Construction works cause a reduction of conservation units

To benefit the building of the Tapajós Complex, in its totality composed of six hydroelectric plants, the federal government decided to reduce the size of five Conservation Units (CUs) in the basin of River Tapajós, in the Brazilian state of Pará. The information was disclosed by the Social and Environmental Institute (ISA). The decision should affect the national parks (PARNA) of the Amazon and Jamanxim, national forests (Flona) of Itaituba I and II and the Environmental Protection Area (APA) of Tapajós. In all, 78 thousand hectares can be left unprotected and may be flooded, which is the equivalent of 78 thousand soccer fields or an area greater than the city of Salvador, in Bahia.

The measure came to allow the licensing and implementation of three plants of the Complex: São Luiz do Tapajós (6,1 thousand MW of installed power), Jatobá (2,3 thousand MW) and Cachoeira dos Patos (272 MW). According to an official note from ISA, this “was the way out found to circumvent the law that hampers or forbids the building of power plants within conservation units that will be affected”. The decision may become official in July through a bill or Provisional Measure (MP).

Rômulo Mello, president of the Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation of Biodiversity (ICMBio), even stated that this a “normal procedure”, because it should increase or create new areas as compensation, without noticing that in doing so, Brazil adds new elements to its already backward position regarding environmental legislation (see the approval of the new Forest Code by the House of Representatives, which has already driven further the reduction of forests).

The area that will be left bereft of any environmental protection is rich in biodiversity. For Eduardo Góes Neves, professor of the University of São Paulo (USP), the building of a complex on River Tapajós is extremely disturbing because it can destroy archeological sites. “A catastrophe”, says he. “The lakes created by the dams will flood part of the conservation units of the BR-163 mosaic, aside from inundating part of the BR-230, generating more deforestations to relocate parts of these roads. The complex will affect the largest mosaic of conservation units in Brazil which were created to bar deforestations. It´s just too much inconsequence”, says Maria Lúcia Carvalho, overseer of the Amazonian national Park. The impact of these six plants may also impact indigenous people from the lands of Munduruku, Saí Cinza and Apiacás.

Behind the Complexes

Telma Monteiro, a researcher and specialist in matters that involve the building of major power plants in the Amazon Rainforest, prepared a study in which she claims that one of the federal government´s main motivations in building the Tapajós Complex (and also the one at Teles Pires in the state of Mato Grosso with five plants) is a set of agreements referring to the management of waters, biofuels and port logistics signed since 2008 between Brazil and Holland. “Together with these hydroelectric complexes, there are waterway projects underway that could only be made feasible by creating large water reservoirs in stretches that are naturally impassable that contain rocky formations or waterfalls, common for Amazonian rivers”, said she.

One example is the Tapajós– Juruena-Teles Pires, developed by the East Amazonian Waterways Administration (AHIMOR) and that must have some 20 km of navigable waterways just in the Amazonian region. On one side, in Brazil, it would be used to promote foreign commerce of commodities from Mato Grosso (with grain and biofuels) and from Pará (ores). On the other, according to the researcher, “it is the most important emerging market in the world and absolutely essential to maintain the strategy of growth for Dutch exports to Latin America”. Brazil´s Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) foresees the building of 36 waterway terminals in the Amazon. 21 are probably underway and 15 are awaiting the bidding process.

Endangered CUs

Reductions or category changes within Conservation Units motivated by political and economic ends have occurred in other regions of the Brazilian Amazon. On march 9 this year, State Law nº 3.602, published in the Official Journal of the State of Amazonas, transformed Nhamundá State Park, on the border of Amazonas and Pará and one of full protection in the Guajuma Environmental Protection Area (APA). The alteration means that as from now, the Tucuruí Power Line may pass to carry electric power from Pará up to Manaus – which was forbidden before.

Aside from that, as Rita Mesquita, researcher of the Amazon National Research Institute (INPA) states, "part of the park was compromised due to cattle farm occupation and the ongoing mining interest in the area. As an APA these problems disappeared but the way they are doing things now, the Park has disappeared and the new foreseen areas, although having been submitted to public consultation, were not created and a threatened biodiversity was left to wait forever. All this, without mentioning the communities that will certainly have to relinquish their living space, in due time, to the encroaching expansion of the livestock breeding activities of others".

Still in the Amazon, the Legislative Assembly authorized in December 2010 a change in category of Rio Negro Setor Sul State Park into a Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS). "With this transformation and considering the invasion process, the Pied Tamarin (Saguinus bicolor) monkey, an endemic species, is doomed to extinction. The subject is a complex one but it can be solved in a way that everyone wins: riverine communities, the indigenous people, natural resources and especially the Pied Tamarin ", said Rita.

In Rondônia, in July last year, the state´s assembly revoked seven conservation units — more than 973 thousand hectares were left unprotected. Meanwhile, in Roraima and in Amazonas the controversy around the creation of the 600-thousand hectare Baixo Rio Branco-Jauaperi Extractivism Reserve (Resex) carries on. The region is considered a priority for Conservation by the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) as it possesses a rich biodiversity, but the process of its creation has already been dragging on for ten years, is now completed and stopped, still sitting on paper since it is a place that is also rich in wood resources and, therefore, abounding in conflicts of interest. “In April, in Parintins, the minister of the environment Izabella Teixeira promised to create the Resex during the environment week but, once again, nothing was done”, says Carlos Durigan, from Vitória Amazônica Foundation (FVA). This same promise was probably made several times before.

Due to pressures from lumber and mining companies, from farmers and from the government, 29 protected areas in the Amazon were reduced or altogether extinct between 2008 and 2009. In total, 49 thousand km2 of forests were lost. According to a study released in May by the Amazonian Man and Environment Institute (Imazon), in December 2010 the protected areas in the Legal Amazon represented 43.9% of the region, with its 2,197,485 km2. Of all the CUs, only 24% have approved handling plans. On the average, there are only two employees per unit, each one in charge of administrating almost 2 thousand km².

According to the official note issued by the MMA itself, conservation units “perform a crucial role in protecting strategic resources for the country´s development and contribute towards the fight against global warming. Aside from ecosystemic services, such as ensuring the existence of water for the population and for several productive activities, they can generate profitable benefits and productive activities for traditional inhabitants”. This discourse, however, has not been followed up by equivalent actions.


Learn more

Turucuí Power Line kills state park in the Amazon, by Vandré Fonseca
CUs in the Legal Amazon, Socio-environmental Institute
Protected Areas in the Brazilian Amazon: Progress and challenges, by Mariana Vedoveto
Full report by Imazon on the challenges of the protected areas in the Amazon
Reservation on standby, by Karina Miotto