by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Apr 4, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction
By Agence France-Presse
Chile’s Supreme Court Wednesday removed the last legal obstacle to building a giant $2.9 billion hydroelectric complex in the Patagonian wilderness, rejecting a bid by environmentalists to block it.
The highly controversial project, which environmentalists say will wreck a unique and pristine habitat in the southern tip of South America, sparked violent protests last year.
The high court “confirmed it was rejecting” an appeal by green campaigners to halt the $2.9 billion HidroAysen project of Spanish-Chilean consortium Endesa-Colburn, a court spokesman said.
The decision upheld an October 2011 finding by a lower court that gave the green light for the project to generate 2,750 megawatts of power from five dams in two river valleys in Patagonia.
The plans involve flooding 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of largely uninhabited land in a quest to generate more electric power for Chile’s booming economy.
“The project is at a stage at which work is going on constantly,” said HidroAysen attorney Mario Galindo. “There are studies, environmental impact studies… and it is all moving ahead normally.”
But the project still needs approval from the government, after which construction would not begin until 2014, lasting about 10 years.
And environmentalists opposed to the plans said they would take their quest to derail the project to international bodies if needed.
Matias Asun of Greenpeace-Chile said “the project makes no sense environmentally. And it should not go ahead. So we will keep mobilizing alongside thousands of Chileans opposed” to it.
“Well, we are not happy with a negative ruling. But this is just a partial defeat,” Patricio Rodrigo with No Dams in Patagonia told CNN Chile.
Attorney Marcelo Castillo said the ruling was already being reviewed with an eye toward seeking international court involvement in the case.
From Agence France-Presse:
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Apr 2, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction, Colonialism & Conquest, Indigenous Autonomy, Lobbying
By Jeremy Hance / Mongabay
A federal judge has suspended the construction of a 1,820 megawatt dam on the Teles Pires River in the Amazon. The judge found that indigenous communities were not properly consulted about the dam, which would flood a sacred site, known as the Seven Waterfalls, as well as imperil the livelihoods of indigenous fishermen.
“The compensation [the government is] offering will never substitute places that are sacred to us, such as Sete Queda [Seven Waterfalls], that hold the cemeteries of our ancestors and that should be preserved. Sete Quedas is also the spawning grounds of fish that are an important source of food. They talk about fish ladders, but where have these ever worked?” Taravy Kayabi, a leader of the indigenous Kayabi people, said in a press release, adding that, “The government needs to look for alternative ways to generate energy that don’t harm indigenous peoples and their territories.”
The judge ordered that the indigenous tribes of the Kayabi, Manduruku, and Apiaká must be consulted before any further construction can occur on the Teles Pires Dam, named after the river. Breaking the suspension will result in a fine of $100,000 per day.
Still, NGOs warn that this is not the end of the Teles Pires Dam.
“What we’ve seen over and over again, in cases such as [the Belo Monte dam], is that the President’s office politically intervenes in regional federal courts to overturn decisions against violations of human rights and environmental legislation, using false arguments, such as an impending blackout if the dams aren’t immediately constructed,” said Brent Millikan, Amazon Program Director with International Rivers in a press release.
The Brazilian government is planning to build a number of massive hydroelectric projects in the Amazon, including the hugely controversial Belo Monte dam. The federal government argues it needs the energy in order to continue with development plans, but critics say that dams threaten already marginalized indigenous communities, ruin wild rivers, destroy pristine rainforest, and release greenhouse gases due to rotting vegetation in reservoirs.
Six hydroelectric projects are currently planned on the Teles Pires River.
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Mar 31, 2012 | Agriculture, Colonialism & Conquest, Indigenous Autonomy
By Survival International
New photographic evidence proves Ethiopia’s controversial plantations scheme is killing the Lower Omo River, a lifeline for 100,000 tribal people.
The Omo River downstream from the notorious Gibe III dam is now being diverted into a newly-dug irrigation canal, one of several which will feed a massively ambitious plantations scheme for state and private investors.
These manmade canals are key to Ethiopia’s plantations plan, which is already having a hugely negative impact on UNESCO’s Lower Omo World Heritage site.
The government has revealed virtually nothing about the plantations program, but an official map obtained by Survival shows the enormous scope of the project.
One local person, speaking to a Survival researcher who recently visited the area, said, ‘I’ve never seen the river this low. During the dry season, like it is now, you can usually cross by foot, and water reaches your knees. Now I could cross without my feet getting wet.’
The Gibe III dam, 200 kms upstream, will interrupt the river’s natural flow and deprive thousands of tribespeople of their most valuable agricultural land by stopping the annual flood.
The flooding of the Omo River feeds the rich biodiversity of the region and ensures tribes such as the Bodi, Mursi and Dassanach can feed their cattle and produce beans and cereals in the fertile silt left behind.
There was a flood last year, but most Bodi and Mursi were not able to use it for cultivation because of the irrigation project. There will be no flood this year, as the dam reservoir starts to fill, nor in succeeding years. The people have been told they will be given food aid in compensation.
Indigenous communities are also suffering from violent human rights abuses, as plans are implemented forcibly to resettle those who stand in the way of the government’s plans, and to take away their cattle.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Ethiopia’s government is destroying the Lower Omo Valley and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of indigenous people – all in the name of ‘development’. However the human cost cannot be ignored. Re-directing a water lifeline is irresponsible and reckless.’
From Survival International: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8228
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Mar 29, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction
By Lucy Hornby / Reuters
China’s Three Gorges Corp. on Thursday marked the beginning of construction for a dam that will flood the last free-flowing portion of the middle reaches of the Yangtze, the country’s longest river.
The 30 billion yuan ($4.75 billion) Xiaonanhai dam is decried by environmentalists because it will flood a nature reserve designed to protect about 40 species of river fish.
Completion of the dam would turn the middle section of the Yangtze into a series of reservoirs, leaving “no space for fish”, said environmentalist Ma Jun, who has been active for over two years in trying to prevent the dam.
“This is the last one, the last section in 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) along the Yangtze that was left for endangered or local fish species. This would be their last habitat,” Ma told Reuters.
A ceremony was held to commence early-stage preparation, including building a road and laying power lines and water pipes, said Zhu Guangming, news department director at Three Gorges Corp.
“Construction of the dam itself will begin only after we get final approval,” Zhu said, declining to give cost estimates.
“The government will give due consideration to all aspects including environment impact before issuing a permit.”
The Xiaonanhai dam would be the last in a series of 12 dams along the Yangtze, the rest of which are all completed or under construction.
The series will stretch inland from the Three Gorges Dam, which has created an inland reservoir more than 600 km long that has allowed the city of Chongqing to develop into an inland port. When completed, Xiaonanhai dam is designed to produce 1.76 gigawatts, a fraction of the 22.50 GW that the Three Gorges Dam will produce when it reaches full capacity.
AWAITING FINAL APPROVAL
The Chongqing municipal government is currently embroiled in a power struggle after the ambitious party secretary, Bo Xilai, was sacked earlier this month. The mega-city’s hard-charging police chief was also taken into custody by central authorities after spending a day in the nearest U.S. consulate.
Preliminary approval for the dam was issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top planning agency, which also has the authority to issue final approval.
The boundaries of the nature reserve were earlier re-drawn to allow the construction of the even larger Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu dams.
According to NGO International Rivers, which opposes the construction of large hydro dams and has been critical of China’s ambitious hydropower plans, the Xiangjiaba dam will be 6.4 GW and the Xiluodu dam 13.86 GW.
China wants to raise installed power capacity by 470 gigawatts (GW) to 1,437 GW by 2015 — the largest in the world. At least 110 gigawatts of the new capacity will be from hydro power — equivalent to five Three Gorges hydropower projects. Current hydropower capacity is 216 GW, also the world’s largest.
The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s biggest power project and was controversial well before it began construction in 1994.
Objections ranged from the destruction of rare species to the flooding of historic towns and displacement of millions of people, to concerns that it would quickly silt up and lose its efficiency in generating power.
It produces about 2 percent of China’s power.
Subsequent audits of the Three Gorges project showed that many of the flooded communities were never properly resettled while the steep banks of the reservoir have been plagued by dangerous landslides as the water undermines the hillsides.
In January, China’s environment ministry told hydropower developers they must “put ecology first” and pay strict attention to the impact of their projects on local rivers and communities.
From Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/us-china-dam-idUSBRE82S0GG20120329
Banner Photo by Dong Zhang on Unsplash
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Mar 29, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction
By Emmanuel Barraud / Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
To alter natural waterways is to take a serious risk of endangering species living on the entire length of a river. In a joint project, scientists from EPFL, EAWAG and Princeton University have modeled the flow of organisms living along river networks. Their research will be published this week in the journal PNAS.
Rivers and riverbanks are worlds in themselves; they are teeming with a rich and varied diversity of plant and animal life. But humans are constantly modifying this environment. Enormous projects such as canals, drainage, dams, diversions, and vegetation introduction have been undertaken to reclaim land and divert or obtain access to water.
It is now possible to precisely measure the impact of these alterations on riparian (river zone) biodiversity. Laboratory experiments using microorganisms have demonstrated the relevance of mathematical models that analyze the evolution of populations in these specific situations. The research, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), was conducted by scientists from EPFL, EAWAG (the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) and Princeton University.
Their conclusions should lead to increased caution when considering the alteration of riverbeds. The researchers showed that the observed biodiversity at a given point in the river is highly dependent on all the smaller tributaries feeding into it, and not uniquely on the specific conditions at that particular location. Channeling a branch of a tributary doesn’t just harm the fauna in that stretch of the tributary, but could have consequences on the entire river, even several kilometers downstream.
A river network in the lab
In their experiment, the scientists used trays, each holding 36 boxes of culture media, into which they distributed ten different species of microorganisms (protozoans and rotifers). In one case, they removed the water and its inhabitants from one box and transferred it to another, following a “dendritic” network based on the real path of an actual river and its tributaries. In the other case, they systematically pipetted it into the four closest boxes. “The organisms chosen allowed us to observe the evolution of populations over 50-100 generations, which took a month,” explains Francesco Carrara, a PhD student in EPFL’s Ecohydrology Laboratory (ECHO) and first author on the paper.
By simplifying the mechanism of the river network in this way, and by eliminating numerous parameters that are impossible to control in a natural setting, the researchers could obtain a precise picture of the direct effects of the network itself on the development and propagation of species. “We were thus able to experimentally prove the relevance of mathematical models that we had already applied to the Mississippi, the Amazon and the Rhine,” says Professor Andrea Rinaldo, director of the ECHO Laboratory.
The main conclusion of the research is that an evolution that follows a branched network ends up yielding a much higher variety of species at locations where waters come together. But that’s not all: populations that live close to the “sources” of each tributary also exhibit a much broader degree of diversity. According to the scientists, maintaining this rich upstream community is indispensable for the development of downstream biodiversity.
It is thus now proven that choking off any of these tributaries or modifying any hydrologic network could compromise the natural balance and downstream biodiversity – a fact that can no longer be ignored by anyone considering water management projects that would alter natural waterways.
From PhysOrg: http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-natural-river-networks-essential-biodiversity.html
