Andean Group - February 2011 (ISSN 1741-4466)

Egarsur, the Brazilian consortium behind the proposed Amazon Inambari hydroelectric project, has said that the environmental damages predicted by environmentalists and the 4,000 people the consortium estimates will be displaced, will be mitigated by its plan to fund a US$416,000 “ecological peninsula".

The project, which will flood 410km2, will provide 2,200 megawatts of electricity. Although Peru, where the project will be located, is not in dire need of extra electricity, Brazil's ever increasing energy demand means that it needs the project to move forward. The energy agreement signed between Brazil and Peru in June 2010 involves construction of six dams in the Peruvian Amazon. Within this agreement, Peru will get prioritised access to the electricity. The project will also require the re-routing of the proposed Interoceanic highway - which currently was planned to run along the bottom of the proposed dam.

The dam is also likely to have a negative effect on “uncontacted" semi-nomadic indigenous tribes, which previously lived within Peru's borders but have been force to migrate into Brazilian territory as a result of the continuous encroachment on their lands by illegal loggers. The project will disrupt river flows, alter the landscapes of these indigenous communities and affect local ecosystems, which are meant to be protected under the International Labour Organization's (ILO) convention 169, which Peru ratified in 1994.

On 1 February, photos taken by the Brazilian Indian Affairs Department, a government agency charged with handling relations with the nation's indigenous communities, were obtained by Survival International (SI), an organization working for tribal people's rights worldwide and published in the British daily The Guardian. SI Director Stephen Corry said that "the illegal loggers will destroy this tribe. It's vital that the Peruvian government stops them before time runs out. The people in these photos are self-evidently healthy and thriving. What they need from us is their territory protected, so that they can make their own choices about their future. But this area is now at real risk, and if the wave of illegal logging isn't stopped fast, their future will be taken out of their hands. This isn't just a possibility: it's irrefutable history, rewritten on the graves of countless tribes for the last five centuries."