O endereço abaixo não existe na globo.com Original article, click here Mato Grosso State Secretariat for the Environment State (SEMA-MT) denies and archives the environmental licensing process for the hydroelectric plant planned for the Arinos River located in the northwest region of Mato Grosso Dafne Spolti, OPAN, dafne@amazonianativa.org.br (Portuguese and English) Bruna Pineiro, FORMAD, comunica.formad@gmail.com (Portuguese)  Isadora Soares, International Rivers, iarmani@internationalrivers.org  (Portuguese Brazil – After more than a decade of community mobilization and resistance the Brazilian State Department of Environment of Mato Grosso (SEMA) halted this week the environmental licensing process for the proposed Castanheira hydroelectric dam The decision was taken after the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU) and the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) called for the project’s suspension over its potential to negatively impact Indigenous communities SEMA cited the lack of adequate technical studies and failure to provide required information as a grounds for denying the dam project which the federal government had prioritized under its Investment Partnerships Program (PPI).  SEMA’s decision to deny the license came as the result of tireless work by civil society which questioned and took legal action against the project “This is a project that from the beginning was poorly prepared and a lack of information for communities,” said Liliane Xavier “It is a real achievement that our voice was heard and respected by the authorities,” she said though noting that this decision is long overdue “We were thrilled to hear the news,” said Dilma Maria Mani from the Apiaká-Kayabi Indigenous community She recounted the visit of the developers to her land and the role of women in rejecting the project “We told the developers that we don’t want the project who made this decision without fear,” she said Yet despite the community’s rejection of the dam The Castanheira dam was planned to be built in the state of Mato Grosso on the Arinos River a tributary of the Juruena in the Tapajos Basin The project would have flooded nearly 100 km2 directly affecting urban and rural residents farmers and businesses in the municipalities of Juara The Indigenous Component Study (ECI) carried out for the project highlighted risks and threats to Indigenous communities including the holding the traditional tracajás festival on Apiaká-Kayabi Indigenous Land (IL) the project would risk the loss of feather art the most was the loss of the raw material that only exists there in that river shells that we use in the traditional marriage rituals of our people,” emphasized Professor Juarez Paimy and Tapayuna peoples would also have been directly affected by the Castanheira dam The executive secretary of the Mato Grosso Socio-Environmental Popular Forum (Formad) highlighted the victory of grassroots social movements Oliveira applauded the efforts of civil society within Consema where they were alerted about projects under preparation such as Castanheira – reinforcing the importance of active civic engagement “The collective effort and spirit of civil society in contesting the project was essential,” he recalled “This was apparent in our final meeting with SEMA where we laid out the range of problems that would stem from licensing and possibly constructing the dam,” he further explained citing the study that was presented to SEMA’s technical team in May 2023 that pointed out flaws in the assessment of cumulative impacts of the project reflects that there are other less destructive energy generation options available “We don’t need to destroy nature and take people from their land where they live and make a living the people on the other side of the river.” She emphasized that the Castanheira dam not proceeding will also serve to discourage the development of further hydropower projects planned on the river from the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) commended SEMA for acting appropriately to deny the environmental license and noted this victory serves as a lesson for civil society on the importance of organizing “This shows that the struggle can really pay off and gives us encouragement to continue the fight.” However he cautioned that despite this important victory more work remains to remove Castanheira from the government’s Ten Year Energy Expansion Plan we will have the greater victory of canceling this plant once and for all,” Genir Piveta de Souza also said argued that environmental licensing processes and others with impacts on communities’ lives should be developed in a participatory manner and follow the law which truly cares about the lives of people who live and work in this region and conventions to which Brazil is a signatory,” she concluded The decision also has a broader importance in the basin and for Brazil as a whole Castanheira was to be among the first of more than 170 dams to be built in the Juruena basin so this represents an important step in protecting a vital biodiversity hotspot that boasts among the greatest diversity of fish species while preserving river connectivity The victory also comes at a time when the future of new hydropower development in Brazil has come under increased scrutiny “We should see this as a watershed moment to begin charting a new path for the Amazon,” says Flavio Montiel from International Rivers “The time of mega-dams belongs in the past and it’s past time to embrace sustainable energy options that can meet the needs of communities that respect Indigenous rights and do not harm our rivers and that are not deepening our overdependence on climate-vulnerable hydropower.” The success in preventing the Castanheira from proceeding has many lessons to take into the future “This is testament to the impact of community mobilizing to defend its rights and its rivers,” adds Montiel “It also demonstrates the need to adopt permanent protections for rivers throughout Brazil to prevent these types of flawed projects from being developed in the first place.” Photo credit: Arinos Rivers (Pablo Albarenga / OPAN) Sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest from International Rivers International Rivers protects rivers and defends the rights of communities that depend on them Subscribe to emails and follow International Rivers on social media to get the latest news and actions Nonprofit Website by Wired Impact “They are going to flood the Tapayuna people’s history,” says Yaku Suya a 43-year-old Indigenous leader from the village of Tyrykho in Xingu Indigenous Park in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon This is where most of Suya’s people were transferred to during the 1970s after experiencing poisonings and flu and measles epidemics when their original home along the banks of the Arinos River further west in Mato Grosso state became a target of prospectors seeking diamonds the Tapayuna were hosted by villages of other Indigenous groups who offered to protect them The situation led to a broad loss of Tapayuna culture as their language and traditions were absorbed into those of other ethnicities Brazil’s federal agency for Indigenous affairs this time from a different type of prospector: developers who plan to build the largest hydroelectric dam in the Juruena River Basin Proposed for construction near the mouth of the Arinos River the dam’s licensing process has raised concerns due to a number of social and environmental irregularities If the Castanheira hydropower project currently awaiting environmental licensing They could include damage to part of the territory claimed by the Tapayuna alteration of the course of the river itself and impacts that may represent an irreversible outcome to a story that includes several attempts at what researchers consider ethnocide: the systematic destruction of a people’s ways of life and thought the Tapayuna people have been waiting for a response from Funai which is responsible for analyzing their territorial claim Mongabay requested information about the process from the agency Funai stated that the undertaking wouldn’t result in flooding of the currently established Indigenous territories in the region but didn’t provide any details regarding claimed territories and Indigenous people living in voluntary isolation in the region nearby communities fear a series of impacts “[The dam] will flood the riverbank’s entire history,” Yaku Suya says “We won’t let this dam happen because we want the river to be free when we take back our land The daily operation of a hydropower plant changes the natural habitats that occur downstream of the dam Those responsible for managing the operation have control over the flow of water as they balance demand for electricity found a series of inconsistencies in the planning and licensing process the developers make no acknowledgement of the pending Tapayuna claim to the affected area OPAN also says the environmental studies for the project don’t take into account the accumulated impacts of hundreds of other hydropower dams of different sizes already planned for the region researchers warn the project could be economically unfeasible while also posing a threat to the physical and cultural well-being of local Indigenous peoples OPAN says all these questions should be analyzed by the Mato Grosso state environmental agency which is responsible for issuing the licenses for the project The proposed site for the plant is located 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the mouth of the Arinos and will blocking some 600 km (370 mi) of its main channel possibly threatening 97 species of migratory fish which is one of the last rivers to flow freely in this basin is neither reasonable nor feasible,” says Simone Athayde an associate professor at Florida International University and member of the study team Dineva Kayabi is 44 years old and lives in the Apiaká-Kayabi Indigenous Territory less than 20 km (12 mi) from the site where the Castanheira hydropower plant is planned for construction Munduruku and Kawaiwete/Kayabi peoples say they’re worried about the impacts the dam would have on their food and their rituals their traditional remedies and the natural resources they use for their rituals could all be affected “The water level in the river will drop a lot,” says Dineva, a native Kawaiwete and member of Rede Juruena Vivo (Living Juruena Network) a collective that’s active in the Juruena Basin Just beyond the Kawaiwete territory live the Rikbaktsa people Their traditional marriage rituals may also be compromised by the dam which could affect the tutãra (Paxyodon syrmatophorus) mollusk that the Rikbaktsa use to make the necklaces worn by the bride and groom during their weddings This mollusk is found only on the lower stretch of the Arinos Dineva says her community has already expressed its objections to construction of the dam but it’s not clear whether the authorities with take any action in response Construction of the Castanheira’s reservoir would also involve flooding an area the size of 9,500 soccer fields The flooding could affect the production of many agricultural communities like Pedreiras and Palmital where 52 small and medium-sized family farms produce milk and beef cattle on the right bank of the Arinos 62-year-old Genir Piveta de Souza says he’s been losing sleep over worries that the land on which he’s lived for more than 40 years may be flooded Souza built a life for his family here and never planned on having to sell his cattle and move on not knowing what’s going to happen,” he says There are concerns that the Castanheira project will set a precedent for the construction of more such projects planned for the region While hydroelectric power is considered renewable “The government says we have to protect nature Now here comes this dam that will destroy everything along the river Souza has worked together with his neighbors and researchers to try and show the authorities how much profit and how many jobs they generate for Juara the municipality where their community lies “It’s more than that plant will generate,” he says According to a study carried out with Mato Grosso State University the families living in the communities of Pedreiras and Palmital generate around 6.4 million reais ($1.3 million) a year; 98% of this amount stays in the municipality of Juara The dam is expected to generate only half of this amount “What we are doing is trying to do is shed light on the situation and see what the contradictions are in these environmental impact studies,” says Jefferson Nascimento which is fighting to have the Castanheira project removed from the national energy plan The OPAN study also shows the dam could generate a loss of 589 million reais ($119 million) in the form of negative impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions economic loss from the flooding of productive areas Even the argument that the dam will generate jobs hasn’t persuaded those likely to be impacted by its construction. Project developer EPE, an agency under the energy ministry, says the project will create 1,500 jobs at the peak of construction; after the plant goes on stream As there are no guarantees that these jobs will go to people who already live in Juara the local community fears the classic scenario that comes with large public works projects: more people coming in from outside the area “We won’t have the peace and tranquility that we have today,” says Souza It’s not clear just how high a priority the Castanheira hydropower project is for the current government but it remains on the list of ongoing projects listed in the federal Investment Partnerships Program (PPI) The feasibility studies were also part of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) at least from 2010 to 2018 — at the tail end of the previous term of the current president and during the subsequent administrations of Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer The project is currently in the environmental licensing phase by SEMA-MT a call for tender will be made to select the company responsible for construction and operation of the dam saying the project is unfeasible in terms of culture SEMA-MT said the terms of reference provide for a study of cumulative and synergistic impacts Regarding the impacts on river connectivity it said these will be assessed during licensing The agency added that the environmental aspect is compared with the economic aspect during the feasibility study It also said that undertakings that may cause negative impacts on Indigenous groups are evaluated by Funai whose statement will be considered during the licensing phase The environmental impact studies presented to SEMA-MT for licensing were carried out by EPE which told Mongabay that they had been elaborated in accordance with the legislation that the Indigenous communities were heard and that they had been delivered to SEMA-MT in 2017 for analysis and licensing The latter didn’t issue any statement as to when this stage should be completed as five years have passed since those studies were carried out their findings are now outdated and fail to account for other newly proposed projects in the same region the Florida International University researcher says a strategic regional evaluation must be made for the planning of new power projects in the region that articulates the many studies necessary during the environmental licensing process She says the scenario has changed due to climate change impacts that must be considered when analyzing the Castanheira dam’s lack of feasibility “There are a number of decentralized power generation options available today I don’t believe this is the time to centralize production in large dams but rather to use other complementary sources such as solar power It is possible for us to create micropower generative systems that work as a set and have less impact than the Castanheira dam would,” Athayde says EPE says large-scale hydropower offers operational flexibility while wind and solar systems only generate power when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining allows hydroelectric plants to generate power at peak hours of demand These plants provide so-called ancillary services to the national grid which guarantee stability and safety to the system,” the developer says That hasn’t stopped Indigenous and riverine communities from continuing to worry given the uncertain situation and lack of clear information about the government’s real intentions for going ahead with the project EPE says the project remains part of the government’s PPI investment program which is part of the federal energy policy and hence a major backer of the project obtaining its environmental licensing the Castanheira project isn’t on the list for the new Growth Acceleration Program When asked about the inconsistencies raised by the researchers the PPI said it would only release a statement after SEMA-MT’s evaluation This story was reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and first published here on our Brazil site on Dec The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] French renewable power company Voltalia has sold a ready-to-build 420MW solar PV project in Brazil to Brazilian energy company Newave Energia Located in the eastern state of Minas Gerais as well as its maintenance services for the electrical infrastructure will be carried out by the French power company During its financial results for the first half of 2023, the company stated the slowdown of its Brazilian projects due to a widespread blackout in the country over the summer which delayed the connection of new power plants to the grid “Our success with the Arinos cluster demonstrates our skill in developing high-quality energy projects It not only adds to our future project pipeline of sites to be built but also lets our partners contribute to renewable energy growth We’re delighted to be joining forces with Newave Energia” The company has a portfolio of renewables projects under development with a total capacity of 16.1GW while it recently achieved 2GW of operational renewables capacity we have upgraded our product offerings and features to bring you the best experience please check your email inbox for password reset message from PV Tech and follow the instructions Can\'t find the email? Try to sign in again and use the "Forgot Password" button If you have any questions please contact us Your gateway to environmental health knowledge Join the Environmental Health News community The Castanheira dam project in the Amazon risks environmental and cultural damage reveals a study led by an Indigenous organization Beatriz Jucá and Leandro Barbosa report for Mongabay. “They are going to flood the Tapayuna people’s history.” — Yaku Suya Hydroelectric dams were once pitched as a renewable source of electricity with little downside once constructed. The reality is often much different, causing irreparable harm to ecosystems and upending Indigenous cultures hand-picked by our editors and researchers We offer a host of daily and weekly options Nonprofit organizations MADE SAFE and Plastic Pollution Coalition released the new Healthy Pregnancy Guideto help parents-to-be navigate the challenges of making healthier living choices for babies and the planet “They're terrorizing these scientists because they want to keep them silent.” a newsroom powered by Environmental Health Sciences It all improves the health of our communities 43,000+ global companies doing business in the region 102,000+ key contacts related to companies and projects news and interviews about your industry in English Voltalia, a France-based renewables developer, has sold a 420MW solar project under development in Brazil to Newave Energia for an undisclosed amount Newave Energia is a partnership between steel manufacturer Gerdau and Newave Capital It will be located in the state of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil Voltalia will support the solar plant’s construction The project is part of the larger Arinos cluster which has the potential to generate 1.8GW of clean energy Newave Energia has also acquired other ready-to-build solar projects within the cluster The solar portfolio will generate enough clean energy to meet the needs of 1.3 million people while avoiding 350,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually The French company expects to sell 100MW of additional projects across Brazil and other countries and provide construction and maintenance services Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis Voltalia CEO Sébastien Clerc stated: “Our success with the Arinos cluster demonstrates our skill in developing high-quality energy projects “It not only adds to our future project pipeline of sites to be built but also lets our partners contribute to renewable energy growth We are delighted to be joining forces with Newave Energia.” Voltalia recently stated that its installed renewable capacity had exceeded 2GW after commissioning the 23.6MW Sud Vannier wind farm in France construction on Sud-Vannier began in April 2023 It will supply the energy to French retailer Leroy Merlin through a corporate power purchase agreement Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network Our Strategic Plan has earmarked a 45% increase in the amount of resources allocated to Brazil This is a sign of our consistent interest in the country and it will translate into increased quality in distribution services It will also improve infrastructure resilience in order to cope with extreme weather events at home — not in a hospital,” Gaspar Gonçalves do Amaral says proudly home is the municipality of Arinos in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state part of the Cerrado grassland that’s watered by the Urucuia and Paracatu rivers growing cotton was the main source of income for his family in this farming community: his grandfather worked the fields Amaral was one of the first people in the region to turn to agroecology after the farmed passed into his hands Agroecology is a sustainable farming approach that works in harmony with nature Amaral had four main reasons for going this route: to enrich the local culture; to ensure food security; to generate income; and to be able to eat food that’s “clean and free of poison” Amaral was contacted by representatives from the Institute for Society an NGO that was holding workshops in the region training local farmers in agroecology one of 46 that subsequently joined the ISPN’s Sustainable Cerrado Cotton project “We didn’t harvest even 200 kilos [440 pounds] in the first year,” Amaral says “But this year was really good — over 800 kilos [1,760 lbs].”  This year the farms in the region gathered more than 5 metric tons of cotton in their second harvest convinced the farmers to dedicate just 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of their land to the project He guided them through the four fundamental stages: planning and soil preparation 50% of the area should be planted with cotton in strips up to 1 meter (3 feet) wide lined with strips of secondary and tertiary crops Secondary crops include sesame and other food crops The farmers are taught to use non-industrial products throughout the entire farming process Animal manure and organic compost serve as fertilizer rock dust and rock phosphate in place of industrial alkalis for liming they eschew insecticides and instead invest in crop diversification and manual capture techniques the cotton is over a meter high,” says Haroldo Mendes Barbosa who has farmed the same plot of land since 1996 He says he never treated his soil until he started participating in the sustainable cotton project “I think the real advantage was the green fertilization we did on the soil It has to be strong for the plants to be strong.” The Sustainable Cerrado Cotton project unfolded largely during the COVID-19 crisis “The pandemic played an important role in this story,” says Jessica Pedreira “People were losing income and experiencing hunger and the project helped generate income and food security.” While cotton productivity tripled over the nearly two years that the farmers have been practicing agroecology food crops increased by just as much or even more saffron yields were up to seven times higher “One of our pumpkins weighed over 13 kilos [29 lbs],” says farmer Josefino Ferreira dos Santos “It was so beautiful I could barely keep my eyes off it.” Barbosa says the gains in cotton production aren’t the most important thing about this project He says the main benefit is having more food crops available all grown “without poison.” Rotating crops improves soil quality over the medium term “The earth has to be alive — there’s no other way,” he says “We have to leave soil better than we found it.” Amaral and Barbosa share a childhood memory: The sound of spinning wheels Cotton spinning is a local tradition here that was lost over time due to a number of reasons the industrialization of the textile industry Cotton grown in monoculture plantations in other states the spinners work with pesticide-free cotton and take pride in the products grown on their own land Diva Maria dos Santos proudly tells of having spun the yarn to make the clothing and linens in her wedding trousseau with her own hands She learned the trade from her mother and today is teaching her 14-year-old daughter to spin “I want her to learn to spin because there will be a day when there’s too much work for me,” she says This story was reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and first published here on our Brazil site on Dec If the KTM X-Bow and Ariel Atom have taught us anything stripped-down cars with go-kart like handling and supercar performance are the shiz Mexican industrial designer Arturo Arino presents us with the Reptile an imaginary hybrid racer that can also be driven on the streets Equipped with a 2.7 L Wankel rotary producing a theoretical 700 hp (552 kW) at 9,000 rpm a 4-pole electric induction motor and regenerative braking to recharge the batteries this lightweight / topless roadster epitomizes the long held motoring philosophy that With seating for two and what looks like a touch screen entertainment system a la the Nissan GT-R’s multifunction display the Reptile would – if it existed – offer a fine balance between pure performance creature comfort and environmental responsibility which kicks in only when the Reptile’s put in RACE mode With looks to die for and a paint scheme possibly inspired by Fiat’s legendary Abarth models the Reptile is sadly little more than a (very good) illustration Check out our gallery below and leave your piece in the comments section Via Coroflot the Mato Grosso State Environmental Department (SEMA-MT) shelved the environmental license application for the Castanheira hydropower plant Organizations and social movements have mobilized for more than 10 years to block the dam that would be built on the Arinos River (Juruena River Basin) As reported by Mongabay in December an area of around 95 square kilometers [37 square miles] would be flooded small farmers and urban and rural dwellers in the municipalities of Juara Novo Horizonte do Norte and Porto dos Gaúchos the application was rejected for not presenting solutions “to pending issues documents and essential information were requested for analysis” and were not provided by the Energy Research Office (EPE) a federal government company linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy which is responsible for studies related to the country’s energy planning The environmental agency’s technical report was published one day after the Federal Public Defender’s Office and the Federal Prosecution Service filed a public civil action demanding the suspension and federalization of the licensing procedure According to a study by the NGO Operação Amazônia Nativa (OPAN) the project would be economically harmful to affected towns and would threaten the physical and cultural preservation of Indigenous peoples the researchers pointed out a series of social and environmental inconsistencies in the licensing procedure Liliane Xavier, a member of the Juruena Vivo Network says that environmental licensing and other procedures with impacts on the lives of communities should be participatory and comply with the law “We don’t oppose progress as long as it is responsible and really cares about the lives of people who live and work in this region and it complies with laws norms and conventions to which Brazil is a signatory,” she says executive secretary of the Socio-Environmental Popular Forum of Mato Grosso (Formad) sees the shelving of the environmental license application as a victory in a great battle since “projects of this nature usually neglect key socioenvironmental aspects — people’s well-being and desire to remain in the place the right to enjoy an ecologically balanced environment and so on.” “The Castanheira dam will be a ghost haunting us until it is removed from the PPI,” the Brazilian government’s Investment Partnership Program The fact that the project was shelved does not mean it has been put to rest The application can be resubmitted by the federal government via the EPE a member of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) “The procedure has been only partially shelved since EPE can resubmit an application for the Castanheira dam and carry out many other projects planned for the [Juruena] basin mobilized and fighting is what will lead us to a final victory which is the withdrawal of this [Castanheira dam] project from the 10-year energy plan.” which violates rights and results in huge environmental crimes has been present in every government’s plans always based on the false debate about clean energy,” Nascimento emphasizes “The big challenge is for threatened and affected peoples and communities to actually be heard and have the right to say no to these projects and for this to actually be taken into account,” he concludes Banner image: Residents of the Pedreiras riverine community protest against the Castanheira dam Image courtesy of the MAB/MT Communication Collective This story was reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and first published here on our Brazil site on March 26 At the end of January a Smartphone onboard a small boat captured a disturbing video on the Teles Pires River in the Brazilian Amazon near the city of Sinop close to the Mato Grosso and Pará state borders Murky brown water near the shore was clogged with large shoals of dead fish A witness on the scene mourned: “it’s something one cannot believe Look at the size of the pacus and piaus.… That’s all there is: a lot of dead fish.” Between January 30 and February 4 more than 13 tons of fish were found dead in the river The operation was authorized by the Mato Grosso Environment Secretariat despite opposition from environmentalists the dam creates a choke point on the Teles Pires River where tropical waters stagnate and lose oxygen — becoming anoxic — within the 337 square kilometer (83,274 acre) reservoir saying high sedimentation created in error was the cause of the die-off Conservationists also say that the problematic Sinop dam is emblematic It is just one of many such projects in the Amazon basin of Brazil that poses major environmental threats to aquatic ecosystems riverine traditional and indigenous communities According to Brazil’s National Electric Energy Agency there are at least 80 hydroelectric plants planned for Mato Grosso state’s Juruena / Teles Pires basin alone — one of the Brazilian Amazon’s most important watersheds Both the Juruena and Teles Pires Rivers are tributaries of the Tapajós River one of the Amazon basin’s most biodiverse and pristine regions The total number of hydroelectric power plants that may eventually be built in the Juruena / Teles Pires basin could be even higher: according to local NGOs there are at least 125 small and large power plants in the planning rivers great and small suffer flow reductions and ecosystem imbalances due to hydropower projects The Sinop HPP fish kill could have been avoided if the Mato Grosso Environment Secretariat had heeded the critiques found in environmental studies for the project The state agency is responsible for licensing the dam which was built via a partnership between the Brazilian and French governments Dam expert and Amazon National Research Institute Professor Philip Fearnside was one of those who denounced the project and who questions hydroelectric environmental viability in the Amazon only 30 percent of original vegetation was removed from the Sinop dam reservoir area “instead of the 100 percent demanded by law — a law which has been widely ignored” in Mato Grosso In tropical dams “the decomposition of litter leaves and other organic material of easy degradation leads to a decrease of the oxygen in the water especially during the filling of the reservoir This can cause fish deaths inside the reservoir while the release of oxygen depleted water from turbines and spillways can kill fish downstream from the dam” This environmentally irresponsible behavior isn’t quite new. In late 2014, local newspapers had denounced the same practice on the same river and scientists have been unable to determine the specific cause something which many researchers find alarming As the recent Sinop disaster unfolded the MPE a government group of independent public prosecutors intervened to investigate environmental violations Experts traveled 27 kilometers (around 17 miles) along the river measuring fish impacts — evidence used to request a discontinuance of activities by Sinop HPP “We filed a request to stop the filling [of the reservoir] The Environment Secretariat fined the [firm] but it was too late — as we had anticipated,” explained State Prosecutor Marcelo Vacchiano “We have joined specialists on a case-by-case basis: we create a workflow that seeks to understand the socio-environmental impacts of the [projects But our] surveys often diverge from reports submitted by [the companies own assessments] which have been accepted by the Mato Grosso Environment Secretariat,” Vacchiano said Vacchiano said that Public Ministry attempts to question the inadequacy of past environmental studies has had a somehow opposite effect As courts have granted injunctions authorizing licenses the company has become more legally empowered against the criticism it has faced makes it even more difficult to challenge future socio-environmental impacts on this project and in others disputes over such projects should be resolved [during] the environmental licensing [process] what we see [instead] are problematic processes; they often end up in court,” explained the Mato Grosso public prosecutor The Sinop hydroelectric plant was built and is operated through a partnership between the Brazilian government and Electricité de France (EDF) — a French state-owned transnational company — the world’s largest energy producer and distributor through its Brazilian branch Norte Fluminense while minority shareholders include two Brazilian public companies The Mato Grosso justice system has raised legal alarms regarding the company since the January fish die-off. In February the MPE filed a request to monitor Sinop Energia directors via electronic anklet Among the monitored directors is the Sinop HPP president the French engineer Jean Christophe Marcel Delvallet The electronic anklets are being used to prevent his and other executives escaping from the country while investigations continue the Federal Public Ministry is holding $20 million Reals (nearly US$5,2 million) of the company’s assets to bear the costs of compensation for damages That fine has been added to another of $50 million Reals (US$13,1 million) No matter what fines are leveraged against Sinop HPP Fearnside says that lessons learned from this disaster can help prevent similar mistakes elsewhere “The case of Sinop HPP is important not only because of the impacts but also as a lesson for [solving] problems in decision-making and licensing systems in other [hydroelectric] plants hydroelectric Castanheira being the next to have state licensing,” he warned auction and construction will advance despite problems pointed out so far The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) has been investigating the project since 2014 the company has minimized the cumulative socio-environmental impacts caused by the multiple HPPs building dams on the Juruena basin This is a common complaint among researchers who say that dams should not be assessed singly for harm but rather as multiple projects within a river system the MPF advised the Mato Grosso Environmental Secretariat not to license Castanheira (DOC: 710-2017-48 RPA – TAPAYUNAS – RECOMENDAÇÃO UHE Castanheira) That recommendation cautions that the licensing process will go to litigation if it continues to proceed as planned without correction EPE plans to build the Castanheira dam on the Arinos river including a reservoir covering 94.7 square kilometers (23,400 acres) in the cities of Juara and Novo Horizonte do Norte The Arinos is one of the main tributaries of the Juruena one of the most important rivers of the Amazon basin in Mato Grosso state The planned dam will destroy the primary fishing grounds and food supply of several indigenous groups The Castanheira HPP dam will block fish migration routes risking the destruction of fishing grounds along the entire river upstream and downstream of the dam The project also threatens the indigenous lands of the Apiaká/Kayabi and Japuíra — these three territories are less than 40 kilometers (around 24 miles) from the hydroelectric plant site and Rikbaktsas are actively resisting this federal government project “We have already seen what happened with Belo Monte [a mega-dam on the Xingu River] and [on the] Teles Pires river complex [where several dams have been built] Our tribes are united: we don’t want this hydroelectric plant here We have suffered a lot with the action of the white man we only want our land to be in peace,” said Orengô one of the few Tapayuna Indians living in the region and for whom the dam poses a severe danger — their disappearance a federal indigenous reserve created during the Brazilian dictatorship more than 300 miles away from their original territory and the nearby Castanheira dam site To obtain the dam’s environmental licenses EPE was required to provide an Indigenous Component Study (ECI) a report that was only delivered after major delays and with serious gaps an analysis of the study was delivered by FUNAI advising against the hydroelectric project the region’s local population would swell significantly as laborers arrived from outside the Amazon to build the dam This influx would cause negative impacts to Tapayuna lands and greatly increase the risk of their group’s and other indigenous groups,’ exposure to alcohol and drugs It is “already known that incomprehension rules the relations [between] the indigenous with the nonindigenous One of the possible misunderstandings is related to the [potential shared] use of the territory outside the [demarcated] indigenous land which causes conflicts over the use of natural resources,” highlights the report Civil organizations have made a cost-benefit analysis of the Castanheira dam a report used as a reference in Public Ministry decisions made against this federal project the projects estimated socio-economic costs come in at around 558 million Reals (US$142 million) which includes greenhouse gas emissions economic losses due to the flooding of productive lands “As in other processes here, in the Juruena basin, decisions about hydroelectric plants have a much more political rather than technical character. Because of this, our resistance is very challenging,” explained researcher Ricardo Carvalho with the Operação Amazônia Nativa (OPAN) an NGO that is investigating the Castanheira dam the current president of the Energy Research Company gave signs that Castanheira will advance — and soon Barral said recently that the Bolsonaro administration aims to slate the hydroelectric plant for the upcoming energy auction scheduled in the second half of 2019 It remains to be seen how the Mato Grosso Environment Secretariat will respond to this expectation via the licensing process and if indigenous groups will be able to effectively resist the project BANNER IMAGE: Dead fish collected as evidence of the fish kill from the Teles Pires River Image courtesy of the Mato Grosso State Public Ministry FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post The writer was committed to literature and the reader Brazilian literature lost one of its great exponents the São Paulo writer Lygia Fagundes Telles Recipient of great national and international literary honors the São Paulo Association of Art Critics Award (APCA) She was a member of the Academia Paulista de Letras and she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature her short stories were produced over eight decades bringing together his production in this genre he avoided adhering to any of the literary trends that he saw succeeding him becoming unmistakable - and never identified with any of these fashions or trends” Despite this, the author considered the novel as the starting point of her work. stone circle (1954), with which he would have reached “literary maturity”, according to critic Antonio Candido. In a letter to the author after receiving the Camões Prize, Candido boasted of having been "one of the first to discern in the beginning of 1946 the great writer who was emerging”[1] to the times when they were both students at the Largo São Francisco Law School and to a certain literary competition promoted among students identified by Candido in both short stories and novels something that few writers manage to achieve In his presentation to the first edition of During that strange tea (2002) novels stone circle e The girls (1973) already had more than thirty editions The positive reception among readers seems to have been important for the author. In a letter to Hilda Hilst, in 1989 (available at the Alexandre Eulálio Documentation Center at Unicamp), Lygia celebrates the sales success of The naked hours (1989)[2] then on the bestseller list: “I'm happy with the result Perhaps their surprisingly accessible language the precision of the words and Machado's bias This is what we see in the short story "A burning heart" (2012) tells the narrator about his “burning heart” The boy decides to regenerate her by marrying her Without giving away the details of the narrative gives any indication of an ironic tone; is the set of the character's actions that will transform the idea of ​​the burning heart becomes something negative in the eyes of the reader But perhaps it is Telles' characters that really seduce readers recalls writer Alberto da Costa e Silva (2010) “at drawing her characters with just a few lines it is not with the description of her posture and her features [...] that she places them within us the intonations of speech and the contraction of the lips to a muxoxo” from which the red fruits of the title hang the hair that Marcelo held like the mane of one of his horses Olivia is constructed as a kind of femme fatale from whose clutches the boy could not escape sometimes causes Romana and Tigrela to become confused in the story What we have in these examples are the characters' fundamental traits their core being revealed fragment after fragment it is his interior that is revealed in every feature with the contradictions typical of all human beings Telles condenses the meanings of his texts into what Walnice Galvão called “pregnant images” - “an extreme synthesis of everything the story insinuates” - to which we can add the cherries and the burning heart of the other mentioned tales This way of constructing narratives gives a unique expressive force to his texts which acquire uniqueness through the writer's words This is what critic and writer José Castello suggests in an afterword to the 2009 edition of Seminar the two rats: “Lygia is a writer who works with mysteries and small revelations don't get it wrong: her writing is neither religious nor mystical it is in the way it excavates banality in search of its core it hides in her inclination to value the subterranean zones of existence.” It is possible that the fragment above is not unknown to the public; In January of this year he appeared in one of the Unicamp entrance exam questions the subject of which was precisely “Rat Seminar” (1977) an allegorical tale about power relations in society Comvest's choice of the work was well received by the press and teachers which reiterates Lygia's importance in the panorama of contemporary Brazilian literature and reinforces the topicality of the themes present in her texts other facets of the writer that still deserve to be explored In Lygia's letters and photographs that make up the Hilda Hilst and Abílio Ferreira de Almeida Funds we find mention of the successes she achieved with her work in Brazil and abroad; the closeness between Lygia and Hilst whom she called “my sister”; a glimpse of his daily life or in seasons outside the country; experimentation on stage with the arduous and lonely job of writing she confesses that she could not “write with hate”; it was peace that she sought when creating her texts: “in peace includes work In peace there is also love.” The “passion for words” which the author mentions in her letters and in her inauguration speech at ABL Commitment to literature and to others: “But the writer needs to see himself and others in the transparency of the water He has to overcome fear to write that fear *Ana Maria Ferreira Côrtes has a degree in Literature and is a doctoral candidate in the Literary Theory and History Program at the Institute of Language Studies at Unicamp CANDIDO, Antonio. The new narrative. In: ___. Education at night and other essays. São Paulo: Ática, 1989. Available at: https://is.muni.cz/el/phil/jaro2014/PO0B203/Antonio_Candido_A_nova_narrativa.pdf _______________. [Master hand that never fails]. Recipient: Lygia Fagundes Telles. São Paulo, May 15, 2005. 1 letter. Available in: https://correio.ims.com.br/carta/mao-de-mestre-que-nunca-falha/ During that strange tea: memory and fiction Lygia Fagundes Telles – The Person and the Writer 2010.                                                                         Inaugural speech at the Brazilian Academy of Letters Alexandre Eulálio Documentation Center (CEDAE/UNICAMP) Campinas: Alexandre Eulálio Documentation Center (CEDAE/UNICAMP) [1] Correspondence available in the Moreira Salles Institute Collection. Available in: https://correio.ims.com.br/carta/mao-de-mestre-que-nunca-falha/ [2] Information present in the description of the CEDAE document Access JU news on Unicamp’s social networks secexec@unicamp.br analytics and third-party cookies.By continuing to browse The Italian Cultural Institute of São Paulo is dedicating an evening on 11 August to the city of Rome and its myth in the history of culture Sonia Netto Salomão from La Sapienza University winner of the Jabuti Prize in 2017 for her book “Machado de Assis e o Cânone Ocidental: Itinerários de Leitura” and President of the Italian Association of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies has dedicated several researches and initiatives to the presence of Rome in Portuguese-speaking cultures and proposes a speech entitled: “Roma como espaço imaginário: de Antônio Vieira a Afonso Arinos” the philosopher Mario Sergio Cortella will propose in his speech a reflection on ‘Roma na história da filosofia’ Two complementary points of view for a tribute to the role of the Eternal City in the history of culture of all times More information on: iicsanpaolo.esteri.it Atos acontecem em todas as regiões do país - Paulo Pinto/AGPT On Saturday (23), protesters will take to the streets across Brazil to hold acts defending democracy, against granting pardon to January 8 coup plotters and demanding the end of the massacre in Gaza On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the coup that began Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1964 the demonstrations will say "Dictatorship never again.” The acts are being organized by the Popular Brazil Front the country’s main trade unions and progressive parties The victims of the dictatorship that ran Brazil for more than 20 years will be remembered: there are at least 434 confirmed deaths due to the regime and thousands of torture cases In addition to taking a stand against the far-right movements in Brazil that advocate for more authoritarianism the actions will once again denounce human rights violations that have taken place abroad such as the massacre committed by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people the mobilization will take place on Friday (22) at 4 pm in front of the city’s Cathedral In addition to the mobilizations in Brazil where demonstrators will gather at 10:30 am at the Luís Camões Square Read below the full list of cities where acts will be held: All original content produced and editorially authored by Brasil de Fato may be reproduced provided it is not altered and proper credit is given All original content produced and editorially authored by Brasil de Fato may be reproduced Home » Obituary for Shirley Lucille Millner (Cloarec) We are saddened to announce that our mother passed away quietly at the age of 86 after a brief illness Clarence Cloarec in August 1982 and John Millner in October 2011 Shirley is survived by her children Martin Cloarec (Rene) Laura Kennedy (D’Arcy) and Carol Waugh (Bob); her grandchildren Trevor Cloarec Kristine Arinos (Lior) and Kayle Sykes (Erick); great-grandchildren Daniel Ron Goodman (Judy) and Gil Goodman (Terry) she cultivated love and compassion in all of us Our mother was uncommon and ordinary; she was patient but had a redhead’s temper; she was the mother we cherished and the elder who occasionally exasperated her children as old age took its toll A memorial service for Shirley will be held on Wednesday 2016 at 11:00 am at McPherson Funeral Home in Cranbrook those wishing to make a memorial donation in Shirley’s honour may do so to the: Cranbrook Public Library V1C 4T6 or the Heart & Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon As Comic Book reported Not Terror” Award to actor Chace Crawford and creator Eric Kripke for what the organization called “the cruelty-free and thought-provoking scene” in which The Deep eats the live octopus — his friend PETA praised the show first for using a computer generated octopus rather than a live one and second for “helping viewers see every octopus as an individual like Timothy not as an entrée or as entertainment.” Season 3 of The Boys premiered on Amazon Prime Video last week the streaming service put the first three episodes of the new season up on the same day “Barbary Coast,” The Deep finally succeeds in what he’s been trying to do for almost the entire series up until now: to win a spot back on The Seven Homelander (Anthony Starr) forces The Deep to eat Timothy in front of him in order to prove his loyalty The aquatic supe pleads to Homelander to not make him do it He’s also urged on by his wife Cassandra (Katy Breier) who is earlier annoyed to find The Deep staring at Timothy while she’s having sex with him and others from the cast and crew of The Boys pay tribute to Timothy — accompanied by Marguerite Szabo and Rinat Arinos singing “Goodbye for Good.” entering the Mad Titan via his purple butt ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + "