The oldest hydropower facility in the Brazilian Amazon is the Tucuruí D&R complex (8.4 GW) on the lower Tocantins River about 200 kilometers south of its confluence with the Amazon River delta The dam and power plant were built between 1976 and 1984 and its capacity was doubled in 2007; current plans call for capacity to be expanded by another 2.5 GW over the next few years Tucuruí is owned by Electronorte, a subsidiary of Electrobras which supplies most of the electrical energy consumed in the Brazilian Amazon It was built before the environmental laws that required the completion of an environmental impact study which allowed its proponents to discount the impacts of a reservoir covering 280,000 hectares and the relocation of an estimated 30,000 citizens The massive reservoir flooded intact tropical forest and the subsequent methane emissions from rotting vegetation have been estimated at 2.5 million metric tons of carbon annually – a GHG footprint approximately equivalent to a gas-fired power plant The dam has radically altered the ecology of the river and caused massive disruptions to fish populations Species richness has fallen by 25% below the dam and by 50% within the reservoir changes that reflect the composition of fish communities and the decline of migratory species Total fish catch in the reservoir increased in the years immediately following its impoundment but have declined over time having stabilized at about 80% of the original value The Tocantins is the most heavily exploited watershed in the Brazilian Amazon was built in the headwaters near Brasília simultaneously with Tucuruí These investments were followed by four large-scale D&R projects inaugurated between 2000 and 2010 (Lajeada /Luis Eduardo Magalhães Peixe Angical and Sao Salvador) and an R-o-R facility at Esterito in 2014 There are four additional sites on the central sector of the river that are candidates for large-scale dams: Marabá just below the confluence of the Araguaía and Tocantins The construction of these four dams is required for the development of the Tocantins waterway; none overlap with an Indigenous territory or conservation unit. The National Energy Agency (ANEEL) has identified 24 additional sites as candidates for medium-scale facilities (< 150 MW) all of which are located relatively high in the watershed the total installed capacity of the Tocantins would increase from about 13.2 GW to 20 GW on the lower between Goiás and Mato Grosso There are no plans to establish any dams over the mid-section of the river a broad flat floodplain that includes the Ilha do Bananal a massive wetland complex that has been set aside as a protected area or Indigenous reserve “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” is a book by Timothy Killeen and contains the author’s viewpoints and analysis. The second edition was published by The White Horse in 2021 under the terms of a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0 license) Read the other excerpted portions of chapter 2 here: 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 […] The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission Applied EnergyCitation Excerpt :Several studies have been conducted in regard of the environmental effects of the Tucuruí dam and its upper reservoir the carbon emission due to the formation of the Tucuruí reservoir The authors demonstrate that the quantity emitted in the lake is of the order of 1.1 Tg of carbon per year highlighting the importance of the carbon inventory in energy systems and the use of less environmental impact resources All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. Please note: This page has been archived and its content may no longer be up-to-date This version of the page will remain live for reference purposes as we work to update the content across our website The WWF is run at a local level by the following offices.. Next [Unsustainable wildlife trade in the Amazon] >> Working to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and nature WWF® and ©1986 Panda Symbol are owned by WWF You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience Home - News - OneHundred Release Tucuruí for MSFS Brazilian developers launch their take on the small regional airport in the north of Brazil The tiny regional airport of Tucuruí (ICAO: STBU) Created by Brazilian scenery developers OneHundred who were established in 2022 and have released their first scenery for MSFS via iniBuilds the airport features a 2000m long runway and welcomes a single route to Belem The airfield features a modestly sized parking apron a recently redesigned passenger terminal and new layout OneHundred’s scenery features 3D modelled Objects realistic ground layout and PBR Textures on all 3D models You can purchase a copy of OneHundred’s Tucuruí for MSFS at the iniBuilds Store for £6.80. ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " Researchers 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 published in Applied Geography late in 2015 was undertaken by an international team from the US as “an ideal case for understanding the long-term impact of mega-dams on rainforest loss.” Although many studies have investigated the direct impact of dams on forests few have looked at the potential impacts of dams on forest cover beyond the limits of their reservoirs over both space and time on the Tocantins River in the State of Pará Flooding a total of 3,014 square kilometers (1164 square miles) and with a generating capacity of 8,370 megawatts led by Gang Chen of the University of North Carolina and used a combination of remote sensing and GIS techniques to assess when and where deforestation and forest degradation occurred over an 80,000 square kilometer (30,888 square mile) area surrounding the dam Three ‘neighborhoods’ were delineated within this area by the researchers “At the spatial resolution of 30 meters [98 feet] Landsat imagery is sufficient to detect largescale deforestation but is too coarse to directly reveal the degree of forest degradation that typically occurs at the sub-pixel level,” the authors state the team extracted information from each pixel that indicated how much photosynthetic material and bare earth was present making it possible to estimate how much degradation — the loss of tree stems from within the forest — had occurred the study area around the dam lost an average of 591-660 square kilometers (228-255 square miles) of forest each year deforestation fell to 325 square kilometers (125 square miles) per year a drop the authors ascribe to slowing in the global economy and to improved Brazilian law enforcement against illegal logging The researchers also found that throughout the entire study period forest degradation affected an average of 102 square kilometers (39 square miles) per year Spatial patterns of deforestation and degradation were similar with more forest disturbance found in the vicinity and upstream of the dam The authors assert that one of the main factors contributing to increased forest loss was the settlement of thousands of people into formerly forested areas around the dam — including many laborers who resettled in the area during the dam’s construction plus locals forced to relocate when their homes and lands were flooded by the dam’s reservoir In addition “with new roads constructed to connect ever-growing cities around the dam timber production also became economically feasible,” the authors state lacking a control study area for comparison they could not quantify the degree to which the dam’s construction was responsible for driving deforestation as opposed to the deforestation that might have occurred anyway without the dam due to widespread development within the region “Building dams can lead to human resettlement But it is difficult to say how it affects commercial/selective logging another important activity causing deforestation,” Chen told mongabay.com “Road construction may be facilitated by dam construction but some roads may still be constructed at a later time if no dams exist.” The proper way to accurately identify and quantify the main driving factors behind deforestation due to dams would be to compare deforestation among the neighborhoods of various sized existing Amazon dams Such a comparison was beyond the scope of the Tucuruí study but would be valuable to understanding specifically how tropical dams contribute to deforestation long term a scientist at California’s Earth Innovation Institute has studied forest and land-use policy in the Xingu River Basin site of the controversial Belo Monte mega-dam who was not involved with the Tucuruí study cautioned that a number of confounding issues would need to be disentangled in order to understand the role of the dam in the observed changes in forest cover She emphasised the importance of considering a range of factors “that are known to drive deforestation generally and in that part of the Amazon specifically and that were likely to have coincided with the presence of the dam — e.g. development policies in the region — all of this independent of the construction of the dam [but] all part of development and expansion in the region.” “While it’s clear that large infrastructure projects do drive localized deforestation and forest degradation further studies need to be carried out to look at the extent to which projects like this might be driving deforestation over larger areas and over longer periods of time,” Stickler told Mongabay Chen intends to go beyond the Tucuruí study to investigate these questions “The future plan will be exploring the spatiotemporal patterns of forest changes in the neighborhoods of several other major dams in the Amazon We would like to know how such patterns differ across dams and what factors have caused the potential variation,” Chen explained If the deforestation impacts of existing Amazon dams become better understood there will be a better chance of employing mitigation strategies to minimize them around future dams first we need to know how much has changed — [as seen in our Tucuruí paper]; and second we need to determine the main driving physical and socio-economic factors behind the change — our objective of the next step of research,” Chen said “The factors and their relative importance are more important to decision makers.” Whatever the precise causes of deforestation, it is known that the loss of forest cover across the Amazon rainforest has important but often overlooked impacts on the water cycle which are detrimental to the generating capacity of hydroelectric dams Stickler and her colleagues were the first to formally quantify the direct and indirect impacts of deforestation on river discharge and energy production for the Belo Monte dam Local deforestation has typically been regarded as beneficial to water flow because evapotranspiration — the movement of water from soil and plants back into the atmosphere —decreases if trees are cut down Stickler’s team showed that predicted deforestation throughout the Amazon basin would result in lower rainfall across the region — the rainforest generates about half its own water supply — leading to lower river levels outweighing any positive local effects due to deforestation and significantly reducing the power that could be generated by Belo Monte That’s a finding that would likely extend to other Amazon dams showing the fundamental connection between lost forest cover and decreased hydroelectric production has not however been taken into account when new dams are planned and the message is still not reaching decision makers two years after the Belo Monte study I think the issue of the impacts of deforestation and deforestation-driven climate change on hydroelectric energy generation is still not integrated into policy discussions and planning for existing or new hydroelectric plants,” Stickler commented Proposed dams “need to be thought of in a broader context of climate and forest (or conservation) policy as well as in the context of social policy.” Stickler sees the deforestation reported by Chen’s team as significant enough to impact rainfall levels “I don’t think that the deforestation in the relatively small study area is the biggest concern but rather the whole swathe of deforestation on this eastern edge of the Amazon basin,” Stickler said “Better planning is needed to make sure that the projects don’t come with excessive negative local impacts socially and environmentally,” she concluded “This seems to be not so much a question of know-how of the willingness of governments to put the long-term good of local communities and regional society in first place and to hold contractors and engineers to higher standards of accountability.” Spatiotemporal patterns of tropical deforestation and forest degradation in response to the operation of the Tucuruí hydroelectric dam in the Amazon basin Dependence of hydropower energy generation on forests in the Amazon Basin at local and regional scales A World Commissions on Dams case study prepared as an input to the World Commission on Dams After receiving the seal of approval from FUNAI (National Indian Foundation) the environmental watchdog IBAMA issued on Thursday an environmental license that authorizes the construction of the Tucuruí power transmission line connecting the cities of Manaus and Boa Vista that the decision was announced without any explanation on the compensation agreement that was being discussed between the indigenous peoples and the federal government In response, Harilson Araújo, a lawyer for the Waimiri-Atroari Community Association, said in an interview with the newspaper Estadão that he has filed a petition for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office of Amazonas State to consider IBAMA’s license illegal and unconstitutional Araújo also said that the indigenous peoples learned of the authorization of the project through the press.  Of the 721 km of the transmission line’s planned length 125 km cross the Indigenous Land located on the border between the state of Roraima and Amazonas where approximately 2,100 people live in 56 villages according to data from ISA (Socioenvironmental Institute) 250 towers will be installed in the area.   According to Júlia Mello Neiva, coordinator of the Defense of Socioenvironmental Rights program at Conectas, “the reports of indigenous peoples show that, by halting the dialogue that was in progress, FUNAI and IBAMA are in breach of ILO Convention 169 prior and informed consultation with indigenous peoples on any changes that could occur in their territories.”  could affect the way of life of the indigenous peoples and that it is essential to establish a compensation plan.  In June of this year, the National Congress had already approved an amendment to the Provisional Measure for the privatization of Eletrobras that authorized the construction of the Tucuruí power line without the need for environmental licensing by FUNAI or IBAMA.  Furthermore the state government of Roraima filed the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality No 5,905 in the Supreme Court to get around the need for prior consultation of indigenous peoples to carry out public works The state of Roraima is challenging legislative and presidential decrees published in 2002 and 2004 that require the Brazilian State to comply with ILO Convention 169 This is the main international legal instrument for protecting the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples among other important guarantees and obligations prior and informed consent and consultation with indigenous peoples with regard to measures that affect their rights their way of life and their culture.  In its application for admission as an amicus curiae in the Supreme Court case Conectas explained that only the National Congress can “resolve definitively on international treaties agreements or acts that result in serious liabilities or commitments encumbering the national patrimony” The judgment of the case is still pending.  This is not the first time that the Waimiri-Atroari have seen their land caught up in a large-scale project these people were almost wiped out by the construction of the BR-174 highway Air and ground attacks and the arrival of diseases brought by the non-indigenous killed thousands of indigenous people according to a report from the National Truth Commission 2025 - Conectas Human Rights - Postal Code 47 - São Paulo (SP) Brazil - ZIP: 01032-970 - Phone: +55 (11) 3884-7440 In addition, there is an untapped potential of 10,000 TWh per year of undeveloped hydropower, which could bring modern energy services to millions of people. However, while hydropower remains among the lowest-cost sources of electricity globally developing hydropower also requires a sizeable investment the developing countries’ governments must understand the long-term economic benefits of such investment.   involving the construction of the world’s largest hydropower plants such as Itaipu and the Paulo Afonso Hydroelectric Complex Although the financial crisis of the 1980s eroded the government investment capacity and led to a long period of stagnation investment in hydropower grew again in the 2000s total electricity generation increased tenfold with hydropower accounting for approximately 88% of total consumption (Figure 1) Advances in the electrification process accompanied hydropower development Residential electrification rates rose sharply with household access increasing from approximately 48% to 99% covering three-quarters of the country’s area during the same period (Figure 2) In the benchmark scenario of model simulations we mimicked the actual investment in electricity grid access and generation capacity We then compared this case with a hypothetical scenario where Brazil’s economy follows the same baseline except for its electricity access and generation capacity staying at the 1970s level this case allows us to quantify the extent to which power infrastructure has contributed to the country’s economic development The results of such an exercise are striking the simulated gross value added (GVA) is roughly at the same level in both scenarios there is a drastic output decline relative to the benchmark scenario across all sectors of Brazil’s economy in the following years (Figure 3) The industry sector is particularly affected with the simulated GVA 37.55% lower in 2006 than the benchmark case Production in agriculture and services would have decreased by 20.64% and 22.92% compared to the model benchmark constraining electricity availability has a significant impact on welfare the share of the energy-intensive industry sector would have been whereas the ones of services and agriculture are 1.67 and 0.06 higher While these relative effects may appear smaller due to offsetting nature of various general equilibrium effects they nonetheless explain at least one-fifth of the observed structural transformation process (i.e. economy’s transition from agriculture to industry and industry to services) Other studies have also found that power infrastructure investments resulted in long-term improvements in human development, while locations suitable for hydropower generation experienced improvements in crop yields, thus reducing deforestation That is the long-term economy-wide effects of electricity availability such as lower operational costs and higher productivity are considerably larger than local economic effects associated with construction of large-scale projects like hydropower plants.  #Infra4Dev is a blog series that showcases recent World Bank economic research to explore how Infrastructure is critical for development Subscribe here to stay up to date with the latest Energy blogs How Does Infrastructure Investment Promote Economic Development in Fragile Regions of Africa? The effectiveness of infrastructure investment as a fiscal stimulus: What we’ve learned If you build it, they will come: Lessons from the first decade of electric vehicles Can policy measures reduce the environmental impact of urban passenger transport? How can we explain the rise in transport emissions… and what can we do about it? Thank you for choosing to be part of the Sustainable Energy for All community The latest blog posts and blog-related announcements will be delivered directly to your email inbox 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 regional coordinator of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) in the Tucuruí region of Pará state was murdered last Friday at her home in the rural settlement of Salvador Allende neighbors saw three motorcycles ridden by five men arrive in front of Silva’s house and continued to play throughout the night — not typical behavior for the couple landless movement and indigenous activists in the Amazon go unsolved So it came as a surprise when late on Tuesday MAB leaders were interrupted during a meeting with the Secretary of Public Security and Social Defense of Pará and told that arrests had been made in the case Machado received a phone call from the Civil Police who said that had detained a large land owner a supermarket and a hotel in the municipality of Novo Repartimento 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the Tucuruí dam “Secretary Machado had said that solving this crime was a priority for the state of Pará [whose reputation has been] tarnished by so many conflicts and murders,” Iury Paulino MAB’s national coordinator told Mongabay “The rapid response of the State in this case is proof that if they want they are able to mobilize resources and find answers the discovery of the culprit alone does not solve the problem of those affected by the Tucuruí [hydroelectric] plant Crimes will continue to happen as long as there is much misery and inequality in the region due to the State’s omissions.” was part of a contingent of 32,000 people displaced from their homes and livelihoods to allow construction of the Tucuruí hydroelectric dam on the Tocantins River Quilombolas (the descendants of runaway slaves) peasants and traditional riverside dwellers were among the groups forced to leave their homes The mega-dam project was begun during Brazil’s military dictatorship  Silva was forced out of her home during a second stage of the dam construction she and thousands of other families have struggled to improve their living conditions and to gain government compensation for lost properties and livelihoods where she lived for five years after being displaced in the rural area of the Baião municipality in Pará precarious or nonexistent: electricity is largely unavailable there is no piped water or basic sanitation The closest public health clinic is many miles away and there is no public transport President Michel Temer’s administration cut the monthly basic food provision that affected families who had received that benefit through a BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) program According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) at least 500,000 families in Brazil are not served with public electricity Silva took a position as MAB’s regional coordinator the activist participated in a meeting with then President Dilma Rousseff in which she presented a document requesting the creation of a national rights policy for those affected by dams with special attention to the women affected That policy has not been adopted by the government Silva is mentioned prominently in a 2010 report by the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) which identified the existence of a systematic pattern of human rights violations in the construction of dams across Brazil the South American Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that it “condemns the murders of the human rights defender and regional coordinator of the Movement of the People Affected by Dams of her husband Claudionor Amaro Costa da Silva and Hilton Lopes.” The statement also called on the “Brazilian authorities to conduct a full independent and impartial investigation into these killings which would make the perpetrators responsible.” The OHCHR stressed that “the Brazilian State has the responsibility to guarantee the full protection of the human rights defenders in the country so that they can fulfill their fundamental role in society especially in defending the rights of the most vulnerable populations.” In Brazil’s House of Deputies, the president of the Human Rights and Minorities Commission (CDHM), Helder Salomão, asked Pará Governor Helder Barbalho and Secretary of Public Security and Social Defense Ualame Machado to take swift action to investigate the murder FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post International Journal of Sediment ResearchCitation Excerpt :Thus sediment yield is lower due to the combination of Ultisols and low slopes which leads to a reduction of evapotranspiration and infiltration consequently increasing surface runoff (Chow et al. Baker and Miller (2013) showed that LULC changes in the Rift Valley resulted in a corresponding increase in surface runoff the threat of infrastructure development has cast a long shadow across the Brazilian Amazon — generating concern among indigenous and traditional communities in the rainforest proposals for large new projects have gained momentum to a level not seen since the end of the nation’s military dictatorship in 1985 much of the intensified planning for these projects has been happening behind closed doors leaving those likely to be impacted and the media mostly in the dark The case of a long-delayed electrical transmission line between two regional capitals — Boa Vista in Roraima state and Manaus in Amazonas — is a case in point The Bolsonaro government seems intent on pushing the powerline through regardless of opposition even when resistance comes from within the administration itself That’s according to documents viewed by Mongabay that reveal hidden intergovernmental clashes in the negotiations behind the initiative an extension of the “Tucuruí Transmission Line,” aims to guarantee energy autonomy to the state of Roraima when a public-private company called Transnorte was awarded the construction concession an association that controls various other companies; with Eletronorte From the outset, the project presented logistical, environmental and social challenges: of the 721 kilometer (450 mile) extension envisaged for the transmission line, 125 kilometers (78 miles) would cross through the heart of the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous Territory on the border between Amazonas and Roraima states More than 200 transmission towers would be needed to carry the electrical lines through the reserve — each one occupying an area equivalent to a football pitch Add to that construction and maintenance roads and the necessity of regular clearing of foliage along the route Analysts predicted irreversible impacts on the lives livelihoods and culture of the Waimiri-Atroari who say they still suffer the scars inflicted by government violence and genocide during the dictatorship The Kinja — the name the Waimiri-Atroari use to refer to themselves — point to likely construction damage: the cutting down of tree and plant species that guarantee the tribal food supply an escalation of political pressure on communities the risk of proliferating “white man’s diseases,” and other threats to the indigenous way of life Due to the complexity and potential harm of the project the environmental license for its execution has been suspended since 2014 have granted the necessary licenses to move forward the body responsible for monitoring project implementation is presently in strong disagreement with the conditions demanded by Transnorte for the line’s construction Transnorte is negotiating a project renewal but the two parties disagree over three central points: the annual economic returns to be received by the firm; the logistical difficulties of building the transmission towers within the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous Territory; and the required consultation with indigenous communities over the damages that the Tucuruí Transmission Line will cause “Systematic and free consultation with the Kinja never happened,” says Fernando Merloto Soave a public prosecutor with the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) The MPF has been monitoring the case since 2013 and advocating for the indigenous peoples’ right to consultation and full participation in decisions regarding the project as guaranteed by international law “The military participated in a genocide of the Kinja population in the 1970s and there are historical conflicts with the State [and indigenous people] Pushing the Tucuruí Transmission Line ‘down their throats’ represents an immense regression a return to an era of serious [human rights] violations,” says Merloto one of the MPF prosecutors assigned to the case The extension of the Tucuruí Transmission Line to Roraima as currently envisaged would follow alongside highway BR-174 through the northern region of the indigenous reserve it wasn’t long before the relationship between Transnorte and ANEEL showed signs of wearing thin — largely the result over quarrels concerning the studies required to begin construction including analyses of environmental impacts and possible harm to the Waimiri-Atroari According to records of the process included in an official letter from ANEEL and obtained by Mongabay through the Law of Access to Information: “Transnorte expressed its intention to not continue with the project for the first time on November 14 2014 by asking to schedule a meeting… to discuss the necessary and inevitable suspension of the contract… agreed between TNE [the acronym for Transnorte] and the Union [the national government].” this consultation must be done properly: “It is not a simple consultation to establish whether they are for or against [the project]: it is intended to level out the decision power of those involved in the process What always happens in this [sort of} case is a kind of ‘uneven’ conversation in which the government speaks ‘from the top down,’” explains Fernando Merloto The legal basis for the federal prosecutor’s case is International Labour Organisation Convention 169, signed by the Brazilian government which stipulates that the administration in power is responsible for developing “coordinated and systematic action to protect the rights of [indigenous] peoples and to guarantee respect for their integrity.” In addition to the lawsuit already described a new problem emerged which would complicate construction even further conflicted over whether to abandon or move forward with the project presented a study produced by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) with newly revised calculations for the value of the project — as well as its profits The value initially established at auction for the company’s annual revenue upon project completion was R$ 121 million (US$ 30 million) This was to be the annual return authorized by the federal government paid to Transnorte once the Tucuruí Transmission Line became operational But according to Transnorte’s new calculations its annual returns should be higher: the consortium argues that it should receive R$ 391 million (nearly US$ 100 million) — more than 3 times the original agreed to revenue The dispute between the government and the consortium over the wide gap between the new evaluation as compared to the initial contract brought the project to a halt “There is no way… that we can recognize additional costs presented on the grounds that they were unforeseeable The information was available and the Concessionary [Transnorte] was aware of it so this should have been incorporated into the value [first] offered,” said ANEEL technicians in a letter from June 2019 concerning the case A nearly complete breakdown of negotiations then followed between Transnorte and the agency The unsustainable climate of hostility existing between the two parties then forced the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) to intervene — based on its links with ANEEL one of the chief reasons for Transnorte’s steadfast tenacity in the negotiations is the backdoor support it receives from MME the Ministry of Mines and Energy remained in the shadows not interfering in the negotiations over the Tucuruí Transmission Line during the administration of former president Michel Temer At the time, it was headed by Fernando Coelho Filho — now being investigated under suspicion of receiving bribes during the Dilma Rousseff government The former minister belongs to the same party as Temer which traditionally controls the Ministry of Mines and Energy the MME began pressuring ANEEL to accept Transnorte’s threefold return request the ministry’s Secretary of Energy Planning and Development asked the agency to analyze “the situation in its entirety the economic and financial rebalancing of the contract.” Here the Ministry of Energy and Mines seems to be subtly suggesting ANEEL reconsider a better deal for Transnorte agreeing to potentially readjust the firm’s returns upward This view gained strength on February 27, when the National Defense Council decided that the Tucuruí Transmission Line was strategic for national security — a measure aimed at providing the legal go ahead for construction despite all indigenous and environmental opposition the decision-making power of two inter-ministerial councils — both headed by the minister of Mines and Energy former naval officer Bento Albuquerque — is apparently being leveraged to push the transmission line ahead The councils are empowered to ask the President of the Republic for exceptional measures — such as ordering that Transnorte’s contested profitability demands be accepted the Electricity Industry Monitoring Committee sent a recommendation to the National Energy Policy Council for there to be recognition “by the Granting Power [to ANEEL in this case] of the exceptional and specific conditions for the implementation of the project in order to facilitate the beginning of construction on the Transmission Line.” The recommendation clears the way for Bolsonaro to authorize construction the Public Ministry and other institutions object — an indication that the administration wants the project done regardless of monetary Minister Bento Albuquerque held a series of meetings with federal bodies that could potentially interfere and hold up progress stitching together support for Bolsonaro’s administrative decisions The military has long supported major infrastructure development in the Amazon as a matter of national security a series of meetings were also held between representatives of the Ministry of Mines and Energy and ANEEL to discuss the conditions demanded by Transnorte the executive MME secretary pressured ANEEL to accept the sums demanded by the consortium the Ministry of Mines and Energy refused to comment on these activities The Waimiri-Atroari Community Association has announced that it will continue resisting the transmission line through its demarcated territory. Indigenous peoples also reiterated their demand that they be properly consulted and pointed out that of the 37 impacts identified by the project’s studies 27 are irreversible — underlining the seriousness of their fears the [indigenous] community’s only concern is with the correct identification of the real socioenvironmental impacts that the undertaking will have on the life territory and culture of the Waimiri-Atroari people — and what should be done to avoid and/or mitigate them as much as possible,” their representatives wrote in a statement published in June 2019 As Bolsonaro moves to fast track the powerline researchers and the Public Ministry continue to argue that there are better alternatives for achieving Roraima energy autonomy Researchers at the Federal University of Rondônia (UFRO) and Unicamp have suggested solar energy production could offer a cheaper According to experts, the total cost of energy produced by the transmission line (US$ 60/MWh) would be about 30 percent more than that of photovoltaic solar production (US$ 45/MWh). And that’s not to mention the advantage in terms of speed of implementation: a technical note signed by three solar specialists and endorsed by the MPF in Amazonas indicated that solar-produced electricity could be made available before transmission line construction completion “Alternative energies are produced by smaller structures [but] the [photovoltaic] sector doesn’t yet have a lobby as consolidated and problematic as hydroelectric energy,” explained Marcelo Laterman one of the researchers responsible for the analysis The question looming today among environmental and indigenous activists is when will the clandestine administrative maneuvers of the Bolsonaro administration necessarily burst into public view — and how strong will public resistance be then to the powerline’s completion Banner image caption: A portion of the existing Tucuruí Transmission Line close to the Amazonas and Pará border Please press and hold the button until it turns completely green If you believe this is an error, please contact our support team 147.45.197.102 : 13329f24-af37-4c30-bb09-3aebd452 Nonprofit journalism dedicated to creating a Human Age we actually want to live in and educators who rely on Anthropocene to keep up to date on the latest sustainability and climate science and innovations Newsletters Newsletters Science Dispatch (weekly) Fixing Carbon (twice a month) Sign Up Sign up for Anthropocene's free newsletters Sign up hydropower poses some of the thorniest problems Using rivers to spin turbines can produce copious amounts of electricity without burning fossil fuels Dams have helped power industries in much of the developed world from 19th century textile mills to 21st century server farms But these dams can come with enormous environmental costs some nearly as tall as the Empire State Building turn free-flowing rivers into stagnant lakes deprive downstream areas of fertile sediment and release methane that contributes to climate change scientists wielding powerful computers say they have created a tool that could help maximize hydropower production while minimizing environmental damage in the Amazon basin “AI (artificial intelligence ) is being used by Wall Street for all kinds of purposes – why not use AI to tackle serious problems like sustainability?” said Carla Gomes a Cornell University computer scientist who helped lead the research Hydroelectric dams have gone out of fashion in much of Europe and North America, in some cases leading to their demolition. Further south, however, a building spree is happening. Worldwide, as many as 3,700 hydroelectric dams are planned or under construction 358 dams capable of generating more than 1 megawatt of power each are proposed more than double the number now operating or under construction But deciding which dams to build is often a piecemeal process The power benefits and environmental impacts are weighed on a case-by-case basis Yet the effects can stretch far beyond a dam’s immediate vicinity Gomes and Cornell biologist Alexander Flecker started to explore whether the data-crunching prowess of today’s computers could help provide a broader view weighing the pros and cons of different hydropower projects at a region-wide scale the duo enlisted 38 other scientists from universities non-profits and government agencies around the globe They compiled data for how 509 current and proposed Amazon River dams could affect fish sediment movement and methane emissions on 3,000 different stretches of river as well as the power-generation potential for each dam the calculations might seem relatively straightforward But the total added up to 10153 possible combinations of dams or more than the total number of atoms in the universe In a textbook case of scientific understatement Gomes noted that “the computational requirements are formidable.” The findings are “a powerful demonstration of lost opportunities with previous poor dam placement,” wrote two scientists not involved in the study – Gordon Holtgrieve of the University of Washington and Mauricio Arias of the University of South Florida – in the same issue of Science To help policymakers decide where to build dams in the future, the scientists created a website enabling people to see how well different dams performed depending on which environmental factors are considered Such an approach helps zero in on the dams that will best meet a variety of needs at once  “As more environmental criteria are included,” Flecker said “fewer dams remain that can be considered relatively low impact pointing to the need for examining many different objectives simultaneously.” The tool could be a model for better coordinating dam construction to minimize the problems not just in the Amazon But the scientists note that a variety of other factors will play a role dam construction is usually handled at the national level making it more challenging to coordinate decisions on river systems that cross borders Politics inside a country can also influence where dams get built Even a supercomputer can’t account for those variables “Reducing adverse impacts of Amazon hydropower expansion.” Science Image via Flickr CC Our work is available free of charge and advertising. We rely on readers like you to keep going. Donate Today At time when ocean reserve protections are threatened new research shows bans on fishing made kelp ecosystems more resilient  The upshot: getting people to adopt eco-friendly habits won’t necessarily translate into support for environmental policies or political parties  Smart climate ideas delivered right to your inbox ©2025 Anthropocene Magazine and Future Earth | All rights reserved We will never share your email address unless you allow us to do so. View our privacy policy Easy unsubscribe links are provided in every email  JPEG Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC This false-color image shows the central part of the Vakhsh River A satellite image offers inky evidence of the organic-rich freshwater that the Suwannee River delivers to the Gulf of Mexico As the ground began to thaw and snow melted, the Dnieper River and its tributaries swelled with spring run-off. According to news reports, the rivers caused some damage as flood waters inundated small cities along their banks. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite captured this image of the river system on April 4 Four major rivers are shown running into the Dnieper the large river that forms the trunk of this tree-like structure The center right branch is formed by the Sozh River and its tributaries and running into it from the top left is the Byarezina River The far left branch is formed by the Prypyats River Dilma Ferreira was brutally murdered in her home In celebration and remembrance of her life and struggle Real World Radio interviewed Soniamara Maranho We asked them about what it means to be a defender of peoples’ rights in Brazil and the current context in the Tucuruí region The MAB comrades described Dilma as a black woman an activist who struggled for peoples’ rights in the Brazilian Amazon and a leader in the discussions of women affected by dams in Brazil “Dilma Ferreira is the image of an affected woman who rebuilt herself as a subject of struggle in a devastated region and a reference for the historical resistance of a region which has still not been compensated for the impacts suffered by building of the Tucuruí Dam on the Tocantins River since the military dictatorship” She is a clear victim of the violent process of dam construction and she was the first peasant murdered that year according to the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) Soniamara Maranho considers that this murder took place in a context of increasing violence in the countryside added to the contempt already held by the Brazilian government towards defenders of peoples and territories: “For us, activists of the MAB and the Movement of People Affected by Dams in Latin America (MAR) Dilma’s murder fills our hearts with outrage but her memory remains alive in our conviction about the importance of the struggle for the freedom of the working class in Brazil and in all countries.” The region is still facing the historical effects of the Tucuruí Dam construction which started in 1976 and has been in operation since 1984 Countless communities have not been compensated for the impacts on the Tocantins River Countless families that have been displaced and still live next to one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the country do not have electricity in their homes and pay one of the highest rates in Brazil stated that peoples’ rights continue being violated: “The populations in the municipalities affected by Tucuruí have the lowest human development indices in Brazil and the wealth generated is not invested in education health or in improving the quality of life let alone infrastructure for the region.” The privatization of the Tocantins River is progressing: with the dam and the building of waterways they will increase the control over the river “Dilma was aware of the fact that she did not go unnoticed every person who fights and resists ends up being persecuted.” The Tucuruí Dam was built during the military dictatorship and until today the concession belongs to the State there is strong pressure to privatize the dam What happened to Dilma is a reflection of the historical and current context of human rights defenders in Brazil and Latin America: protection policies for defenders on an individual case-by-case basis will not solve the problems if the State does not resolve the conflict generated in the struggle of human rights defenders Tchenna Maso believes that “what is being proposed now And this is reflected in all the Latin American region our solution is for peoples to organize themselves and build their own safety nets and solidarity mechanisms among movements and organizations.” Dilma left behind a legacy of the struggle of the Amazonian woman who resisted until the end and fought to ensure peoples’ rights Interviews and piece produced by: Luana Hanauer – Friends of the Earth Brazil The TRF-1 (Regional Federal Court of Region 1) in Brasilia has decided not to nullify the auction and advance licensing conceded by Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment) by two votes to one This concerns work on the electricity transmission line between Manaus and Boa Vista three judges acknowledged that the Waimiri-Atroari people who live on part of the territory through which the work will pass must be consulted prior to the next phase of environmental licensing The Waimiri-Atroari tribe located in the north of the state of Amazonas and in the south of Roraima during the construction of the BR174 highway that joins the two state capitals The genocide almost led to the extinction of the kinja people The court’s decision on consultation of the indigenous people represents an important measure to ensure their constitutional rights are respected taken on 19 June took into account two moves by the Amazonas Federal Public Defender’s Office that called for suspension of the project on the grounds that it does not comply with a number of national regulations or with Convention 169 of the ILO (International Labour Organisation) The Convention is one of the main international instruments concerning indigenous people It imposes the need to consult the peoples involved every time legislative or administrative measures the case will now be sent for judgment by a wider group involves the installation of 259 electrical transmission aerials between the cities of Manaus and Boa Vista and will occupy 123 kilometres of indigenous land This project was declared to be “in the national interest” by president Jair Bolsonaro in an attempt to speed up its implementation The aim of the project is to link Roraima to the national grid the state is supplied by Venezuela and by thermoelectric plants You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience nuclear--almost sounds like Captain Planet via GIPHY These are the Big Hopes for alternative energy The solutions meant to rescue the world from carbon And in some countries they’re doing a really good job--most notably all across Europe which has significantly cut its fossil fuel emissions over the past 25 years But sometimes the pursuit of new energy sources blinds countries to potential consequences These consequences are generally preferable to fossil fuels Just because an energy source is renewable humanity should be just as concerned with reducing aggregate energy consumption as it is with finding alternatives to fossil fuels Hydroelectric power is probably the most disruptive alternative energy source available Energy-producing dams are essentially in a huge wrestling match with powerful rivers The ensuing tussle leads to many unintended effects The consequences of erecting a big dam in a river can include displacing communities that had relied on the river killing fish populations that cannot navigate around the new wall destruction of nearby environments through flooding expulsion of animals and even carbon and methane pollution as trees get destroyed here are the 5 strongest hydroelectric dams in the world: Brazil .on the Tocantins River has an annual generating capacity of  21.4 Terawatts per hour and was the first dam to be constructed in the Amazon Rainforest beginning back in the 1970s The Tucuruí is 7.8 miles in length and 236 feet tall The dam mostly provides electricity to industrial players that also benefit from improved navigation of a tamed river 13 million people have gained electricity from the dam, but the construction displaced 40,000 indigenous people and has killed fish and plant populations and led to deforestation and overall biodiversity loss Brazil claims to generate 75% of its energy from hydroelectric power 4) The Guri Dam in Bolívar State, Venezuela on the Caroni River is 4.6 miles long and 531 feet tall. It supplies 70% of the country’s electricity demands. Venezuela has made renewable energy the centerpiece of its energy grid saves the country 300,000 barrels of oil a day Although the dam is key to Venezuela’s economy Flooding from the dam created a lake that destroyed thousands of square miles of forest The history of the Guri also highlights another potential problem with dams: inconsistent water flow A drought in 2010 led to widespread rolling blackouts 3) China’s Yangtze River travels for 3,915 miles On the upper section of the river sits the 3rd largest dam in the world which is 937 feet tall and 2,300 feet wide It has annual capacity of 57.1 TWh and was constructed to better manage flooding The dam offsets about 150m tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, but 180,000 people were displaced to make way for construction The Xiluodu is part of China’s ultra-aggressive hydropower ambitions that are overshooting the country’s water supply and encroaching on the sovereignty of other countries (not surprisingly downstream countries are not a huge fan of upstream rivers) China is home to half of the world’s 80,000 dams and has more dams than the US These dams have already begun to ruin farmland, destroy fish populations and make regions more prone to earthquakes and landslides 2) Coming in at #2 isThe Itaipu Dam straddling the border of Paraguay and Brazil on the Paraná River This $19.6 billion USD (240% overcost) dam stretches 4.9 miles and climbs 643 feet into the air It has an annual generating capacity of 87.8 TWh supplying 75% of Paraguay’s energy and 17% of Brazil’s 50 million tons of earth and rock were moved during construction The concrete used to build the dam could fill 210 football stadiums and the iron and steel could build 380 Eiffel Towers Like the other dams, the Itaipu has caused biodiversity loss mass erosion and wildlife destruction and displacement of thousands of families However, the dam produces as much energy as burning 434,000 barrels of oil per day 1) Further down the Yangtze River in China lives the most powerful dam in the world: The Three Gorges Dam which spans 1.45 miles and is 594 feet tall The $26 billion (USD) dam produces 98.8 TWh annually and supplies 1.7% of China’s gargantuan energy demand Nine provinces and two cities consume energy from the dam size and controversy seem to increase together is the poster child of harmful ecological impact for dams 1.2 million people were displaced by the dam as waters submerged huge swaths of land. Deforestation, land erosion, plummeting fish stocks, biodiversity loss and other impacts have occurred While the dam is able to limit harmful flooding for downstream farmers it has been blamed for exacerbating droughts and leading to damage from too much silt inefficient vehicles would be taken off roads energy companies would be forced to do all they could to optimize every home and building economies would be restructured to drastically cut energy use solar panel creation and installation would receive major subsidies no new drilling licenses would be given to oil and gas companies existing licenses would be drastically curbed and whatever else needed to be done to halt climate change and promote sustainable development would be done I can’t help but notice that under the mantle of renewable energy a lot of variables go unconsidered countries have to be more careful when they implement alternative sources of energy For systems as massive as hydroelectric dams you’d think the calculus of harm versus benefit would be better managed If you agree that everyone should have access to safe then go to TAKE ACTION NOW to call on the US congress to pass the Electricty Africa Act Share your thoughts with me on Facebook or Twitter According to a new report by Greenpeace and Nissan are sourcing pig iron that has resulted in the destruction of Amazon rainforests Spending two years documenting the pig iron trade between northeastern Brazil and the U.S. Greenpeace has discovered that rainforests are cut and burned to power blast furnaces that produce pig iron “Despite attention to the problem over the years little has been done and household consumer products in the U.S can still be traced back to illegalities and forest destruction in the Amazon,” the Greenpeace report reads Brazil’s Carajás region is home to 43 blast furnaces used by 18 different companies The blast furnaces depend largely on illegal camps that cut and burn rainforest for charcoal The massive pig iron production in the region has been actively promoted by the Brazilian government and financed in the past by the World Bank such promotion has not kept the industry clean as Greenpeace documented several types of fraud from running an operation without a license to creating fake companies to keep timber sources hidden much of the fuel comes from illegal logging Greenpeace linked two of the largest pig iron companies run by Severstal and from there to major car manufacturers like Ford Viena also exports its pig iron to Cargill which in turn sells the steel to John Deere “Greenpeace’s research found Viena and Sidepar fueling their foundries with illegal charcoal connected to the region’s pandemic illegalities including slavery and invasions into indigenous lands,” reads the report Around 70-80 percent of the region’s forests have been lost already with the bulk of it since pig iron production began in the mid-1980s loggers are now entering indigenous lands and conservation areas have lost over 30 percent of their land to the illegal loggers “Loggers flagrantly violate the law and bring in multiple trucks for hauling away timber and often enter indigenous lands well armed,” reads the Greenpeace report Despite this issue being in the media since 2006 companies have taken little action or responsibility according to Greenpeace Greenpeace activists worked to draw attention to the problem by occupying a boat with a shipment of pig iron bound for the U.S The activists demand that the issue be raised at the upcoming Rio+20 UN Summit on Sustainable Development “President Dilma is preparing to host the world’s elite in Rio while turning a blind eye to forest crime in her own backyard Slavery and illegal deforestation have no place in modern Brazil,” said Greenpeace Brazil Amazon Campaign Director Paulo Adario “The Amazon is being thrown into a furnace while President Dilma and the world’s biggest car companies look the other way.” As pig iron producers run out of native forests to burn in the Carajás region the blast furnaces are being run increasingly by monoculture plantations of eucalyptus trees This practice poses its own problems including pollution Greenpeace makes social media push for zero deforestation in Brazil (05/12/2012) Greenpeace is leveraging social media in its push for a zero deforestation target in Brazil Brazil’s Congress OKs weakened version of forest law; environmentalists outraged (04/26/2012) Brazil’s Congress on Wednesday approved controversial changes to the country’s Forest Code a move supporters argue will simplify environmental laws and ease agricultural expansion but environmentalists say will spark deforestation and grant amnesty for past illegal logging The measure needs to be approved by President Dilma Rousseff to become law Pictures: Destruction of the Amazon’s Xingu River begins for Belo Monte Dam (04/18/2012) The Xingu River will never be the same Construction of Belo Monte Dam has begun in the Brazilian Amazon as shown by these photos taken by Greenpeace some of the first images of the hugely controversial project Indigenous groups have opposed the dam vigorously for decades fearing that it will upend their way of life Environmentalists warn that the impacts of the dam—deforestation and an irreparable changes to the Xingu River’s ecosystem—far outweigh any benefits which would be the world’s third largest is expected to displace 16,000 people according to the government The dam will flood over 40,000 hectares of pristine rainforest an area nearly seven times the size of Manhattan Brazil can eliminate deforestation by 2020, says governor of giant Amazon state (04/05/2012) Brazil can reduce Amazon deforestation to zero by 2020 while boosting rural livelihoods and maintaining healthy economic growth the governor of Pará told mongabay.com on the sidelines of the Skoll World Forum a major conference on social entrepreneurship Governor Simao Jatene is hopeful that a revolution in land management and governance can turn the tide in Pará a state that is three times the size of California and has lost more Amazon forest — 90,000 sq km of Amazon forest since 1996 — over the past decade-and-a-half than any other in Brazil BP moves into the Amazon rainforest (04/03/2012) BP has acquired a stake in on exploration block in the heart of the Amazon rainforest Researchers launch tool that predicts Amazon deforestation a year before it happens (03/30/2012) Researchers have developed a methodology for accurately predicting where deforestation will occur in the Amazon up to a year in advance enabling law enforcement agencies and officials to take preventative action before trees are actually chopped down a forestry expert told mongabay.com on the sidelines of the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship Greenpeace calls for zero deforestation globally by 2020 (03/22/2012) Greenpeace reiterated its call for an end to deforestation in Brazil by 2015 and globally by 2020 during its launch of an awareness-raising expedition down the Amazon River aboard the Rainbow Warrior A community affected in the Tucuruí area where the MAB activist was killed has been fighting for rights for more than 30 years - Handout/MAB Pará A triple homicide last week in northern Brazil took the life of a regional coordinator of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) who was affected by the Tucuruí hydro power plant and was an MAB coordinator since 2005 was killed in her home in the Salvador Allende settlement The Tucuruí hydro power plant was built during the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and is one of the country’s biggest plants It is located 310 kilometers (roughly 200 miles) from the capital of Pará state Approximately 32,000 people were displaced to build the dam and they have been fighting for more than 30 years to have their rights respected they have never received compensatory damages According to the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) Silva is the first land activist to be killed in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019 five people riding on three motorcycles arrived at Silva’s house around 9pm on Thursday There was loud music coming from the house all night a school bus stopped outside Silva’s home as the activist worked as a monitor at a local school The workers got off the bus and found the three bodies according to the first information disclosed by the investigators The murder weapon was found and sent to forensics The MAB coordinator had injuries all over her body and her throat was cut The police believe she may have been tortured and investigators are treating it as an execution State authorities released a statement saying the police created a special task force to investigate the triple homicide They argued that it is still early to detail one specific theory to explain the motive behind the crime there is no conflict involving the area where Silva lived as the old occupation was regularized by Brazil's Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) in 2012 Silva’s funeral took place on Saturday afternoon in Monte Castelo The MAB is planning to meet with the chair of the Human Rights and Minorities Committee of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies to discuss the case and demand protection for human rights defenders in the state of Pará The Salvador Allende settlement is located at the Transcametá Road in Pará The area used to be the Piratininga Farm which was occupied by the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) in 2011 After gunmen kicked out the workers who were occupying the land the MAB joined the MST and the Federation of Small Family Farmers (FETRAF) to organize the families The area was claimed at the time by farmer Renato Lima The INCRA found he did not have the documents to prove he owned the land and started the conversations to include the area in its land reform policy the families started to receive their plots of land Silva was one of the recipients and started to dedicate herself to farming and organizing a MAB grassroots group in the community Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his outrage over the brutal assassination his laywer Emídio de Souza reported “Those who fight for land rights have always suffered in Brazil,” Lula said once again these people are working to terrorize social movements and try to silence us But we are like seeds: when they try to bury us The ex-president also sent his love and solidarity to the families and said he trusts social movements to fight back “They [the criminals] deserve our and the Brazilian society’s disapproval and our demand that this assassination will not go unpunished Those who ordered the crime and those who executed it must be jailed.” Dilma Rousseff also expressed her condolences for the victims and their families She released a statement called “the murder of an activist for life” honoring Silva’s activism and attacking the hate speech of the Jair Bolsonaro administration Dilma Ferreira Silva took part in a public forum with Rousseff and handed her a document calling for a national policy to ensure rights for people affected by dams 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 Dilma Ferreira Silva (right) and the then president of Brazil A regional coordinator of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) was assassinated in northern Brazil She was with her husband and other family members when the crime happened but it is still unclear whether they were hurt “The MAB still does not know the exact number of people who were killed or the reasons behind the crime,” a statement released by the organization reads.” “It is a sad moment in the history of people affected by dams, who were celebrating World Water Day today.” The MAB also wrote that it “demands a quick investigation into the crime and the implementation of safety measures for people affected by dams in Brazil.” Silva took part in a public forum with the then president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff and handed her a document calling for a national policy to ensure rights for people affected by dams provided it is not altered and proper credit is given.