Tag Archive for 'hydro dams'Page 5 of 5

04
Jun

Enawene Nawe block highway to stop dam

A few days ago the Enawene Nawe set up a road blockade in protest to a series of hydroelectric dams which will destroy their fishing grounds, which they depend on.

Today they dismantled the blockade and have begun travelling to the capital of Brazil to meet government officials.

From Survival International - The Indians mounted the blockade on 31 May to protest against plans to build a series of hydroelectric dams along the Juruena river, which they say will destroy their vital fishing grounds.

According to local press reports, several neighbouring tribes joined the protest and about 100 Indians armed with bows and arrows effectively isolated the northwestern part of the state.

A commission composed of government officials and the police negotiated with the Enawene Nawe who agreed to halt their blockade if they could meet with the president of FUNAI (the Brazilian …

Published on
June 4, 2007
  0 Comments 1,167 views

04
May

Community-Based Referendum Rejects Development Projects

BELOW: a press release of the Ixcán Community Development Council after a legally binding municipal referendum voted 90% ‘NO’ to big business hydro-electric dam and oil “development” projects. From Rights Action.

IXCÁN VOTES TO REJECT XALALA DAM AND OIL EXPLORATION
(translation by www.nisgua.org)

On April 20, 2007, the people of Ixcán, Quiché overwhelmingly rejected two types of proposed projects in their municipality. In 144 communities, 21,155 people – adults as well as children aged 7-17 – participated in the community consultation. They voted to approve or reject 1) the construction of the Xalalá and other hydroelectric dams and 2) the exploration and exploitation of oil and its derivatives in their municipality.

According to the official results, as reported by municipal mayor Marcos Ramírez Vargas, 18,982 (89.7%) voted against both projects while 1,829 (8.6%) voted in favor and 344 (1.6%) abstained.

GOVERNMENT MUST RESPECT THE RESULTS
A …

Published on
May 4, 2007
  0 Comments 632 views

07
Apr

Land reclaim dispute over drying dam

Here’s a story (from the BBC) about an attempted land reclamation in India. The Gumti hydel project displaced approximately 25,000 indigenous People, and now that the water levels from the dam have dropped severely, hundreds are attempting to reclaim the land - but the police are chasing the people away…

From the article: The state’s Communist-led coalition government says it will not to let anybody settle down on the lands emerging from the reservoir of the 10 MW Gumti hydroelectric (hydel) project.

But Tripura’s power minister Manik Dey admits production of electricity from the project has completely stopped since mid-March.

“There is hardly any water in the dam’s reservoir to generate power but we are not saying goodbye to the project as yet,” Mr Dey said.

A rise in the reservoir’s bed due to heavy silting caused by soil loss from the hills around the Gumti hydel …

Published on
April 7, 2007
  0 Comments 800 views

03
Mar

Dams on Salween Threaten Indigenous Groups

Dams on Salween Threaten Indigenous Groups
By Marwaan Macan-Markar, www.ipsnews.net
BANGKOK, Feb 28 (IPS) - Being a village headman means little if you live in a community nestling in the hills close to Thailand’s northern border with Burma. More so, if officials have plans to use your village for a large ‘development’ project.

That is the lesson Nu Chamnayakiriprai continues to learn as he ponders the future of his family and of over 50 others who live in the Me Koh village, in the Mae Hong Son province. The questions that the 49-year-old seeks answers to include where his community will be forced to relocate and what economic prospects await them.

On Wednesday, during a visit to Bangkok, Nu confessed that these troubling questions have been with him for four years, when he had learnt, indirectly, that his village and the surrounding areas would go under water soon after one of a series …

Published on
March 3, 2007
  1 Comment 817 views

21
Feb

India - Innu Reaches out to Jarawa

Survival At Stake
by George Rich, Innu Nation
published on www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

The Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands has long captured imaginations around the world, especially among other tribal peoples like my people, the Innu of north-eastern Canada. Since the final years of the twentieth century, when they stopped resisting with lethal arrows any contact with outsiders, the world has watched the Jarawa with fascination.

We don’t know why they stopped shooting at the settlers and poachers encroaching on their land. Perhaps they felt overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of settlers from the Indian mainland now living on their islands. But for indigenous peoples who have already lost their land, the drama unfolding before our eyes is far too familiar.

We are holding our breaths as we watch the future of this strong, proud people balancing on a knife-edge. We Innu know only too intimately the devastation that results when a tribe of …

Published on
February 21, 2007
  0 Comments 808 views

12
Feb

Activists Demand Corporations End Involvement in Mexican Dam

Activists Demand that CompUSA, Sears, Kmart End Involvement in Controversial Mexican Dam - by sare, www.portland.indymedia.org

Public urged to protest and boycott retailers linked to Carlos Slim, investor in planned “La Parota” megadam.

Human rights, indigenous sovereignty, environmental and anti-globalization activists are calling for protests and boycotts of three major US retail chains-CompUSA, Sears and Kmart-due to their involvement with plans for a hydroelectric dam that would displace tens of thousands of indigenous subsistence farmers in southern Mexico and destroy critical tropical forest ecosystems. A 2006 United Nations report listed the planned “La Parota” dam near Acapulco as Mexico’s top economic, social and cultural rights concern.

Endorsing the call are Root Force, Rising Tide North America, Arizona Earth First! and Florida-based Justicia Global.

“When consumers shop at these stores, their money goes directly to people who are profiting from violence and the destruction of threatened tropical forests,” said Ben Pachano of Root Force.

Mexican …

Published on
February 12, 2007
  0 Comments 785 views

Video activism and the Chiapas Media Project

In the following presentation, Claudia Magallanes-Blanco from the University of Western Sydney talks about the role of video activism as a world-wide tool for empowerment and the Chiapas Media Project, a collaborative effort based in Mexico that provides indigenous Zapatistas in Chiapas and peasants in Guerrero with training and equipment to produce their own videos.

Since forming in 1998, CMP has distributed over 6000 videos, including: Zapata’s Garden, a film that looks at the society the Zapatista’s are building; …


I Am A Defender of the Rainforest

Known as ‘Soy defensor de la selva’ in Spanish, I am a Defender of the Rainforest is an award-winning documentary that was filmed, edited, and directed by members of the Sarayaku community in southern Ecuador.

The film shows how the …


Underreported Struggles #19, October 2008

In this month’s Underreported Struggles: 400,000 Guatemalans Reject Development Model, Philippines Indigenous People Unite for the Land, Riot Police Target Algonquin Blockade, Chagos Islanders Denied the Right of Return, and 17 other stories …


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