Venezuela: Indians Protest Powerlines, Paralyse Work
6/6/97
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Headline: Venezuela: Indians Protest Powerlines, Paralyse Work
Source: Environment News
Date: 6/6/97
Author: Dominic Hamilton
PEMON INDIANS PARALYZE POWERLINES
By Dominic Hamilton
SANTA ELENA DE UAIREN, Bolivar, Venezuela, May 17, 1997 (ENS) - In a
dramatic twist last week, Pemon Indians affected by the high-tension
power lines set to cross their traditional lands twice paralysed work
near the villages of San Rafael de Kamoiran and San Francisco de
Yuruani in Venezuela's southeastern Bolivar State. The action came as a
result of the state-owned company CVG-EDELCA and INPARQUES failing to
reply to letters from the Pemon pleading for information and
consultation.
Kenton Miller, the director of the prestigious World Resources
Institute, has voiced his concern over the proposed high-tension
powerlines plan which will affect the reknowned World Heritage Site of
Canaima National Park in southeastern Venezuela.
In a letter to the Venezuelan Parks Institute (INPARQUES) president,
Luisa Himiob de Rojas, Miller has asked for more information regarding
the plans and for the institute's position to them. Himiob has already
voiced her support for the project.
Government institutions have in fact broken the Venezuelan Law of
Administrative Proceedings by failing to reply to the Pemons' letters
within fifteen days. Pemon leaders stated they would continue to stop
the project until they are presented with detailed plans regarding the
positioning of vertices, and involved in all consultation.
The Pemon General Captain is concerned the lines will open Pemon
traditional lands to mining and other extractive activities which have
already caused serious damage in the region.
In a leaked report by the consultancy firm involved in the powerlines
project, the budget for the southern half of the powerlines' trajectory
alone could cost Venezuela up to $30 million. It is scheduled for
completion by August 1998, just in time for national elections in both
Brazil and Venezuela.
Work is set to begin in July of this year and leaves little time for
consultation or for an adequate Environmental Impact Assessment to be
carried out.
The section of powerline affecting the huge Canaima National Park is a
230kV line running 204km from the proposed Las Claritas substation to
the north of the park to the town of Santa Elena de Uairen on the Pan
American Highway close to the border with Brazil. This section incudes
a substation in the mining settlement of Las Cristinas.
The entire route falls within protected areas: 80% in Canaima National
Park (60% of this within the strict protection zones), 15% in the
Imataca Forest Reserve and 5% in the Sur del Estado Bolivar Protection
Zone. The impact of the powerlines on what is an extremely fragile and
varied ecosystem, with an extremely high proportion of species found
nowhere else in the world will be extensive.
The area forms part of the world's largest tropical wilderness area.
The leaked plan describes the service corridor, which runs the length
of the line, as being between 12 meters wide in savanna and 33 meters
wide in forest, including a 3-6 meters wide track on either side of the
lines to allow travel in 4 wheel drive vehicles. The access roads will
be 3-6 meters wide to allow penetration of heavy machinery and 4WD
vehicles. The sites for pylons will require the clearing of 50-100
square meters of vegetation.
Environmentalist groups in Venezuela are particularly concerned by the
impact on the mountain range of the Sierra de Lema which is still
largely unexplored and known for the uniqueness of its plant life. It
is feared that the damage inflicted on the forest by power line
construction will seriously affect animal life within the range which
is largely untouched, situated as it is on the northeastern edge of the
park.
The chief beneficiary of the powerlines is certain to be the mining
industry based in Las Claritas the north of the National Park, but
also, and more worryingly, mining activities which are increasing on
the park's southern border north and west of the town of Santa Elena de
Uairen.
Despite legislation protecting this southern region, damage due to
small and medium scale mining has increased dramatically over the last
years due to the complicity of government institutions such as the
Guardia Nacional and Ministry of Mines and Energy.
It is rumoured the government hopes to open up all the area to the
south of the Park to large scale mining, for which large amounts of
electricity will be a prerequisite.
Confusingly, the leaked document also states benefits of the plan as
providing electricity to the Pemon communities along the road and
proposed route, despite the fact that these communities already have
adequate hydropower installations.
It is doubtful whether the Pemons' protest will stop the project
completely at this late stage, but it is hoped their resistance will at
least diminish the potentially disastrous impact of the powerlines on
their land.