New Minister of Mines and Energy Admiral Bento Albuquerque announced on 4 March that he plans to permit mining on indigenous lands in Brazil, including within the Amazon. He also said that he intends to allow mining right up to Brazil’s borders, abolishing the current ban along a 150-kilometer (93-mile)-wide swath at ...
The Brazilian state of Roraima is currently dependent for 70 percent of its power on Venezuela’s Guri hydroelectric dam. But socioeconomic chaos in Venezuela, and deteriorating political relations between the two nations, have caused Brazil to fast-track a 750-kilometer transmission line to replace the imported energy.General Otávio Rêgo de Barros, using a...
The Belo Monte dam, now under construction in the Amazon, is heralded as an abundant power source for Brazil’s burgeoning economy. But critics contend the project’s benefits are outweighed by the environmental and social costs. In a Yale Environment 360 video report, Charles Lyons explores both sides of this controversial project. Full video...
On 12 January 2014, TV Folha broadcast a special programme 'The Battle of Belo Monte a live reporting of the largest and most controversial infrastructure project of the Lula and Dilma governments. This video is a compilation of the three sections of the programme: The Construction Site, Altamira and People Affected. In December, a 2013 a special...
As a response to the current investment in large hydroelectric dams as a ground to Brazil's 'sustainable' economic growth, 'Costs' addresses the impacts these endeavour have caused on both the environment and people. Director Marilene Ribeiro surveys three hydro schemes that happen at different times in Brazil (past - the Sobradinho dam, present...
The massive destruction of forest to make way for the Belo Monte dam and associated roads, reservoir and channels.
Video: Repórter Brasil 2015 (in Portuguese)
Drawn up without any proper consultation, or local participation, the so-called Emergency Plan was used by the developers to keep Indian people well away from the construction site. They set up offices in Altamira to dole out payments in kind, inducing the Indians to travel frequently to the city and alienating them from their traditional home environment.
Amazon Watch and International Rivers have teamed up to create a state-of-the-art 10-minute Google Earth 3-D tour and video narrated by actress Sigourney Weaver, with technical assistance from Google Earth Outreach. The video is in support of Brazil's Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre (Xingu River Forever Alive Movement). The tour allows viewers to...
The struggle of an indigenous Amazonian people in defence of their rights and the land on which they live, in Sarayacu, Ecuador -- against the oil companies, the military and the government.
Video: in Kichwa and Spanish, with English subtitles. 2017
This review of an exhibition of photographs was translated for LAB by Chris Whitehouse. The original, in Portugues, can be read here.
Photographer from Minas Gerais launches book with photos and stories of communities affected by hydroelectric dam
Main image: 'Drowned Island', one of the photos from Dead Water