uncontacted’ tribes, for the interview. We are also grateful to Gerard and Margi Moss for giving their permission for the inclusion of the Flying Rivers animation – see their site www.riosvoadores.com.br .

This version of the short video is uploaded at high quality and may therefore take some time to download, especially on slower internet connections. A lower quality version will shortly be available on YouTube – watch this space!

Heart of Brazil in Kingston upon Thames

The Heart of Brazil Exhibition is back in the UK. From the 16th October to the 21st November 2009, it will be on show at the Penny School Gallery, Kingston upon Thames. The exhibition will be open Tuesday to Saturday 11.00am to 4.00pm.

If you can’t make these times phone Rosemary Williams on 020 8939 4603 or click here to email Penny School Gallery
Click here for a pdf with more information

Click here for an A4 Poster about Tribes Alive in pdf format.

Click here for an A3 Poster about the exhibtion in pdf format.

During the exhibition Sue will be at the gallery to discuss her work and the work of Tribes Alive/IPCST on 22nd October, 2nd November and 19th November between 7.00 and 8.30pm.

Composer, performer and IPCST founder Emily Burridge will be performing ‘Into The Amazon’ live on 21st October and 11th November at 7.00pm, and there will be an opportunity for questions and answers at the end of the performance.

These events are free of charge, but we would appreciate a donation to IPCST’s Tribes Alive programme. To help with seating arrangements, please phone or email as above to let us know you will be attending any of the events.

Belo Monte Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

The Brazilian Environment Agency, IBAMA, now has the EIA for the Belo Monte dam project, and parts are beginning to leak out.

Wading through the mix of academic, governmental and industrial jargon, it is easy to lose sight of the real, actual and immediate impacts that this monstrous project will have on the environment and the people of the Xingu.

The sections I have seen so far cover the impact on the area known as the Volta Grande, and on the diversity and populations of fish species. They make depressing reading. Phrases like “The impact will be irreversible, of the highest significance and of a high magnitude. The duration will be permanent, it will affect the entire cycle, the impact will be immediate and will take effect in the short term. The nature of the impact will be negative” occur several times.

My thoughts go back to our time on the river. We navigated the bubbling, crystal waters of the Volta Grande when we visited the Yudja (Juruna) village of Paquissamba. The river was alive with rapids, and fish were plentiful in the healthy waters. Occasionally, local people, both Indians and settlers, would pass in their boats with a friendly wave.

All of this will come to an abrupt halt if this project goes forward. The rushing, clean water will be replaced by fetid, stagnant pools and lakes full of mosquito larvae and dying fish. The already difficult-to-navigate channels will dry up and become impassable. The rocky riverbed, stripped of its water, will attract the attention of illegal gold prospectors, adding to the environmental destruction.

People who rely on the fish for their daily food will be forced from the area into the fringes of Altamira, to swell the already crowded and insanitary shanty towns which line the urban waterways. Nobody knows what will happen to the Yudja, or to the Arara settlement on the opposite side of the river. The Xicrin of Bacaja will no longer be able to navigate the river from their villages to the town, making the already long and dangerous journey in search of medical help impossible. Having made the Indians reliant on outside help, the government now plans to cut them off from the outside world.

The most productive land, in the areas beside the rivers which are flooded by rich sediment-laden water each year, will disappear below the water, or be left permanently dry and starved of its annual input of natural fertiliser. The people who farm this land will lose their livelihoods and be forced to migrate.

In terms of biodiversity, the impact could not be greater. The Volta Grande attracts adventurous fishermen from all over the world to pursue the rare game fish to be found there. These, some of them endemic, will be dramatically affected; many are likely to die out completely under the environmental stress of such a sudden and profound change in the local ecology.

My loss will be the chance to visit again a place of wild and unfettered beauty, to battle the rapids and to explore the myriad channels, backwaters and islands. But the loss to the local people and to mankind will be greater, the loss of species and the loss of a vibrant ecosystem, which is one of the few areas of the world where Man has had only a marginal impact.

Millions of tons of concrete will change this place forever. We need to fight this environmental crime with all of the weapons available to us.

The Heart of Brazil Exhibition in Brasilia

The Heart of Brazil Exhibition opened today at the Memorial of Indigenous People (Memorial dos Povos Indígenas), Praça do Buriti, Brasilia.

For the first time, the images from the Heart of Brazil Expedition will be seen in public in Brazil.

“It is vitally important for me that these images can be seen by the people of Brazil,” said Sue Cunningham, speaking at the official opening yesterday evening.

“I did not mount the exhibition so that people could just look at lovely pictures. I want people to really think about what they are looking at; examples of the strong and vibrant indigenous cultures of the original Brazilians, but cultures and people who are under ever-increasing threats from the alien society which surrounds them.”

The venue is important too. Designed to celebrate the indigenous people of Brazil by Oscar Niemeyer, and based on inspiration from the great Yanomami mallocas, the indigenous people were denied the use of the building for 17 years until 1999. Last year, Marcos Terena became its first indigenous co-ordinator, and the building is at last coming to life as a centre of indigenous culture.

On the Brazilian Day of the Indian, 19th April, a new technology centre was officially opened. Equipped with computers donated by the United Nations, it will bring young Indians into the centre to learn information technology skills.

The exhibition will continue until the 17th July.

Sue and Patrick Cunningham, on behalf of IPCST, would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to HSBC, who have generously supported the staging of the exhibition, and to the British Embassy and Ambassador Peter Collecott for their support and encouragement. We also thank Marcos Terena and the many individuals, organisations and companies who have encouraged and supported us to make this exhibition a reality.

We constantly remember the great warmth and openness with which we were received by the 48 indigenous communities we visited during the expedition; they are the stars of the show, and this exhibition is for and about them. We hope that, in its small way, it will help them to support and maintain the rivers and forests of the Xingu basin, for the well-being of Brazil and for the good of the planet.

Hydroelectric Dams: The Indians Unite

In response to the Brazilian government’s stated objective of issuing a license for the construction of the Belo Monte dam in 2009, the Indians of the Xingu have united once again to confront the threat to their lives.

They are planning a large gathering of the tribes, to run from the 19th to the 23rd May. Over a thousand Indians will join with as many local people in the frontier town of Altamira to press the government to refuse permission for the construction of the dam. They will also use the opportunity to voice their objections to other smaller but no less controversial proposals to build hydroelectric plants on the headwaters and tributaries.

The Indians will run the gauntlet of gunmen hired by local landowners who stand to see the value of their land shoot up as the area becomes commercialised.

But they will not be prevented from staging a spectacular display of solidarity, resplendent in feathers and warpaint, as they argue their case.

In 1989, after a similar gathering, the government was forced to climb down when the World bank withdrew funding because of the environmental and social problems the dam will cause.

That was at the peak of interest in the environment. The 1989 gathering brought together Brazilian organisations, international charities, and celebrities, including Sting and the late (and much missed) Anita Roddick. Under the watchful gaze of the international media, the gunmen held back.

There were supporters from many other countries. It was a turning point for Brazil, which was emerging from decades of military rule. New Brazilian organisations were forming, and Brazilians were beginning to stand up to the powerful establishment and its nefarious outer fringes, which inhabited the lawless Amazon.

Today, there are many Brazilians active in the fight to prevent the destruction of the Amazon forest. The Indians have organisations of their own, and are better prepared to take on the government. Now they can speak the government’s language, and they understand more of how the Brazilian world which encompasses theirs operates.

But it will not be an easy battle. Finance for the dam will come from Brazilian banks, raised on the back of the Government’s Programme of Accelerated Growth. This means that the international money which will be used is one removed from the project, and the ultimate providers of the funding may not know (or care) that their money is being used for a project which has already been condemned as an environmental, social and human disaster.

For more information see our Press Release about the protest meeting.

© Patrick Cunningham

Hydroelectricity in the Heart of Brazil

Hydroelectricity has been promoted as a ‘clean’ energy source, capable of providing huge amounts of electricity without adding to global warming. Brazil already obtains 80 percent of its electricity from this source.

But the reality is that large dams cause immense disruption to the local environment and produce huge amounts of powerful greenhouse gases. These include methane, which is 21 times more powerful in terms of global warming than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide, which is 310 times more potent.

Dams in tropical areas are especially polluting. In the early years, they produce many times more global warming than the equivalent amount of electricity obtained from burning fossil fuels. Even decades after they were constructed, dams in the Amazon continue to generate more global warming than equivalent natural gas power stations.

Dams begin to contribute to global warming before the ground is broken. Manufacture of steel and cement, the core materials used to build the dams, are both significant sources of greenhouse gases.

Once the dam begins to fill with water, greenhouse gas production reaches astronomical proportions because of the decaying vegetation from the trees and plants which are drowned as the water rises. These produce a surge of global warming in the early years, which reduces over time as the drowned organic matter decays, eventually reaching a more or less stable state.

But this stable state still produces high levels of greenhouse gases. Even taking into account natural processes of decay which occur in undisturbed tropical forests, these levels are high. They are several times higher than in a similar-sized natural lake. And they continue for the life of the dam.

Were the dam eventually to be decommissioned and drained, there would be yet another pulse of greenhouse gases, as organic matter trapped in sediment is exposed to oxygen and is attacked by
bacteria and other organic processes, releasing yet another raft of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

On a local level, dams interfere with the life cycles of tropical plants, insects, fish and land animals, destroying the ecological balance of the river basin. Fish can no longer reach their spawning grounds, mammal migration routes are blocked, the annual inundation of riverside land (which brings with it nutrients to feed crops and natural plants growing beside the river) is stopped, and insect populations are affected unpredictably. Aquatic life is damaged by changes in the chemistry of the water trapped in the reservoir, causing many fish species to decline dramatically. The dams create ideal conditions for malaria mosquitoes, and malaria becomes endemic in the areas surrounding dams.

This is but one of the social repercussions. People already living in the area will be displaced; the worst affected will, as ever, be the poorest. Few of the self-sufficient settlers who live along the banks of the Xingu have proper legal title to the land they occupy – and may have occupied for generations.

The experience of people in a similar situation who were affected by construction of the Tucurui dam, only 250 km to the southeast, is not encouraging; over twenty years after the dam was completed many people have not seen any compensation, and are forced to live a marginal existence in shanty towns.

Large construction projects inevitably attract thousands of migrant workers. They bring with them increased deforestation, increased demands on already inadequate local infrastructure, and increased social stress between the immigrant population and the people already living in the area. The problems worsen on completion of the construction, which leaves the new population largely unemployed. Neither the companies involved in the construction and operation of the dam nor the government are prepared to take responsibility for these problems.

Belo Monte, the latest scheme for the Xingu being promoted by the Brazilian government-owned electricity company Eletrobrás , promises to bring all of these problems to the Xingu, with very little benefit.

Further hydroelectric dams are proposed for all of the tributaries of the Xingu. These so-called ‘Small Hydroelectric Plants’ will have a far from small impact on the river and its people, affecting water quality and flow throughout the Xingu basin. The entire ecology of the river will be damaged, disrupting food sources and transportation.

For the indigenous people the dams will destroy their lifestlyes and their very cultures. We must support them in their fight to prevent this unwanted and unjustifiable destruction.

Further reading:

Philip Fearnside on Greenhouse Gas emmissions

International Rivers: Fizzy Science

© Patrick Cunningham

Fund-Raising Event: 18th October 2007

Next Thursday evening, the last day of the Heart of Brazil exhibition which is currently running at Gallery 32, 32 Green Street, London W1, we will be holding a joint fund-raising event with Rainforest Concern in the gallery. There will be caipirinhas, and you will have the opportunity to meet Sue and Patrick Cunningham.

The event will include an auction of some of the photographs featured in the exhibition.

We are suggesting a donation of £20 at the door, which will be split between Indigenous People’s Cultural Support Trust and Rainforest Concern.

This will be a fun event with a lively crowd of people, and everyone is welcome.

The Heart of Brazil in The Independent

Today’s Independent newspaper, published nationally in the UK, features a double page spread on the expedition. The online version can be seen at: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3047638.ece but it has no photos.

Altamira to Porto De Moz; Hydroelectric Potential 27th July 2007

Click here: www.ipcst.org/LastLeg to go to a slideshow of images relevant to this post. To return, simply close the slideshow window. The slideshow may take some time to load, especially if you have a slow internet connection.

Altamira is one of the ten members of the Belo Monte Consortium, a group of municipalities supporting the construction of a huge hydroelectric dam close to Altamira by the national electricity generating company Eletronorte. At first glance, the dam seems to be a well-founded project which will bring benefits to the region, and to Brazil as a whole, while causing disruption only to a small number of people.

The project is part of the Brazilian government’s “Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento” (Accelerated Growth Programme), but has already run into a quagmire of legal challenges which threaten to derail the government’s stated target of completing the licensing procedure by the middle of 2008.

Core to the legal challenges is the mechanism for consulting the Indian communities which would be affected. According to a ruling of the Regional Federal Court (Tribunal Regional Federal), this is the direct responsibility of Congress, and cannot be carried out by IBAMA, the government environment agency which has already begun the process of defining the terms of the consultation, without an act of congress.

During the last part of the Heart of Brazil Expedition, all of the Indian villages and riverside communities (ribeirinhos) we visited, from before São Félix do Xingu to beyond Altamira, voiced strong opposition to the dam. They told us that they are planning a large protest meeting.

There are many questions hanging over the dam. Who exactly will benefit from the huge generating capacity which is proposed? There is no shortage of electricity in the region, and recent progress in solar panel technology promises to provide even rural properties with abundant power.

The nearby Tucurui dam generates abundant power during most of the year, and its capacity has recently been practically doubled by the completion of a second phase. But the main beneficiaries of Tucurui have been the private mining and metal corporations, which have negotiated very beneficial contracts which amount to the supply of subsidised electricity for their commercial activities.

The Tucurui site was recently occupied by people who were displaced by the construction of the dam over twenty years ago, who are still today fighting for adequate compensation.

Since the Xingu dries up substantially during the months from July to October each year, many question the technical viability of the project. A recently published book, titled Tenotã–mõ (which in the Arawete language means “What Has Started” (o que segue à frente, o que começa) explains that a second dam will be required to justify the existence of the first by keeping it supplied with water during the dry months, thereby allowing it to operate throughout the year. Eletronorte have not been straightforward in disclosing this. The second dam would flood fifteen times more land than the first, and affect many more of the indigenous and riverside (ribeirinho) people.

Questions remain about the amount of electricity which would be generated. Tucurui often operates at less than a third of its stated capacity. During the dry season, the dam may be unable to generate any electricity at all. Surely it would be more sensible to improve the operation of the existing generating capacity, rather than drowning so many more square kilometres of forest?

Even the environmental claims for this non-fossil fuel means of producing electricity are under question. The greenhouse gases produced by rotting vegetation will more than negate any benefits derived from not using fossil fuels to generate the same amount of electricity for at least the first 39 years!

For the Indians, the effect of the two dams would be disastrous. Their entire lives would be disrupted, and they would have no alternative but to join the ‘money society’ to acquire everyday essentials including food, debasing and undermining the very core of their culture in the process, and making them dependent on outside assistance to maintain their lives.

Fishing in an open body of water is much more difficult than in a confined channel, and as fish is the main source of protein for the Indians, they would be unable to supply their basic dietary needs. They already have difficulty when the river is in full flood, and this would be drastically worsened by the dams.

The dams would transform the ecology of thousands of square kilometres of rain forest in unpredictable ways, changing the balance of species and even affecting the climate. The proponents of the dam use the uncertainty to mask the likely negative impacts. Even an independent social and environmental study is unlikely to identify all of the problems. Within the government’s stated time-scale, it is simply impossible to carry out an assessment which will do more than look at the most superficial effects of the proposal.

It is not clear from the very restricted amount of information available on the Eletronorte website whether the effects of climate change and the reduction in the flow of the river which will result from the proposed construction of six hydroelectric schemes on the headwaters of the Xingu river have been taken into account in the technical studies on which the proposal is based. All along the river, everybody, from Indians to fazendeiros, from caboclos to businesspeople in the towns, has been telling us about changes in the local climate.

There is now no room for doubt that the climate is changing, and changing very quickly. The local people report decreased rainfall during the months from October to December, and much hotter weather the whole year through. They report river levels much lower than before during the dry season, with the very low water levels which make river travel difficult arriving several weeks earlier.

It is possible that the Brazilian government may decide to override the rights of people living on the margins of the river and implement this proposal, claiming that it will benefit the people of Brazil as a whole. It seems that this claim is spurious, and that the only beneficiaries will be a small handful of powerful Brazilian and international corporations.

We passed the site of the first proposed dam on our way to Paquissamba. The village lies below the site, and the river at that point will be completely cut off, leaving the village high and dry, unable to fish and unable to use the river for transport.

Further downriver from the site of the dam we rejoined the river, having returned to Altamira to take the Coração do Brasil by road to Vitoria do Xingu for the last leg of the expedition.

The river here has the proportions of a lake. From Vitoria to Porto de Moz is a distance of 120 kilometres, and the river is over 10 kilometres wide for most of the distance. We encountered almost maritime conditions, our small boat repeatedly banging down on the waves, jarring our bones and blurring our vision.

This last journey in the Coração do Brasil was otherwise uneventful, so Sue and I had plenty of time to reflect on our experiences over the last four months. We have learned a huge amount during our travels, re-meeting old friends in some villages and making new ones in others.

As we sped towards Porto de Moz, our final destination, we thought about the strength and vibrance of the indigenous cultures we had seen, and we reflected on the progress many ethnic groups have made towards self-determination.

We shed some tears for the villages where things are so much worse than they were, and we thought of the threats to the river and its people which are so powerful today, from the soya farms and hydroelectric schemes on the headwaters to the huge Belo Monte dam proposed so close to the mouth of the river.

We thought about what must be done to protect this river we have come to know so intimately, with its breathtaking vistas, its boiling rapids, its majestic curves, its vibrant forests and its remarkable people.

We realised that our journey, far from being over, is only just beginning.

Please consider making a donation to IPCST to support our work with the indigenous people of the Xingu. Click here.

LINKS:
Eletronorte: www.eln.gov.br
Eletronorte’s Belo Monte website: http://www.belomonte.gov.br/
International Rivers: http://www.internationalrivers.org/
Summary of Tenotã–mõ:
http://internationalrivers.org/en/latin-america/amazon-basin/xingu-river/tenot-m-executive-summary
– The full text of the book is available to download (in Portuguese) on this page (in six pdf files):
capa parte I parte II parte III parte IV parte V

Maps: vale do rio Xingu e barragens projetadas

© Patrick Cunningham