The Tocantins-Araguaia Basin: Brazil's "National Sacrifice Area?"
6/25/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: The Tocantins-Araguaia Basin: Brazil's "National Sacrifice
Area?"
Source: International Rivers Network
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: June 25, 1999
Byline: Glen Switkes
ABSTRACT OF SUBMISSION TO WORLD COMMISSION ON DAMS FOR LATIN AMERICAN
PUBLIC HEARING, SAO PAULO, 12-13 AUGUST, 1999
At the height of the energy crisis in the 1970's, the United States'
National Academy of Sciences issued an opinion that, if the
government found it necessary for the good of the nation to exploit
surface coal deposits in the arid west, it should consider
designating such areas "national sacrifice areas", due to the
irreversible environmental impacts which would be sure to result. The
public reacted, and the crisis subsided, permitting wiser longer-
range planning to prevail.
Now, if the Brazilian government has its way, over the next 10-20
years the Tocantins-Araguaia Basin, an area one and a half times the
size of France, corresponding to 10% of Brazil's national territory,
will be sacrificed to enrich a handful of commercial interests -- and
at the cost of a further decline in the quality of life of
inhabitants of the region. A network of 15 large hydroelectric dams
will be built to generate electricity for urban centers and
industries in southern Brazil; more than 2,500 km. of the river
system will be channelized to permit passage by barge convoys,
principally hauling soy destined to fatten pigs and chickens in
Europe; and as much as 16 million hectares of the cerrado (savanna),
an area whose biodiversity is comparable to that of the Amazon (WWF,
1995), as well as transition forests of the Amazon will be deforested
and converted to agricultural monocultures, principally soybeans,
polluting and creating sedimentation problems for the most important
river system of the eastern Amazon.
In a country with the most unequal distribution of wealth and land
distribution in Latin America, and with well-documented negative
social and ecological impacts resulting from the implantation of
prior "development poles" in the region, the perverse "build them and
they will come" focus on large-scale infrastructure projects as
motors for regional development encouraged by multilateral financial
institutions appears to represent the antithesis of sustainable
development strategies, today high on the agenda of civil society
organizations, and receiving at least symbolic approval from the
world's governments.
Striking in the lack of environmental planning for this vast agro-
energy complex is the fact that there are no studies of the
cumulative or basin-wide impacts of the execution of this development
pole. Foreign consultants have been contracted to come up with data
on agricultural potential, but have failed to look at the impacts of
this nexus of projects on world-class wetlands, tropical forests and
threatened savannas, or on the indigenous peoples, fishermen, or
small farmers who directly depend on the water resources of the
Tocantins, Araguaia, and tributaries.
The dam network planned for the Tocantins-Araguaia basin is the
cornerstone for expansion of the generating potential of the
Brazilian electric sector over the next two decades. It includes the
second phase of Tucurui and the completion of Serra da Mesa and
Lajeado Dams, plus the planned Serra Quebrada, Estreito, Tupirantins,
Peixes, and Cana Brava dams, among others; the first dam on the
Araguaia River, Couto de Magalhaes and the massive Santa Isabel,
which will require relocation of upward of 75,000 people, and dams on
the Itacaiunas and Parauapebas tributaries of the Tocantins, in the
Amazon region. A 1,276 km. transmission line, built with financing
from the Inter-American Development Bank and Japanese Exim Bank makes
feasible the export of electricity from this dam network to
population centers in southern Brazil. Converting the Tocantins into
a virtual staircase of large dams will affect not only the river
itself, but also the savannas whose biodiversity depends on the
region's water resources. Damming the upper Araguaia will affect
downstream wetlands and lakes associated with the floodplain river,
including the world's largest fluvial island, the Ilha do Bananal.
The Araguaia-Tocantins Hidrovia should be analyzed within the context
of its synergy with this dam network. Besides the navigation locks
which will required at each new dam, it should be analyzed whether
the hydroelectric dams do not, in fact, constitute a competing use of
the rivers' water resources, since flow will be retained in
reservoirs during the low water season, with the soy harvest, when
project proponents say navigation is most critical. There are viable
transportation alternatives to the implantation of this barge
corridor, which seems to be planned more to spur the expansion of soy
plantations throughout the region, worsening problems with erosion,
and contaminating water courses with agrotoxics.
A key aspect of this process is the government's failure to consult
with those who would be most directly affected by these major
infrastructure projects -- some 15 indigenous ethnic groups with a
population of more than 20,000, the estimated 38,000 fishermen who
annually catch some 9,000 tons of fish in the Araguaia-Tocantins
basin (Ribeiro, Petrere, and Juras, 1995), and operators in the
region's rapidly growing eco-tourism industry for whom the
destruction of the region's natural beauty would bring economic
losses.
Participation by civil society in the decision-making process
regarding these projects is more than just a legal requirement, or a
moral and ethical exercise - rather it is a practical tool by which a
broader array of interests may help shape development plans to
guarantee the sharing of benefits. By contrast, the soy expansion
will displace small landholders, eliminating more jobs than it
creates, and the construction of infrastructure projects will create
only temporary employment -- even while cities in the region are
already swelling with migrants drawn by the illusive promise of jobs.
Brazil has some of the best environmental laws in Latin America on
paper, but not without reason has it been called the "country of
impunity" because of the failure of government agencies to enforce
these laws, or to unequally enforce them, favoring powerful economic
and political interests over those of the majority. The Environmental
Impact Assessment process is a good example, with no public
consultation during the planning for these projects and the analysis
of alternatives; no studies of cumulative or basin-wide impacts -
instead the projects are analyzed individually as if they were taking
place in a vacuum; and the failure to carry out proscribed mitigation
plans, which are only loosely monitored by State agencies.
Recommendations:
1. Comprehensive studies of the synergistic effect of the
infrastructure and agrobusiness projects being implemented as part
of the Tocantins-Araguaia development pole should be carried out
before any further large-scale engineering projects are begun;
2. Attempts should be made to assess the distribution of costs and
benefits of these projects, in order to guarantee that local
populations share significantly in development benefits;
3. Regional development planning should prioritize sustainable
activities which draw from the traditional economic strategies of
local populations, and which preserve the cultural diversity of
the region;
4. The Electric Sector should internalize the environmental, social,
and economic costs of construction of large dams, and provide
incentives for less costly energy alternatives and conservation
measures;
5. The rights of indigenous populations should be respected in the
planning of large-scale projects which threaten their physical,
cultural, and spiritual survival;
6. Ongoing environmental damage and social debts from already
constructed projects, including Tucurui and Serra da Mesa dams,
should be resolved before new projects are built;
7. Populations affected by dams and hidrovias should have the right
to be informed regarding these plans, consulted during the
planning phases, and if they decide the project will significantly
negatively impact their land, culture, or way of life, should have
the right to veto destructive projects.
CONTACT:
Glenn Switkes
Director, Latin America Program
International Rivers Network
a/c ARCA, C.P. 28
Rua Maneco Albernaz, 33
78.195-000 Chapada dos Guimaraes, MT
Brasil
tel/fax: +55.65.791.1313
email: glen@zaz.com.br