Indigenous Conference Rejects Hidrovia Mega-Project
5/8/96
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/* Written 12:56 AM May 8, 1996 by gillesc@ix.netcom.com in
igc:rainfor.genera */
/* ---------- "HIDROVIA dam project rejected in So" ---------- */
This article was featured in the Spring 1996 issue of _Abya Yala News_
(Vol. 10 No.1) entitled Indigenous Women Organizing. _Abya Yala News_ is
published by the South and Meso American Indian Rights Center. Contact
information is given at the end.
INDIGENOUS CONFERENCES REJECT THE HIDROVIA MEGA-PROJECT
"This project doesn't value the rivers, the streams, the forests, the
fish, the birds, the Indigenous peoples, nor life. It only values the
winnings of a few businessmen." - First Indigenous Encounter of the
Paraguay River Basin
Indigenous peoples who stand to lose their homes and livelihood as the
result of the Hidrovia industrial waterway project on the Paraguay-Parana
river system met in October of 1995 to discuss the project's impact on
their traditional economies, and to agree on a plan of action against
Hidrovia. Nivakle, Ayoreo, Angaite, Guana, Guarani N~andeva, and Guarani
Occidental representatives from the Paraguay and Pilcomayo river basins
met separately and came up with a detailed plan of action against a
project which they say will spell disaster for the environment and the
communities.
The Hidrovia project would require widening and deepening the channels of
the Paraguay and Parana, South America's second largest water system, to
allow ocean-going ships access to the port of Caceres, Brazil, 2,100
miles upstream from the river's mouth near Buenos Aires. Under the plan
being studied, the rivers would be channeled, straightened, and dredged,
with tributaries of the river blocked off and rock outcroppings in the
channel detonated.
Indigenous peoples and environmentalists insist that Hidrovia, nicknamed
"Hell9s Highway," would devastate the river ecosystems, including the
Pantanal wetland (the largest in the world), and by extension, the
traditional economies of the Indigenous peoples which are based on
fishing. In the meetings, Indigenous leaders protested that Hidrovia
threatens to worsen the already precarious living standards of the people
dependent on the river basins and lead to the colonization of nearby
lands. "Only 20 percent of Indigenous communities in Paraguay have legal
titles to their land, and only a fraction of these are adequate for
sustaining a traditional lifestyle," stresses the declaration of the
Paraguay basin. "The [Indian] territories of the entire region will
experience pressures even greater than those that exist presently due to
speculation on the value of land and the establishment of ranching and
agricultural industries. The result will be more forced evictions,
starting with the riverine populations."
The Indigenous coalitions also stated that they were "extremely worried"
at the lack of information and evasive nature of the governmental
institutes carrying out the project. This concern was the impetus for the
formation of the Rios Vivos coalition, re-grouping 300 NGOs and
Indigenous organizations worldwide. In December 1995, following 3 years
of pressure to achieve public participation in the Hidrovia process, the
Inter-Governmental Committee on Hidrovia (CIH), made up of the states of
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay accepted a proposal
from Rios Vivos to provide access to all documents from the feasibility
studies of Hidrovia. Nevertheless, CIH continues to state that
construction will begin in the next few months. This has fueled doubts by
Indigenous organizations and environmental groups that they will have a
meaningful role in the decision-making process.
The resolutions of the Paraguay and Pilcomayo Indigenous encounters call
for the unification of Indigenous peoples affected by Hidrovia and the
joint preparation and publication of a diagnostic of the social and
environmental conditions they face. As a counter-example to the official
feasibility studies carried out by the governments, the diagnostic would
directly involve the leaders of Indigenous communities. Important too is
the translation and distribution of information on the Hidrovia project
in all the Indian languages spoken in area of impact. Lastly, they call
for an intense and constant Indigenous presence in all of the local,
regional, national, and international instances where decisions on
Hidrovia are being made.
Information compiled from original documents and from World Rivers Review
(December, 1996), the newsletter of the International Rivers Network
(IRN). For more information, contact:
Coordinadora de Pueblos Indigenas de la Cuenca del Rio Pilcomayo, C.C.
1380, Asuncion-Paraguay; Tel: (595-21) 24-427; Fax: (595 21) 550-451;
IRN, 1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94703; Tel: (510) 848-1155; Fax:
(510) 848-1008; Email: irn.org; WWW: http://www.irn.org/
"MAY WE DREAM OF A BETTER FUTURE?" - A Letter from Indigenous Peoples of
the Pantanal to the International Development Bank
(From Glenn Switkes, IRN)
The following letter was sent by 180 Indigenous people of the world's
largest wetlands, the Mato Grosso Pantanal, to the Inter-american
Development Bank, regarding the Bank's support for studies for the
Paraguay-Parana Hidrovia industrial waterway, and for the Pantanal
project, both of which will have environmental and cultural impacts on
the region, and both of which are being designed and implemented without
consultation with the traditional inhabitants of the region.
Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, January 27, 1996
"We, the Guatos, Terena, Kaiowa, Bororo, Umotina, Pareci and Kinikinao
are the traditional peoples that the Great Creator chose to live in and
protect this region of the world. Throughout time, our ancestors taught
us to live in harmony with the waters, birds, and plants, as a way of
giving thanks and nurturing this gift for our well-being.
"With the arrival of the white man came the roads and the railroad, and
then came diseases and new customs which were unknown to us. This was the
new civilization.
"IDB is now financing a large-scale project under the pretext of
developing the southern cone. We know that this project is part of a new
re-organization of the world economy, which will truly attend only the
ambitions of unscrupulous businessmen, where egotism, nepotism, and
political rivalries reign and only the fittest survive.
"In this context of the decadence of "modernity," we Indigenous peoples
were never considered, and were instead only victimized.
"We were never consulted, but we recommended that this type of ambition
must be halted for the good of humanity. Their money must not disrespect
and destroy the homes of our people and of the Great Creator.
"Our role is to serve the memory of our people and of the Great Creator.
Our role is to serve the memory of our ancestors and of our traditions
and to defend the Pantanal, because only in this way can we go forward
towards the future in search of a better life.
"At the First Meetings of Indians of the Pantanal, the Indigenous voice
asks: Why do they want to destroy the natural waterway? Who is going to
benefit? Who is going to become rich with this? Up to what point is the
IDB aware of the threat of destruction and empoverishment which the
large-scale projects bring for our people.
"We appeal to the Bank to be clear and transparent in its proposals,
because our villages are worried. Will we be victims? Or may we dream of
a better future?
"For more information, contact: Rios Vivos Secretariat, Campo Grande,
Brazil; tel: 55-67-724-3230; fax: 55-67-724-9109; email:
ecoabrmspant@ax.apc.org
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South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC)
P.O. Box 28703
Oakland, CA 94110
Tel: 510-834-4263
Fax: 510-834-4264
E-mail: saiic@igc.apc.org
WWW: http://www.igc.apc.org/saiic/saiic.html