From: Gulf Times
The battle between preservation and development is red-hot in the Brazilian portion of the Amazon rainforest.
In the Xingu region, indigenous communities are getting their war paint ready: they are furious about Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s decision to build a controversial hydroelectric plant in the area.
For the government, the massive Belo Monte plant is vital to guarantee the power supply in Amazonia, to generate jobs and to secure better living standards for people in the region.
“Don’t ask me to make 25mn people living in Amazonia live at the mercy of “muricocas” (a type of mosquito). Those people want development, they want industrialisation, they want to have a car, a television, a phone,” Lula said recently.
In recent weeks, Brazil committed to reducing its current emissions of greenhouse gases by up to 38.9% by 2020. Officials hope to attain half of this emissions cut by an 80% reduction in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
Significantly, the expansion of hydroelectric energy plants is regarded as another important factor in the effort to cut down the emissions of harmful gases.
For the 15 indigenous nations living in the area where the controversial plant is set to be built, however, Belo Monte represents not the dream of a better life, but rather a major threat, dangerous enough to spur an armed resistance to the project.
In a letter to Lula in November, more than 280 indigenous leaders warned that there will be war in the Xingu region if the project goes ahead as planned.
“We do not accept Belo Monte and we will not allow it to materialise. If the government launches construction, it will have to take responsibility for the safety of its representatives, because there will be clashes and even deaths. There will be a war,” warned indigenous leader Poy Kayapos.
Indigenous peoples are not alone in their resistance to Belo Monte.
According to a report drafted by several experts at the request of the non-governmental organization Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), Belo Monte - the main energy project in Lula’s Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC) - is not financially viable and only aims to attract to the region intensively-power-consuming industries.
“It is an extremely complex work, which will at the same time flood land and drastically reduce the supply of water in a 100km stretch around the Long Turn of the Xingu river, which flows through many communities and through two indigenous reserves,” said analyst Francisco Hernandez, an engineer.
The indigenous groups also have the support of organisations like Greenpeace and religious groups like the Missionary Council for Indigeous Peoples (Cimi).
For Agnelo Xavante, a representative of an indigenous nation with the same name, the plant will reduce the volume of water in the Xingu river, which will chase away the fish that are a staple in the diet of indigenous peoples.
He further estimates that Belo Monte will lead to the displacement of around 20,000 people and will attract 100,000 people from outside the region to the area surrounding the plant, which will in turn increase deforestation.
“The government should bear in mind the position of indigenous communities. We reject not just the construction of Belo Monte but also that of any other hydroelectric plant near indigenous land,” Agnelo Xavante said.
One of the resistance movement’s leaders, Raoni Metuktire, commanded in early November a protest that blocked the way for hours for the huge rafts that take lorries across the Xingu river, between the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Para.
“The (only) good thing is to leave the river alone, without dams,” Metuktire stressed.
Such complaints have not, so far, prompted the Brazilian government to change plans. The auction for construction firms interested in the project is set to take place in January. The plant is set to be operational by 2014, with a capacity to generate 11,233 megawatts of electricity. — DPA