Brazil | Bank Information Center: Monitoring the projects and policies of the World Bank, IMF and other international financial institutions


bicusa.org/ Home Regions Latin AmericaBrazil Brazil Overview Problem Projects Updates RSS Update \| 25 January 2012 World Bank defends integrity of Development Policy lending, evidence lacking The outgoing World Bank Country Manager for Brazil, Mahktar Diop, challenges the conclusions of an evaluation by Bank Information Center of the $1.3 billion Sustainable Environmental Management Development Policy to promote environmental reforms in Brazil. Read more Update \| 28 November 2011 Letter to the IADB President Luis Alberto Moreno Read more Update \| 20 October 2011 The Sustainable Environmental Management Development Policy Loan for Brazil A new evaluation of a $1.3 billion World Bank development policy loan to promote sustainability reforms at the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) that questions the effectiveness of DPLs due to weaknesses in existing Bank policy guiding their design and execution. This brief calls for the reform of Bank DPL policy as an urgent part of the ongoing revision of World Bank safeguard policies to ensure consistent management of risk across all World Bank operations. Read more Update \| 13 October 2011 Introduction to the FCPF Readiness Package (R-Package) and the Carbon Fund (CF) Operational This update prepared by the Bank Information Center introduces the FCPF Readiness Package (R-Package) and the Carbon Fund (CF) operational. Read more Update \| 31 August 2011 World Bank Safeguard Policy Review: Early Issues, What to Expect? It took many years to establish the World Bank's operational policies that safeguard society and the environment, and are some of the world's highest development standards. As the Bank reviews these policies, civil society is organizing efforts to present their concerns and expectations, and offer their imputs as to what the outcome of the review should be. Read more Update \| 15 August 2011 The Federal Public Ministry of Brazil's Federal District takes action to protect watersheds According to the MPF, the evaluation of impacts of hydroelectric plants has been partial and does not reflect the true environmental risks. Read more Update \| 11 August 2011 Tipnis: the indigenous do not dialogue; the UN asks for consensus Read more Update \| 11 August 2011 Brazil to disimburse funds for TIPNIS until ecosystem preservation is guaranteed The disimbursement of the funds for the third section of the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos highway is now being withheld until the preservation of the ecosystem in the Indigenous Territory in the Isiboro Sécure National Park (TIPNIS) is guaranteed, a commitment by the government of Evo Morales to Brazil. Read more Press Clipping \| 11 August 2011 Brazil Planning to Invest in 7 Hydroelectric Dams in Latin America Read more Press Clipping \| 11 August 2011 Brazilian investments in Peru likely to exceed U$10 billion in 2016 Brazilian companies are more interested in entering the Peruvian market and its accumulated investments will likely exceed US$10 billion by 2016. Read more Press Clipping \| 11 August 2011 BRAZIL: Soy Boom Drives Westward Expansion of Railroads Read more Press Clipping \| 9 August 2011 BRAZIL: Soy Boom Drives Westward Expansion of Railroads Despite high interest rates and high household electricity tariffs, Brazilian economy has been growing at the highest rates seen in decades. Another problem that, although not in the way of growth, must be overcome is the costly use of roads for transporting farm products – issue being addressed by the expansion of railway networks. Read more Press Clipping \| 5 August 2011 The concentration of land in Brazil Once updated the productivity rates, as required by law, Brazil has experienced a huge expansion of the inventory of properties subject to expropriation. Taking the data from 2010, there are in Brazil, 69 200 large unproductive properties, with an area equivalent to 228.5 million hectares. Read more Press Clipping \| 24 July 2011 Inambari Update The Inambari Hydroelectric Complex (2000 MW), will only be a Brazilian enclave within Peru, at the cost of environmental degradation and violation of the rights of communities. Nevertheless, it must be built by the state of Peru alongside other nations in order to sell the energy produced. This investment could be recovered in 2 years. Read more Press Clipping \| 24 July 2011 Commercial influence in Brazil worries Peruvians In 2010, the Brazilian direct investment in Peru was US$1.014 billion, almost triple that in 2009, when it was $492 million . The Chamber of Commerce Peru-Brazil (Capebras) estimated investment to reach $32 billion in 2016. Read more Press Clipping \| 24 July 2011 Peru approves $195 million soles more to finish Interoceanica Sur Highway The Peruvian legislature has approved an additional payment to complete the Southern Interoceanic Highway, linking the Andean country with Brazil. The highway is expected to be completed in 2012 Read more Update \| 22 July 2011 Brazil will “move forward” with the Manta Manaos corridor project Brazilian chancellor, Antonio Patriota, said in Quito that Brazil will more forward with the project that will conect Manaos in the Brazilian Amazon with Manta on the Pacific Coast of Ecuador, and that will enhance intra-regional commerce, but also between South America and Asia. Read more Update \| 15 July 2011 Ecuadorian government inaugurates Manta-Manaos Multimodal Corridor Ecuadorian authorities will officially inaugurate the first-phase corridor of the bioceanic Manta-Manaos highway. The highway will cost $USD 800 millions to build and has been named Causai Ñanbi (Rita Viva in Quichua). The first load will of around 500 tons of cement, construction pipes, tuna, vegetable oils, fats and soaps. Read more Update \| 12 July 2011 BNDES paradox: bank funds both destruction and conservation of indigenous lands At the same time it is funding a dam that will devastate indigenous lands and block the Xingu River, Brazil's National Development Bank (BNDES) may allocate some $14.3 million (BRL 22.3 million) in grants for projects developed within the Kayapo indigenous lands, reports Conservation International. Read more Update \| 12 July 2011 What is the BNDES for? The BNDES’s preposterous involvement in the corporate dispute between French multinationals over the Pão-de-Açúcar supermarket chain shows that the state-owned bank has strayed far from its original mission. What exactly is the BNDES’s role nowadays? Read more Update \| 8 July 2011 Indigenous communities march to defend the TIPNIS With emotionally-charged messages, the representatives of indigenous communities marched against the construction of a highway that would split the TIPNIS in two, arguing that its construction allows for the ethnocide of communities who arduosly worked for the park to become an Originative Communal Land (TCO). (Spanish). Read more Update \| 5 July 2011 Regional Aliance for Free Expression and Information letter to Brasil President Rousseff The Regional Aliance for Free Expression and Information sent an open letter to President of Brasil Dilma Rousseff Read more Update \| 14 June 2011 The easy credit that fueled Brazil's boom now imperils it Though the success of Latin America's largest economy is well known, less recognized is how much it owes to massive government lending. For a sense of the scale: The development bank's loans last year, just within Brazil, totaled triple the amount the World Bank lent to more than 100 countries. Read more Press Clipping \| 31 May 2011 Selling Energy to Brazil is Criticized Only Brazilian extractive industries will benefit from Peru's planned sale of energy to that country, through the energy agreement that was signed with the South American superpower, and that is currently awaiting approval by the Congress. Read more Update \| 18 May 2011 Bolivia: The World Bank and the Government recognize deficiencies in the Takana's Indigenous Plan The World Bank and the Government of Bolivia recognize the observations of the TCO Takana I on deficiencies in the Indigenous Peoples Plan of the Ixiamas - San Buenaventura Highway project and accept to start a process to improve the Indiginous Plan even after the project was approved. Read more Press Clipping \| 9 May 2011 Santander Denies Report It Halted Loans for Amazon Power Dam Banco Santander Brasil SA denied it temporarily suspended financing for the Santo Antonio hydroelectric dam in Brazil’s Amazon region. Read more Press Clipping \| 7 May 2011 Southern Interoceanic Highway generated benefits worth US$3 billion The construction of the Peru-Brazil Southern Interoceanic Corridor (IIRSA SUR) has generated economic benefits worth US$3 billion, reported the President of Peru’s Supervisory Board for Investment in Public Transport Infrastructure (Ositran), Juan Carlos Zevallos. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 April 2011 OHL negotiates purchase of 40% of Peruvian "Belo Monte" Read more Press Clipping \| 22 April 2011 The Manta –Manaos corridor arouses interest abroad The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, informed that there is international interest to support the Manta-Manaos project. He said that during the Chancellor's (Ricardo Patiño) trip to the Middle East, there was an evaluation of the posibility of investment on this waterway which connects Ecuador to Peru and Brazil. Read more Press Clipping \| 21 April 2011 Manta to become a logistics center at a national level The National Government is committed ot develop the logistical zones in the country. Manta has demonstrated its great potential in this strategy because it will not only connect Manta with all of Ecuador, and also with Manaos in Brazil, but will also become Asia's Entry Point into America. Read more Press Clipping \| 21 April 2011 A Brasilian investment to strengthen the multimodal project Manta-Manaos The company Transportes Bertolini and the National Government will push the construction of the necessary infrastructure for an economically viable line of river and ground transport between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 April 2011 Destructive progress: Brazil-Peru Transoceanic Highway The 2011 completion of the 3,400-mile Transoceanic Highway nears, connecting the Amazonian state of Acre in Brazil with the southern Pacific coast of Peru. Supported by governmental and multi-national development interests, it promises to internationalize Brazilian agricultural products, while improving mobility across the region. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 April 2011 A new threat to the Amazon: gold Gold-hungry Peruvian miners are eroding the country's portion of the Amazon rainforest at an alarming rate, according to a new study. Read more Update \| 10 April 2011 IDB sees two Americas, one led by Brazil, the other by Mexico A report released yesterday by the Bank divides the region into two distinct groups: the first, led by Brazil and comprised of the countries of South America, is at the forefront of growth. The second, with Mexico at the head, and which also includes Central America and the Caribbean, is progressing at a slower pace. Read more Press Clipping \| 10 April 2011 Goverance & sustainable local development: necessary mix for Southern Highway Read more Update \| 5 April 2011 Organization of American States requests immediate suspension of Belo Monte dam in Brazilian Amazon The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights considered that Indigenous Peoples must be consulted BEFORE the dam’s construction begins Read more Update \| 4 April 2011 Governance in the Ixiamas–San Buenaventura Highway as a World Bank's Tangible ‘Additionality’ The project has a great potential to reorder and even positively or negatively change the dinamics of development and conservation in the region. Bolivia's government has decided that the PAD will not be public before it's approved. It seems that the project underestimates its indirect influence, and there are shortcomings in planification and consultation. Read more Update \| 29 March 2011 The IDB's Annual Meeting characterized by the lack of progress in the sustainable development agenda Read more Press Clipping \| 25 March 2011 New advances to the Manta-Manaos project, according to President Rafael Correa Read more Press Clipping \| 28 March 2011 Peru awards contracts for 3 hydroelectric plants Read more Press Clipping \| 27 March 2011 Ex-Pres Clinton Criticizes Hydroelectricity in Amazon Read more Press Clipping \| 28 March 2011 CSOs demand accountability for capital increase reforms Five country delegation of civil society organizations are at the IDB Annual Meeting of Governors in Calgary, Canada to monitor implementation of reforms that were agreed a year ago in exchange for a $70 Billion capital increase. Reform areas of critical focus include social and environmental safeguards, climate strategy, and results management. Read more Update \| 28 March 2011 Federal forces sent to control $6 Bn, 3.75 GW Jirau dam riots Brazilian security forces have been sent to the Jirau dam construction site where work has been stopped since riots erupted last week over working conditions. Read more Press Clipping \| 12 March 2011 Jirau negotiates R$ 900 million cost increase to Amazon megadam Read more Press Clipping \| 12 March 2011 Eike Batista's MPX has BNDES backed investments of R$ 1.3 billion MPX, energy company in the group of businessman Eike Batista, yesterday announced a capitalization of $ 1.3 billion to finance projects in Brazil and Colombia. The company will issue convertible debentures into common shares, based on the fixed price of $ 43 per share. The holding company of BNDES (BNDESPar) will participate in the capitalization of nearly half the subscription of the issue: U.S. $ 600 million in debentures. Read more Press Clipping \| 27 February 2011 Yacyreta, monument to corruption, celebrates 37 years Built by Paraguay and Argentina, the Yacyretá Binational Dam continues to cause serious environmental damage, compromising future generations. After a delay of 37 years, its final cost was almost ten times higher than originally budgeted. Read more Press Clipping \| 22 February 2011 Colombia is the target of Brazilian companies Con 45 millones de habitantes, estabilidad economica, y oportunidades en el carbon y el petroleo, Colombia ha entrado al radar de inversionistas Brasileños. Read more Update \| 16 February 2011 Society, subsidies and BNDES As the Brazilian Treasury and BNDES look into the role that subsidies will play in the future of South America, Roberto Smeraldi of Friends of the Earth Brazil discusses how the question is not one of subsidies or not, but rather what subsidies will apply. Read more Update \| 15 February 2011 New report shows decline in IDB project quality, backsliding on capital increase commitment Despite recent internal reforms, new evidence raises questions about bank quality control. In direct contrast to IDB management claims, the OVE evaluation found the actual evaluability of projects has deteriorated markedly when measured using a consistent methodology applied to three cohorts of projects. Read more Update \| 15 February 2011 Civil society to IDB: Safeguard compliance and sustainability promotion not a trade-off Civil society sent a letter to President Luis Alberto Moreno expressing their support, yet concern and strong disagreement with parts of the report’s analysis which, if misinterpreted, could negatively affect the integrity of the principles of sustainability in Bank operations. Read more Update \| 4 February 2011 World Bank and DPLs: What middle income countries want As the World Bank sets out to review and update its Safeguard Policy framework over the next two years, the Operational Policy 8.60 governing the use of DPLs should be included in that review. This brief identifies five areas of DPL policy guidance that merit revision and could guide a full DPL evaluation. Read more Press Clipping \| 3 February 2011 Government: Mexico’s Homicide Rate Not Latin America’s Worst Brazil, with a homicide rate of 25.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, Jamaica, with 32.4, Belize, with 32.7, Colombia, with 37.3, Venezuela, with 48, South Africa, with 49.6, and El Salvador, with 61, all ranked above Mexico, Read more Press Clipping \| 3 February 2011 China and Brazil Inundate Latin America with Dams The growing presence of Chinese and Brazilian capital in Latin America's energy sector is facilitating the construction of hydroelectric complexes, but is also the fuelling nationalist stances that are adding to the environmental criticisms of those major projects. Read more Press Release \| 30 January 2011 Brazil Green Lights Amazon Dam Disregarding Environmental Laws and Local Opposition Just a month after World Bank $500 million DPL payment to Brazil, followed by $614 million BNDES bridge loan to Belo Monte builders, New Dilma Government approves fast-track forest clearance and commencement of controversial Belo Monte construction site. Read more Press Clipping \| 30 January 2011 DAR questions constitutionality of Peru emergency investment decrees It seems that the Government has forgotten its commitment to the environment when in January of 2011, it enacted the Emergency Decree No. 001-2011 to eliminate environmental impact certificates to approve 33 projects for investment. Read more Update \| 27 December 2010 Cronologia de acciones en relacion a Hidroelectrica de Inambari Read more Fact Sheet \| 27 December 2010 Cronología del Acuerdo de Integración Energética (Perú-Brasil) Read more Update \| 25 January 2011 CSOs question World Bank disbursement of $500mm on environmental development policy loan to Brazil Transparency and accountability gaps are highlighted in World Bank Board Query to Latin American Vice President, Pamela Cox. Read more Update \| 25 January 2011 CSOs question World Bank disbursement of the DPL SEM I to Brasil and the mega risks of Belo Monte Civil Society Organizations question the World Bank disbursement of the DPL SEM I to Brasil without clear evidence regarding the implementation of BNDES Safeguards and Social and Environmental policy in emblematic cases Read more Press Release \| 20 January 2011 Risky business in the Amazon New report by Amigos da Terra - Amazonia and International Rivers reveals looming financial, legal and reputational disaster of Belo Monte, world's third largest dam project. Read more Press Clipping \| 12 January 2011 Brazil Environmental Minister Lays Out Key Challenges Ahead In interview with Valor, Minister Texiera key environmental focus for the new government is urban development Read more Press Clipping \| 9 January 2011 Indigenous Peoples Of Puno, Madre de Dios And Cusco Start Indefinite Strike Against Inambari Dam Indigenous peoples from the regions of Puno, Madre de Dios and Cuzco are awaiting the government to keep its word to come to the area where the construction of hydroelectric project Inambari and discuss and accept the invalidity of it, otherwise communities begin an indefinite strike to defend their ancestral lands and respect for its decisions. Read more Press Clipping \| 6 January 2011 Lacking consultation, Putumayo Indigenous Group halt San Francisco- Mocoa highway project Through peaceful mobilization, legal actions, unity, and deep roots in their ancestral territory, the indigenous peoples of Putumayo and some Afro-Colombian communities stopped the implementation of the San Francisco -Mocoa highway project funded by the IDB, a project considered by the government as a pillar of regional development and IIRSA Amazonas Multimodal Transport Corridor Tumaco-Belem do Para, the promotes infrastructure megaprojects to facilitate the extraction of natural resources, oil, minerals, biodiversity and ancestral knowledge of the Amazon. Read more Press Clipping \| 30 December 2010 Brazil's reduction in rate of deforestation A developing country already has nearly achieved what the world’s wealthiest countries have only promised to do. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 December 2010 PERU: Sacrificing the rainforest on the altar of energy The construction of five hydroelectric dams in Peru as part of an energy deal with Brazil will do considerable damage to the environment, such as the destruction of nearly 1.5 million hectares of jungle over the next 20 years, according to an independent study. Read more Update \| 24 December 2010 Brazil public prosecutor questions BNDES bridge loan to Belo Monte $US 618 million bridge loan from BNDES prior to full environmental license ignores grave risks. Read more Press Clipping \| 24 December 2010 NGOs attempt to block financing for Belo Monte hydroelectric dam Citing underestimation of risks, new analysis by Amigos da Terra Amazonia and International Rivers questions the integrity of BNDES financing decision. Read more Update \| 21 December 2010 CSOs call for World Bank to delay $500 million fransfer to BNDES Read more Update \| 20 December 2010 Peru Congress approves law protecting areas affected by Southern Highway In a bill that was proposed in 2008, the Peruvian Congress Commission on Andean, Indigenous and Afro-Peruvian Peoples, Environment and Ecology, approved a bill to protect the areas and biodiversity affected by the Southern Interoceanic highway. The bill awaits the President's signature. Read more Press Clipping \| 19 December 2010 BNDES ready to hit the brake With the preview to close 2010 with the release of $ 146 billion, BNDES keeps growing, turbocharged with contributions and loans from the Treasury, but slows down to face their limits. Read more Update \| 14 December 2010 Peru Civil Society Calls for Greater Governance in new CAF Loan to IIRSA Sur Highway Read more Update \| 2 December 2010 Brasilian government decides to pave the BR-319 in the Amazon The most controversial project of the Growth Aceleration Program (PAC) in Brasil for the occupation of territory and natural resources of the Amazon.- the paving of BR-319 highway, which connects Porto Velho (RO) to Manaus (AM) - won approval by a decree signed yesterday by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Read more Update \| 23 November 2010 MINAM convenes workshops to finalize Interoceanic Highway mitigation 2nd phase Read about the upcoming regional workshops in Puerto Maldonado, Puno and Cusco, organized by the Peruvian Environment Ministry. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 November 2010 After Madeira, Alstom focuses on transmission of Belo Monte The French transnational has a US$400 million contract to link Rondonia to Sao Paulo, and now shifts attention to the Xingu region of Para. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 November 2010 Brazil's Electrobras learns Spanish The energy giant plans a global expansion in 2011 that by 2020 will generate 10% of total revenues from outside the region and allow Brazil to import energy for increasing demand. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 November 2010 Norway-Guyana forest aid slated for investment in hydro dam The government of Guyana plans to spend most of the Norwegian forest climate aid it will receive during 2010-11 on the Amaila Falls hydropower project, a dam to be built deep in the Amazon rainforest. Norwegian officials insist this is not a done deal, but President Bharrat Jagdeo has staked much personal prestige in the decades-old project. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 November 2010 Brazilian oil & mining companies invest in reforestation With BNDES support, a Vale and Petrobras initiative reforests 28,000 hectares, and projects total protection of 350,000 ha and reforestation of another 150,000 ha. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 November 2010 Peru: Energy concession law eases EIA rules Under pressure to expedite Brazilian dams in the Peruvian Amazon region, the government is proposing legistlation to ease environmental requirements for hydroelectric dams that allows concessions without presenting an EIA. Read more Update \| 13 November 2010 Jirau launches environmental observatory Suez, the lead corporate member of the Jirau Energia Sustentavel consortium building the dam, launched a web based observatory run by youth in the community of Nova Mutum Paraná, Rondonia to provide information about the issues related to the 3,000 MW hydroelectric project and its influence on communities. Read more Press Clipping \| 13 November 2010 JBS: Analysis of BNDES support for global expansion of Brazil beef producers Through successive infusions from BNDES, various Brazilian beef processing firms such as Frigorifico Bertin (JBS) is being transformed into global giants. BNDES has funded JBS growth in investments in Argentina, U.S., Australia and Italy on the order of R$ 10 billiones. Read more Press Clipping \| 13 November 2010 Jirau hydro bidding process proves to be test of energy market The energy auction proposed by Energia Sustentável do Brasil (ESBR) - winner of the Jirau hydroelectric project construction bid on the Madeira River, to sell part of hydroelectric energy from Jirau through the free market ended without a new contract. Jirau proposed energy prices between R$130 and R$140 per MWh Read more Update \| 13 November 2010 New video resources on Amazon dams Read more Press Clipping \| 13 November 2010 BNDES: energy disbursements total $US 5.5 billion in 2010 Read more Press Clipping \| 13 November 2010 Peruvians brace as superhighway unfolds The Transoceanic Highway, evoking engineering marvels such as the Transcontinental Railroad and the Panama Canal, has been talked about for decades, assuming a mythic stature that has led many to question whether the east-west thoroughfare linking Brazil's Atlantic ports with the Pacific docks of Peru would ever come to pass. Read more Press Clipping \| 13 November 2010 Belo Monte construction delayed by state legal injunction The Federal Prosecutor in Pará sent to IBAMA recommendation not to issue a new environmental permit are not met while the 40 conditions of the preliminary license. Read more Update \| 27 October 2010 Proposals for governance in the Peruvian Amazon Authors Claudia Enrique and Vanessa Cueto of Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR) in Peru conducted an independent assessment of a program to mitigate the social and environmental effects of the highway currently being built in Peru. Read more Update \| 1 November 2010 Civil Society submits a dossier of proposals for policy reforms to the IDB The dossier contains a summary of proposals submitted by a group of civil society organizations to the Inter-American Development Bank. These recommendations focus on two core areas of the IDB’s comparative advantage as a development bank in Latin America, Sustainability and Management for Development Results. Read more Press Clipping \| 30 October 2010 Brazil's national development bank found guilty of driving Amazon deforestation BNDES, Brazil's national development bank, contributed to Amazon deforestation by lending billions of dollars to commercial meatpackers, driving expansion of cattle ranching across the world's largest rainforest, ruled an audit by the Federal Audit Court. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 October 2010 The Developmentalist As head of BNDES, Luciano Coutinho revitalized the bank that now delivers credit to the largest industrial, technology and meat packing economic groups.` Read more Update \| 27 October 2010 WSJ: Brazil Engineers a Critic-Proof Dam A recent article about the 3,000 MW San Antonio hydroelectric dam being built in a highly sensitive international Amazon watershed purported that Brazil had surmounted the environmental and social criticism of the revived Amazon dam building plans for 24 such sites in the coming years. Critics respond the WSJ writer, John Lyons, ignored much of the evidence and argumentation provided to him, resulting in a one-sided presentation of San Antonio that results in a greenwashing of the highly problematic project. Read more Update \| 1 November 2010 Peru: Statement by AIDESEP on the rights and consultation of indigenous peoples In a public statement directed at the Peruvian State, the World Bank, UNDP and UNFCCC, the Inter-ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Forest (AIDESEP) denounces plans of the government and its political and corporate allies to grant mining, logging and tourism concessions, as well as approve REDD and environmental services initiatives after blocking the Indigenous Consultation Law. They insist: without territory, rights and consultation for indigenous peoples, such concessions must not move forward. Read more Press Clipping \| 22 October 2010 CAF's mission inspected progress of works of the Southern Inter Oceanic Highway Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF) informed about the progress of the Inter-Oceanic Highway construction as well as the achievements of the productive projects implemented to improve the quality of life of people in the area of influence of the corridor. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 October 2010 Peru: A highway built to be flooded Construction workers are fighting the clock to finish the last stretch of the Southern Inter-Oceanic Highway, in southeastern Peru, apparently unaware that about 100 kilometres of this road connecting to Brazil will be covered by water once the Inambari hydroelectric dam is built nearby. Read more Update \| 19 October 2010 Guyana: Amaila Falls Hydro: Social and Environmental Aspects The Government of Guyana is planning to build a 140 MW hydroelectric dam on the Potaro River with funding from China and Norway and technical support from the IDB and WB. The first dam is part of a 1060 MW complex that will have signficant social and environmental impacts in the western Amazon region of the country. Read more Update \| 24 September 2010 International Seminar about the Multimodal Axis Amazon/ IIRSA: Strategic Hermeticism? Read more Update \| 24 September 2010 Roads and Deforestation: proper diagnosis and Basis for Sustainable Transport in Peru's R-PP In general the REDD discussions are based on the assumption of command and control policies that combines investment and capacity to implement economic incentives to avoid deforestation. In this sense there is relatively little emphasis in the discussion of solutions to structural problems that lead people from different sectors to adopt strategies that lead to deforestation and forest degradation, in other terms governance scenarios. Read more Press Clipping \| 19 September 2010 Construction of 3.15 GW Santo Antonio HPP 35% completed Read more Press Clipping \| 18 September 2010 Inambari and the future of our Amazon Read more Press Clipping \| 15 September 2010 CAF mission inspects progress of Southern Interoceanic Highway works A CAF delegation – formed by Infrastructure Vice President Antonio Juan Sosa, and CAF representative director in Peru Eleonora Silva Pardo – visited Madre de Dios and Cusco departments to monitor the progress of construction of the Southern Interoceanic Highway. Read more Press Clipping \| 9 September 2010 The Paraguay Parana Waterway Facilitates Soy Transportation Since the beginning of the 90's there have been warnings on the potential impacts of the hydroelectric project on the rivers Paraguay and Parana and its surrounding areas. Read more Press Clipping \| 9 September 2010 Garabi: in Misiones opposition says project calls for a plebiscite While authorities express their support for the construction of the hidroeletric plant, the neighboring province raises questions. The province's council asks for a plebiscite, but governor Closs announced that this ask is only going to be considered once the results from the feasibility studies are obtained. Read more Press Clipping \| 9 September 2010 Inter-Oceanic Highway to benefit exporters in Brazil and Peru Later this year, Peru will begin to send their exports to Brazil via the Southern Inter-Oceanic Highway, said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur), Martin Perez. Read more Press Clipping \| 8 September 2010 Interoceanic Highway: A Dangerous Dream The new highway that will connect Brazil to Peru by the end of this year threatens one of the last great treasures of humanity. Read more Press Clipping \| 7 September 2010 Cachuela Esperanza has no Technical, Economic or Environmental Feasibility The construction of an imense hydroelectric dam in Cachuela Esperanza, which the government of Evo Morales plans to install in the Northeast is not feasable in technical, economic and environmental terms, as warned by Jorge Molina, expert of the Hydraulic Institute of the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés de La Paz. Read more Press Clipping \| 7 September 2010 Brazilian Dam Would Put Peruvian Jungle Under Water Seen from up high, the route to Puente Inambari looks like a green serpent -- long, robust and sinuous. The Amazon jungle that dominates this landscape will be underwater if one of the largest hydroelectric dams in Peru (and all Latin America) is built. Read more Press Clipping \| 1 September 2010 Brazilian Biofuels Run into EU Obstacles Brazil has begun a counterattack on the European Union's measures for certifying crop-based fuels, which could lead to import barriers for this energy source coming from the South American giant. Read more Press Clipping \| 31 August 2010 Sigourney Weaver Narrates Google Earth Tour of Belo Monte Dam Tour graphically shows impacts of Belo Monte and 60 other dams planned for Amazon. Read more Press Clipping \| 27 August 2010 Brazil government gives go-ahead for huge Amazon dam Brazil's government has given the formal go-ahead for the building on a tributary of the Amazon of the world's third biggest hydroelectric dam. Read more Press Clipping \| 26 August 2010 Booming Brazilian Companies Find Rich Feeding Grounds In Peru Brazil's fast-growing economy needs new feeding grounds, and one place it is finding handy is its market-friendly Andean neighbor Peru. Read more Press Clipping \| 26 August 2010 Peru-Brazil: Are Negotiations Being Made Under the Table? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Water Authority did not participate in the negotiations of the energy treaty between Brazil and Peru, even though the law requires them to. Read more Press Clipping \| 26 August 2010 Energy Agreement with Brazil was Signed without National Water Authority's Intervention The national water authority (ANA) did not participate in the negotiations of the energy agreement between Peru and Brazil, even though article 44 of the Water and Resources Law Regulation establishes that this organism should be present in such agreements. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 August 2010 New Online Map Plots 140 Large Dams Planned for the Amazon Read more Press Clipping \| 25 August 2010 IDB hasn’t made decision yet on Amaila hydro feasibility Read more Press Clipping \| 25 August 2010 Synergy granted tax waiver on shipments for Amaila road works Synergy Holdings Inc., the company constructing the Amaila Falls hydropower project access road, benefited from a government-approved waiver on taxes on its recent shipment of equipment, a well-placed source said. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 August 2010 Fires: Visibility in Madeira River is close to Zero and People Suffer from Smoke Fires in the state of Rondonia continue to harm well-being of the people of Porto Velho. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 August 2010 Lula Says Criticism towards BNDES is Unreasonable The president criticizes comments that the bank lends subsidized money and says it exists to fund the brazilian industrial sector Read more Press Clipping \| 25 August 2010 Bank Gone Wild in Brazil Distorts Market: Alexandre Marinis President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has transformed Brazil’s state development bank into a key engine of economic growth since his re-election in 2006. Yet Lula’s policy of pushing the bank’s involvement into so many areas of Brazilian life now threatens the momentum of the world’s eighth-largest economy. Read more Press Clipping \| 16 August 2010 Stretch of Highway that Cuts through Pará Stanby Agreement with Indigenous Groups BR-230, the third largest highway in Brazil, with 4.9 thousand kilometers of length, has a good stretch still in phase of preparation for construction. Read more Update \| 5 August 2010 IDB Signals New Post-Capital Increase Relationship with Civil Society Exchange of views highlights differences in defining new rules for participation, development effectiveness and additionality. Read more Update \| 4 August 2010 World Bank releases first set of simultaneously disclosed documents Little over a month after the Access to Information Policy came into effect, the first few documents to be released through the "simultaneous disclosure" clause are trickling out of the Bank. The implications of such releases, however, have yet to be seen. Read more Update \| 5 August 2010 Jirau: Photos and Videos of Turbine Placement Read more Press Clipping \| 2 August 2010 Plans for Bolivia-Brazil Energy Integration Arguing a pursuit of energy integration between Bolivia and Brazil, Brazil tries to prioritize hydroelectric projects in Bolivia's agenda, despite dissent from environmentalists. Read more Press Clipping \| 2 August 2010 Slack Oversight of Peru's Amazon Rainforest Fifty-three percent of Peru is covered with native rainforest, but the agencies in charge of protecting and monitoring this vast area are toothless and have neither the staff nor the resources to cope with the job, according to a report from the Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsperson's Office). Read more Press Clipping \| 2 August 2010 Child Prostitution Spreads Throughout the New Highway in Peru Human rights defense entities estimate that each year, around 1,200 girls from 12 to 17 years of age come to the roadside camps set for workers of the extractive industries to work as prostitutes. Read more Press Clipping \| 2 August 2010 Interoceanic Highway Damages the Amazon in Brazil and Peru In Guacamayo, in the province of Madre de Dios, in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, the million-dollar business of illegal glod extraction threatens to destroy the region. Read more Update \| 27 July 2010 Civil Society Organizations submit a letter to President Moreno after his re-election Civil Society Organizations sent a letter to President Moreno to remind him that the mandate of his next Presidential term at the Bank will rest on three fundamental challenges: an Evidence-based Results Management, Institutional Governance, and a Social and Environmental Sustainability vision for the region. This in despite of controversial management style and consequent Bank performance over the last five years under his Presidency. Read more Press Clipping \| 27 July 2010 Bolivian Deputy Minister of Environment and Director of Environment submit their resignation Bolivian Deputy Minister of Environment Juan Pablo Ramos and Director Environment Luis Beltrán submitted irrevocable resignation from their posts on Friday of last week, after government officials tried to force them to sign an environmental permit for the construction of a highway in the Chapare region of Cochabamba. Read more Press Clipping \| 27 July 2010 Garcia opens US$68mn stretch of Interoceanica Sur Peru's President Alan Garcia has inaugurated the first stretch of the Interoceanica Sur highway, which required an investment of more than US$68mn, the presidential website reported. Read more Press Clipping \| 26 July 2010 Event in Peru presents the final results of a binational study of the navegavility of the Napo River Oraldo Reategui, a member of the Audit Committee of IIRSA Projects, reported the meeting began with forty attendees, most of them officials of public institutions, being absent representatives of civil society due to poor call for participation by the authorities. Read more Country Update \| 14 July 2010 Brazil Read more Update \| 9 July 2010 Warning signs for the future of the Peruvian Amazon This month's edition of the BICECA Monthly Bulletin features a summary of the event entitled "Oil and Mining Booms and Sustainable Development: Lessons from Peru for Development Planning & Revenue Management at the National and subnational level" (Washington, DC, June 16, 2010). Read more Update \| 12 July 2010 World Bank replies to civil society letter on Energy Strategy consultations The World Bank replies to the recommendations of 25 civil society groups on the new energy strategy consultations made in Peru, Brazil and Mexico. Read more Update \| 6 July 2010 We need sustainable development banks, say NGOs MEXICO CITY, Jul 5, 2010 (IPS) - Non-governmental organizations from across the Americas are demanding that the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank institute policies that favor sustainable energy and help mitigate climate change. Read more Update \| 2 July 2010 Civil society highlights deficiencies in WB Energy Strategy consultations in Peru, Brazil and Mexico Civil society groups compile recommendations to the World Bank for the new energy strategy and feedback on public consultations in Peru, Brazil and Mexico Read more Update \| 25 June 2010 Peru-Brazil energy treaty reflects countries’ ongoing national issues This past Wednesday, June 16, 2010, the Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and the Peruvian president, Alan Garcia, met in Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, to finalize discussions on an energy agreement. Read more Update \| 22 June 2010 Brazil and Peru sign agreement for energy integration The presidents of Brazil and Peru signed on Wednesday an energy integration agreement which includes the construction of hydroelectric plants and interconnections through the Amazon jungle. Read more Update \| 18 June 2010 Brazilian dams in Peru's jungle to supply Brazil An energy deal that Peru and Brazil signed this week in the Amazon city of Manaus in Brazil is opposed by environmentalists and local indigenous communities in Peru where the planned hydroelectric dams will be built. What is at stake? Read more Update \| 15 June 2010 Impacts of Brazilian hydroelectric dams have been tremendous Marc Dourojeanni, specialist in environment and natural resources, voices his opinion on the energy deal between Peru and Brazil and the Inambari hydroelectric dam. Read more Update \| 13 May 2010 IDB Approves New Disclosure Policy The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) May 12 approved a new "Access to Information Policy" likely to increase the level of transparency at the institution, according to a new article posted today on FreedomInfo.org's IFTI Watch column. The IDB set an international speed record for writing and approving the new disclosure policy, rushing it through as part of an effort to bolster its case for a capital replenishment. The haste came at the expense of a planned public comment period. Read more Press Clipping \| 19 April 2010 Vencedor de Belo Monte tendrá que hacer ajuste societário Read more Update \| 22 April 2010 Consórcio de Belo Monte recaudará R$ 80 millones con venta de madera Read more Update \| 21 April 2010 The World Bank and climate change: part of the problem? This edition of the BICECA Bulletin examines the World Bank Energy and Climate Change Strategies in the context of the upcoming Spring Meetings, which will take place April 24-25 in Washington, DC. Read more Press Clipping \| 10 April 2010 Solicitarán prórroga para ejecutar proyecto Inambari Read more Press Clipping \| 8 April 2010 Gobierno publica decreto supremo que crea Comisión que revisará decreto de urgencia sobre minería en Read more Press Clipping \| 7 April 2010 Ordenamiento minero y protesta ‘popular’ Read more Press Clipping \| 14 April 2010 Bolivia launches World Peoples' Climate Summit at UNFCCC talks in Bonn The Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth was announced by President Evo Morales of Bolivia in the aftermath of the widely denounced outcomes of the Copenhagen UNFCCC conference in December 2009. The aim of the conference is to advance an agenda led by civil society organizations and in dialogue with proactive governments dedicated to preventing climate change. The conference aims to analyze the structural causes of climate change, and develop specific proposals and actions for addressing it. Read more Update \| 7 April 2010 Looming challenges for the Inter-American Development Bank in Latin America The Cancun Declaration, signed by the Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) at its 51st Annual Meeting, contains 10 points and a global framework for evaluation of the agreed institutional reforms included in the ninth General Capital Increase of the Bank. These points partially address the concerns expressed by civil society in the region. Nevertheless, as these organizations point out, there are still points to be reinforced and challenges to be taken on by Bank management. Read more Update \| 1 April 2010 Taking advantage of the crisis: Capital increases for IFIs conditioned on new reforms The latest edition of the BICECA bulletin features analysis from civil society groups from around the region on the IDB Capital Increase and the pending institutional reforms linked to it. Read more Update \| 30 March 2010 World Bank recapitalization update - “New world – same World Bank” The proposed capital increases for the World Bank and IFC would expand their size without expanding the scope of their reform. Read more Press Clipping \| 22 March 2010 IDB projects questioned Projects financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that affect communities in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Honduras were brought into question this weekend in Cancun, while the institution contemplates an increase in its ordinary capital. Read more Press Clipping \| 19 March 2010 IDB arrives at Cancun meeting weakened by poor management Severe doubts have been raised by some of the IDB's own members regarding Luis Alberto Moreno's management. Read more Press Clipping \| 3 March 2010 Egasur dispuesta a pagar US$ 200 millones de compensación para desarrollar central de Inambari Read more Press Release \| 24 March 2010 “The IDB Cancun Declaration is a step forward, but it is just that- one step" Press Release from civil society groups present at the IDB Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in Cancun, Mexico Read more Press Clipping \| 18 March 2010 Brazil and Argentina oppose reelection of Luis Alberto Moreno Brazilian Minister of Finance, Guido Mantega: "we will propose at the meeting that the IDB elect a new administration that is more efficient and beneficial to the region". "Our joint evaluation is that his performance has been unsatisfactory". Read more Press Clipping \| 18 March 2010 Moreno’s management questioned as IDB funding increase pared While Moreno prays for "white smoke" at the IDB Annual Meetings in Cancun, both critics within the Bank and civil society offer sharp criticism of the leader's performance. Read more Update \| 18 March 2010 Tip Sheet: Inter-American Development Bank’s 2010 Annual Meeting in Cancun A coalition comprised of more than 100 civil society groups from 20 countries are attending the IDB's Annual Meetings in Cancun, Mexico this week seeking answers from Bank Governors and Executives on crucial reforms that must be discussed before a Board vote on a multi-billion dollar capital increase. Read more Update \| 10 March 2010 Cronologia de la Carretera Interoceánica Read more Press Clipping \| 1 March 2010 Puno mining authorities against Inambari hydroelectric dam “In our capacity as regional authorities, we have conducted a technical analysis of this project and we will not endorse it, because this project will only benefit Brazil” stated Víctor Paredes Argandeña, regional director of Energy and Mining in Puno. Read more Press Release \| 27 February 2010 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Bid for 200% Capital Increase in Jeopardy IDB Board of Governors Urged to Address Civil Society Concerns During Upcoming March 2nd Meeting in Washington, DC Read more Press Clipping \| 26 February 2010 IDB provides grant for Peru’s national waterway plan Read more Press Clipping \| 22 February 2010 MINAM launches consultation on Peru national climate strategy Read more Update \| 20 February 2010 No More of the Same - the Search for Governance 0n the Southern Interoceanic Highway Read more Update \| 17 February 2010 IDB Governor Accountability in Question as IDB Cruises Toward Cancun Recapitalization Request More than 100 civil society organizations from 18 countries stepped up pressure on the IDB by submitting a letter to the Board of Governors demanding Transparency and Evidence of Structural Reforms before the approval on the Capital Increase in Cancun, Mexico. Read more Press Clipping \| 16 February 2010 Brazil, Argentina say IADB failing Latin America Brazil and Argentina called on Friday for reforms at the Inter-American Development Bank, saying the regional lender had failed to understand the needs of Latin America during the global financial crisis. Read more Update \| 13 February 2010 GUYANA: Pro-Forest Measures Anger Miners Read more Update \| 12 February 2010 The New Extractivism in South America So-called extractivism, which includes mineral and oil exploitation, has a long history in Latin America. Current exports have been nourished by extractivist activities. Extractivism has continued to play a key role in national economies. It has also occupied a place at the center of powerful struggles because of its economic, social, and environmental impacts. Read more Press Clipping \| 12 February 2010 Unasur pledges 300 m USD for Haiti The Union of South American Nations, Unasur, leaders agreed Tuesday to provide 300 million US dollars in aid to Haiti at a summit in Ecuador which left aside regional disputes that have undermined relations since 2008. Read more Press Clipping \| 11 February 2010 Madeira: Brasil Public Ministry Hears Bolivian Grievances on Effects of Dam Read more Update \| 9 February 2010 A debate on energy agreement with Brazil is requested Without transparency the energy agreement would be less accountable Read more Press Clipping \| 7 February 2010 Brazil, Argentina To Take IDB Reform Proposal To G-20 Brazil and Argentina will present a proposal for reform of the Inter-American Development Bank at the next meeting of G-20 nations, Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Friday, according to the Estado news agency. Read more Update \| 6 February 2010 Civil Society Organizations and Academics Warn Against Peru-Brazil Energy Treaty Read more Press Clipping \| 5 February 2010 Brazil Gives Green Light to World's Third Largest Dam Despite Kayapo protests over flawed consultation process, IBAMA has granted a preliminary license to move forward with the 11,000 MW - $20 billion Belo Monte hydroelectric dam. Brazilian government officials have threatened the Para Public Ministry not to bring lawsuits to block the dam. Read more Press Clipping \| 3 February 2010 Brazilian Constructor OAS Offers $100 mn for Inambari in 2009 Read more Update \| 3 February 2010 World Bank Amazon Dieback Study Predicts Greater Probability & Severity of Biome Collapse "The World Bank released a study that finally put the impacts of climate change, deforestation and fires together. The tipping point for the Amazon is 20 percent deforestation," and that is "a scary result," Tom Lovejoy, a member of the external review panel for the report, told Tierramérica in an interview. The study, "Assessment of the Risk of Amazon Dieback," released Jan. 22, drew on the expertise of several international research institutions, including Japan's Meteorological Research Institute, Britain's Exeter University, Brazil's Centre for Weather Forecasting and Climate Change (CPET/INPE), Germany's Potsdam Institute and Earth3000. Read more Press Release \| 1 February 2010 Indigenous Federation of Madre de Dios Says No to Inambari Dam The principal indigenous federation of the Madre de Dios region of Peru issued a press release rejecting the proposed construction of the Inambari dam and call for the immediate suspension of the project. Read more Press Release \| 28 January 2010 The Desired Future of the Peruvian Amazon 2021? Book Launch: Jan. 26 & 27, 2009 - Lima, Peru: Peruvian Amazon in 2021-Infrastructure and the Exploitation of Natural Resources: What is happening and what does it mean for the future? by Marc Dourojeanni, Alberto Barandiarán y Diego Dourojeanni is a publication in which the authors fill a informational gap that exists for Peruvian citizens regarding what the government and private investors plan to do in the coming decade in the Peruvian Amazon. Read more Press Clipping \| 27 January 2010 Peru lacks Amazon development plan Expert in envrionmental issues Marc Dourojeanni criticized Peru for its lack of an Amazon Development Plan and warned that the Peruvian jungle will experience irreversible changes if even a third of the planned projects are implemented over the next 12 years. Read more Press Clipping \| 26 January 2010 Hundreds will lose their schools if the Inambari dam is built, warns Regional Director of Education 19 educational institutions will be lost in the construction of the Inambari hydroelectric center, affecting 634 students if the government goes forward with the project, which will benefit Brazil. Read more Press Clipping \| 22 January 2010 Candidates emerge to head Inter-American Development Bank Read more Update \| 22 January 2010 Glenn Ross Switkes (1951-2009) Read more Update \| 21 January 2010 2010 IDB Annual Meeting - Cancun All the latest news from the IDB Global Capital Increase (GCI-9) and the Annual Meetings taking place from March 19-23, 2010 Read more Press Clipping \| 20 January 2010 CAF approves another $200 million for Southern Interoceanic Highway The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) confirmed today that it has approved an additional loan of 200 million dollars for the implementation of the final phase of of sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Southern Interoceanic Highway (CVIS). The total cost of the project, originally set at $892 million in 2006 could now exceed $2 billion. Read more Update \| 1 January 2010 Esclusas del Complejo hidroeléctrico del río Madeira Read more Press Clipping \| 20 January 2010 Brazil, World Bank to promote water transport investment in 2010 Brazil's Ministry of Transport, in partnership with the National Departament of Infrastructure and Transport (DNIT) will begin to implement water transport projects over the next 20 years. The projects will be supported by the World Bank Strategic Waterway Plan. Read more Press Clipping \| 16 January 2010 Ecuador Minister Resigns Over Amazon Oil Project Fander Falconi was the third government official to resign over a plan to seek international donations of $3 billion over the next 10 years to keep an estimated 850 million barrels of heavy crude oil under the ground in the remote Yasuni National Park. Read more Update \| 1 January 2010 Lineas de transmisión (complejo del río Madeira) Read more Update \| 1 January 2010 AHE Guajará-Mirim Read more Update \| 1 January 2010 El complejo del río Madeira en los planes de infraestructura El complejo del Rio Madeira es un emprendimiento prioritario dentro de la iniciativa IIRSA y el Plan de Aceleramiento del Desarrollo (PAC) del gobierno brasilero. El complejo del río Madeira en los planes de infraestructura Read more Update \| 1 January 2010 Objetivos del Complejo Hidroeléctrico del rio Madeira Read more Update \| 1 January 2010 La cuenca del rio Madeira Read more Update \| 6 January 2010 Cronología del Complejo Hidroeléctrico del Rio Madeira Read more Update \| 10 January 2010 The Challenges of "Vivir Bien" - Living Well: Bolivian Debate Indigenous, university, academic and NGO organizations participated in the symposium on Vivir Bien within the V Latin American and Social Science Conference (CLASO) in La Paz, Bolivia. Read more Update \| 10 January 2010 CEADESC Informs on IIRSA Megaproject Impacts in Pando Workshop Indigenous and small farmer communities of Pando and Brazil participated in a workshop convened by CEADESC about the social and enviromental impacts of IIRSA megaprojects such as the Northern Corridor Highway, the Rio Madeira Hydroelectric Dams in late August, 2009 Read more Press Clipping \| 10 January 2010 Neighbors Challenge Energy Aims in Bolivia President Evo Morales’s leftist government, which has asserted greater control over some of South America’s most coveted natural gas reserves, is facing a challenge as neighboring countries move to achieve energy security by cutting their dependence on Bolivian gas supplies. New gas projects in Brazil and Argentina have come on line at a time when Mr. Morales is winning plaudits for a strong economy. Read more Update \| 1 January 2010 UHE Cachuela Esperanza Read more Update \| 5 August 2010 UHE Jirau Read more Update \| 4 January 2010 UHE Santo Antonio Read more Press Clipping \| 7 January 2010 Bolivia announces million dollar investment in infrastructure The road sector will be the main beneficiary with the unprecedented investment of U.S. $ 1 billion the government has budgeted for infrastructure during 2010 Read more Press Clipping \| 7 January 2010 Ecuador announces important projects for 2010 The government announced that this year will launch the construction of large projects such as the hydroelectric dam of Coca-Codo Sinclair and different opening of new roads. Read more Press Clipping \| 5 January 2010 Over a mile of new road Interoceanic collapsed without having been opened The construction company blames illegal mining, while the authorities blame the own construction company Read more Update \| 3 January 2010 Bolivia convenes Peoples Summit on Climate and the Rights of Nature The Plurinational Government of Bolivia has invited social movements, defenders of Mother Earth, scientists, academics, lawyers, government officials that want to work with their citizens to a World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Nature to be held in Cochabamba, Bolivia from 20- 22 of Abril, 2010. Bolivia. Read more Press Clipping \| 30 December 2009 Brazil allocates first funds under plan to save the Amazon Brazil's Amazon Fund committed first $40 million to five NGO projects to reduce deforestation. Projects focus on monitoring, environmentally-responsible land use, forest protection, and payments for avoiding deforestation. Read more Press Clipping \| 19 December 2009 Brazil and Peru Deepen Interoceanic Integration Read more Press Clipping \| 16 December 2009 Peruvian police attack local population opposed to Amazon dam Last Saturday, elements of the Peruvian National Police violently suppressed residents of San Labán, Puno during a protest opposing the construction of the Inambari hydroelectric dam. Read more Press Clipping \| 15 December 2009 Lula & Alan García prioritize highway between Cruzeiro do Sul and Pucallpa The two presidents met in Lima on Friday during the seminar ‘Interoceanic Highway: a new link between Brazil and Peru”, to announce joint investments in road work linking Acre and the Pacific coast. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 December 2009 Amazon projects undercut Brazil's new green path Straddling one the Amazon's main tributaries and flanked by dense jungle, a construction pit the size of a small town bustles with bulldozers and nearly 10,000 workers blasting huge slabs of rock off the river bank. Read more Press Release \| 14 December 2009 BankTrack calls upon banks to help fight runaway climate change New position paper outlines hard choices banks must make if they wish to be part of the solution to the climate crisis Read more Press Clipping \| 5 December 2009 Brazil BR 319 Highway: Criticism and Praise - the Debate Continues A BBC crew traveled twelve days from Manaus to Porto Velho documenting the debate over the rehabilitation of the BR 319 Amazon Highway Read more Update \| 5 December 2009 CAF approves grant to prepare stage two mitigation project for Interoceanica Sur The government of Peru approved a resolution authorizing the use of a non-reimbursable technical cooperation from the CAF to begin the design of second generation project to mitigate the direct and indirect impacts of the Southern Interoceanic Highway. Read more Update \| 4 December 2009 Prince of Wales Rainforests Project Features Madeira River Dams Read more Press Clipping \| 3 December 2009 Carbon scam: the Noel Kempff project in Bolivia Greenpeace recently released a report which illustrates clearly why REDD offset projects will neither address climate change nor stop deforestation. The report, “Carbon Scam: Noel Kempff Climate Action Project and the Push for Sub-national Forest Offsets“, looks in detail at the Noel Kempff Climate Action Project in Bolivia. Read more Press Clipping \| 3 December 2009 No-shows among South American leaders at Amazon summit Read more Press Clipping \| 30 November 2009 Brazil: Development bank funds destructive projects, say activists Public money in Brazil is being used by the state development bank to finance deforestation projects and others that trample rights, concentrate wealth, and encourage "imperialist" expansion of large national companies, according to activists at a three-day meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Read more Update \| 28 November 2009 IDB rejects CSO concerns over IIRSA Corridor in Peru IDB President Moreno evades definitive response to observed socio-environmental threats caused by IIRSA project, Road Interconnection, Pucallpa-Cruzeiro do Sul (Peru-Brazil). Read more Press Release \| 28 November 2009 BNDES ignores advice of bank-affected population Frustration. That was the sentiment felt by the representatives of those impacted by BNDES-financed projects. The group of social leaders met with the institution's president, Luciano Coutinho at bank headquarters, on November 25, however the meeting did not result in the acknowledgement of any of their claims. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 November 2009 ¿Lula Suggests to Evo that both work to favor Brazilian companies? Saturday the 22 of August in Villa Tunari, Cochabamba, an agreement between Bolivia and Brasil was finalized to build a highway between Cochabamba (Villa Tunari) and Beni (San Ignacio de Moxos). Highway to Beni: Villa Tunari - San Ignacio de Moxos Read more Press Clipping \| 27 November 2009 Bolivia: Presidential Candidates Have No Plans to Confront Brazilian Dams Read more Press Clipping \| 27 November 2009 Colonization Settlements are Consolidated in Pando Read more Press Release \| 27 November 2009 Civil Society Presents Proposal for Reform of the Southern Interoceanic Highway Read more Press Clipping \| 27 November 2009 The Bolivian Government Plans to Invest in 13 Hydroelectric Projects The Bolivian state intends to recover its dominant role in the electricity sector through the execution of 13 large and medium size energy generation projects through the national Electricity Company (ENDE) with a planned investment of between $ 5.5 and 6 billion. Read more Press Clipping \| 27 November 2009 The Evaluation of Health Impacts of the Madeira Hydrolectric Dams Read more Press Clipping \| 25 November 2009 Regional development bank Banco del Sur created Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela signed an agreement on Monday inaugurating a new regional development bank which will lend only to member countries for projects implemented in South America. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 November 2009 Peru and Brazil to sign deal on waterways The project, to be signed next December, will allow both countries to take advantage of transport via the Huallaga, Marañón and Amazon rivers. Read more Press Clipping \| 24 November 2009 Messing around with dams The Inambari dam would flood 120 km of the Interoceanic Highway, on which upgrading work has already begun. It seems that in both Peru and Brazil the ministries of transport and of energy don’t talk to each other. Read more Update \| 23 November 2009 Conservationists Fight Proposed Amazon Road "The new roads and waterways have to be built, but built in compliance with local communities looking for protection of the forest," said Marina Silva, a senator from the western Brazilian state of Acre, and the country's former environment minister. Read more Press Clipping \| 18 November 2009 Bribery for Inambari exposed An investigation by the Brazilian daily Folha de Brasil revealed the involvement of ex-Minister of Mining and Energy Silas Rondeau in a bribery scandal favoring the Brazilian company Engevix for the construction of six hydroelectric centers in Peru at a cost of US$ 16 billion. Read more Press Clipping \| 17 November 2009 Puno residents express opposition to the construction of Inambari hydroelectric dam Documents from the informational forum held in Madre de Dios stated that the hydroelectric center's reservoir would flood all territory below 540 meter above sea level, covering approximately 410 square kilometers. Read more Press Clipping \| 17 November 2009 Funding resources for water in Latina America, IBD, Spain and Netherlands take the lead Latin American water crises require bold investments and strategic alliances, IDB president says. Luis Alberto Moreno warns about impact of climate change on key sectors of region's economy; highlights sustainable solutions. Latin America is facing multiple water crises with far-reaching consequences for health, food security, renewable energy sources and export competitiveness, Moreno said today. Read more Press Clipping \| 17 November 2009 Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped by 45% in 12 months In a statement from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian government announced that the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was reduced by 45% between August 2008 and July 2009 compared to the previous year. Read more Update \| 13 November 2009 IIRSA: Development for business, an attack on lives The following video was presented to the Inter-American Comission on Human Rights in Washington, protesting the construction of mega-projects financed by the World Bank and IDB. Read more Press Clipping \| 10 November 2009 Madre de Dios: Buried in Mercury A flight over the forest between Madre de Dios and Puno provides a panoramic view of the devastation: thousands of tons of removed soil and forests that have disappeared or been buried beneath waste left by years of intense and illegal gold mining activity in the Amazon. Read more Press Release \| 10 November 2009 OAS CIDH Tracks Impacts of Megadams in Latin America AIDA, International Rivers, and IMDEC present evidence of human rights violations from dams. Read more Press Clipping \| 10 November 2009 Madeira Rivers Dams Denounced OAS CIDH Read more Press Clipping \| 10 November 2009 Civil society demands public consultation before implementation of Inambari Hydroelectric Project Parliament Representative from Puno, Susana Vilca Achata, presented a declaration from civil society of the Carabaya province to the vice minister of Energy and Mining, Daniel Camac Gutiérrez, in which they demanded public consultation before construction of the Inambari mega-project. Read more Update \| 10 November 2009 $100 Billion Recapitalization of BNDES makes it the largest development bank in Latin America Read more Press Clipping \| 10 November 2009 “Inambari will cause more damage than Camisea” Ex Minister of Energy and Mining, Carlos Herrera Descalzi, asserts that Peru's energy demand over the next several years puts the country at a disadvantage regarding the hydroelectric project. Read more Press Clipping \| 10 November 2009 Indigenous groups file claim against IIRSA Indigenous groups from Bolivia, Brazil and Peru filed a case against their respective governments Nov. 2 in the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America, or IIRSA, is causing collective human rights violations against their communities. Read more Update \| 8 November 2009 Obama memo on implementing State duty on consultation of indigenous peoples Within 90 days, all US federal agencies must submit a plan for implementation of regular, meaningful, previous consultation processes with indigenous peoples. Read more Press Clipping \| 5 November 2009 Argentina becomes full member of Andean Finance Corporation On Wednesday, Argentina became a full member of the Andean Finance Corporation, of which it had been a series C shareholder since it joined in 2001, as confirmed in a statement from the Argentine Minister of Economy. Read more Update \| 5 November 2009 DPLs now over half of World Bank lending: Gaping hole in transparency and accountability In 2009, Development Policy Operations increased dramatically as a percentage of overall World Bank lending, from an average of about 33% to over 50%. Dogged by concerns that stem from a lack of a strong set of safeguard policies or clear results, this shift to greater dependence on DPLs/DPOs raises concerns about arbitrage by Bank clients to soften or avoid transparency and accountability commitments. Read more Press Release \| 5 November 2009 IDB GCI consultation at early crossroads Guadalajara Civil Society Meetings in Guadalajara, Mexico open with increased demands for consultation process accountability, transparency guarantees. Good faith participation by CSOs rests on Bank decision to disclose and discuss a second draft of the proposed revisions to the Independent Consultation and Inspection Mechanism (ICIM). Read more Update \| 3 November 2009 Belo Monte hydro auction in Brazil to take place on December 21 Environmental agency Ibama will still have to issue the final permission for Belo Monte construction. Read more Update \| 3 November 2009 Indigenous leaders denounce IIRSA megaprojects that violate the rights of Mother Earth The Confederación Andina de Organizaciones Indígenas de Perú (CAIO), the Organización Indígena Chiquitana de Bolivia (OICH), el Centro de Estudios Aplicados a los Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales de Bolivia (CEADESC), Comunidades Nativas de Pueblos Indígenas de Rondonia de Brasil and Indian Law Resource Center today denounced various IIRSA projects at the Inter-American Court for Human Rights in Washingtion DC for the violation of the right to free and prior informed consent of indigenous peoples. Read more Update \| 3 November 2009 Flor de Ucayali affected by Pucallpa – Cruzeiro de Sul segment of IIRSA The 220 km IIRSA project will cut through territory of the indigenous communities of Flor de Ucayali and others in the Iskonahua Territorial reserve. Indigenous groups have expressed concern over the consequences forced contact could have on these groups, which live in voluntary isolation. Read more Press Release \| 2 November 2009 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights examines impacts oflarge dams in Latin America Read more Press Clipping \| 29 October 2009 US$ 34.7 million approved for environmental licensing automation The legal council of the Ministry of Environment of Brazil approved last Wednesday a financing package of 34.7 million dollars for the National Environmental Program (PNMA). 24.3 million will be provided by the World Bank (IBRD) and the rest will be financed by the Brazilian government. Read more Update \| 29 October 2009 Forests Much More Than Carbon Storage The bid to include forests in initiatives to mitigate climate change is turning out to be a sensitive issue for the planet. Read more Press Clipping \| 29 October 2009 Ecuador President says rich world should pay poor countries not to pollute "Climate change has been produced principally by the rich countries, but it most affects the countries of the third world," President Rafael Correa said in London. Read more Press Clipping \| 26 October 2009 Brazilian Firm Threatens Other Six Dams if Inambari Fails Read more Press Clipping \| 26 October 2009 Brazil Transport Ministry Costs Reflect Focus on Large Projects The General Director of the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (Dnit), Luiz Antônio Pagot, requested an increase of R$ 1.2 billion in his 2010 budget solely for mitigating socio-environmental costs caused by projects carried out by the department. According to Pagot, the costs of managing social and environmental impacts have been growing among highway projects during the last few years. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 October 2009 Informal Mining in Peru Moves up to $650 million Small and medium-scale mining in Peru are no longer artisan activities. They have become a veritable machinery complex, moving millions of dollars on the black market. The general director of Mining at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Víctor Vargas, acknowledged that this activity is no longer exclusive to Puno and Madre de Dios, and has in fact extended throughout the entire country. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 October 2009 Bolivia announces Amazon development projects Bolivian President Evo Morales announced the implementation of several development projects in the Amazon department of Pando in hopes of making it a center of development in the country. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 October 2009 Rondonia State Assemby Seeks to Expedite Road Infrastructure Investment On June 5th, the Legislative Assembly of Rondônia convened a public hearing to seek alternatives for expediting resources amounting to approximately one billion reais, to be applied works directly on the federal highways in Rondônia. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 October 2009 Pasto-Mocoa: First Environmentally Sustainable Road The environmental license of the project was granted by MAVDT in December of 2008 and includes strict environmental standards that guarantee the protection of ecosystems affected by the highway. Read more Press Release \| 25 October 2009 Specialists question studies and vulnerability of Belo Monte Hydroelectric dam According to specialists, the unprecedented energy inefficiency of the project and the accelerated public hearing process demonstrate that the government and contractors will push for a large project at any cost. The Panel of Specialists warned the government and public about this grave mistake, whose real costs are unknown and whose environmental impact studies are incomplete. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 October 2009 Eletrobras eyes 9,000 MW project in Peru Eletrobras, Latin America’s largest electric utility, may build a $4.8 billion hydroelectric project in northern Peru, according to a government official interviewed by Bloomberg. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 October 2009 Ecuador Reactivates the Contruction of Coca-Codo Dam The hydroelectric project that will cost US$1.979 million will provide 75% of the electricity needs of the country. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 October 2009 Bolivia will invest US$5.000M in six hydroelectric dams The country plans to triple installed capacity with 3,290 MW of added hydroeletric power in the next 13 years in order to restrict thermoelectric power. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 October 2009 Jirau dam problems related to relocation After work was halted for 45 days, the licensee Sustainable Energy of Brazil, in charge of building the Jirau hydroelectric project on the Madeira River, is cautious about formalizing a request for an advance schedule for the entry into operation of the plant. The president of the company, Victor Paranhos, says it is entirely possible to begin generation of the first megawatts, but fears that new strikes could delay the work further. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 October 2009 IDB approves $1 billion credit line for Ecuador’s road network A first loan for $350 million to finance investments in key bridge, maintenance work, road safety Read more Press Clipping \| 24 October 2009 New Study Shows Dam in Brazil Amazon Would Be Social and Ecological Disaster A new independent review by a panel of 40 Brazilian experts show the true costs of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Project, planned for the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. The panel found that the dam would have serious consequences for the region, its inhabitants, and ecosystems of the Amazon rainforest. Read more Update \| 24 October 2009 World Bank Brazil Project Seeks to Automate & Integrate Environmental Licensing With funding from the World Bank, the Brazilian Ministry of Environment is planning to expedite and integrate the environmental licensing processes now divided between Federal, State and Local authoriteis. In an effort to speed up large infrastructure with the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), the move could lead to licensing regional of river basins. Read more Update \| 24 October 2009 Brazil Environment Ministers Wants to Facilitate Regional Licensing of Dams According to the executive secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Isabella Teixeira, the Brazilian Institute of Environment (IBAMA) is studying a way to streamline licensing by issuing regional licenses to address the country's increasing energy demands. Read more Update \| 24 October 2009 BNDES has invested $4.8 billion in the beef processing sector BNDES has invested close to $R 5 bilion in the last two years as shareholders in the largest beef shippers, including JBS Friboi and Bertin. In Bertin alone, BNDES has purchased 27% equity position. Read more Update \| 24 October 2009 Civilization in crisis and Living Well: "Vivir Bien" Education in the Context of Multiple Crises Read more Update \| 24 October 2009 "Vivir Bien" - The search for a new paradigm in Bolivia Read more Press Clipping \| 24 October 2009 Brazilian Settlements in Pando Awaken Tensions Lula and Evo coordinate the return of 1,000 Brazilians located in Pando. Some call for the defense of their lands. Read more Press Clipping \| 24 October 2009 EU Support to Bolivia Focuses on Chiquitania Region The Prefect of Santa Cruz, Rubén Costas, and EU ambassador Kenny Bell inaugurated 14 bridges, a viaduct and six road accesses. The projects were financed as part of the fourth section of the bioceanic corrdior Santa Cruz-Arroyo Concepción. Bolivia receives more European financial assistance than any other country in the region. Read more Press Clipping \| 24 October 2009 El Tinto-San José Section of SC-PS Highway Divided, Delayed Astaldi fined $6 million, Paraíso-El Tinto section also behind schedule Read more Press Clipping \| 21 October 2009 Eletrobras eyes 9,000 MW project in Peru The Corina project would be Peru’s largest hydropower facility, with a capacity of 9,000 MW, he said. Eletrobras is the government-owned electric utility of Brazil. Peru and Brazil are considering several new hydroelectric projects with an investment outlay of more than $15 billion. Read more Update \| 21 October 2009 Brazilian social and environmental movements reject carbon trading Representatives from social and environmental organisations and movements met recently for two days in Belém, Pará state, Brazil to discuss REDD. After the meeting they produced the following letter calling on the Government of Brazil to reject REDD as a carbon market-based mechanism, and as a way of compensating emissions from Northern countries. Read more Press Clipping \| 21 October 2009 World Bank approves 1.5 billion dollar loan for Mexico It was confirmed yesterday that Mexico will receive 1.504 billion dollars in financing for “encouraging green growth”; the loan will focus on economic strengthening and environmental programs. Read more Update \| 20 October 2009 Construction of hydroelectric projects in the Amazon should protect national interests Declaration of the Peruvian College of Engineers (CIP) published in El Comercio October 19 Read more Update \| 20 October 2009 CIDOB and Cross-Cultural Bridges Foundation denounce IIRSA at Climate Justice Tribunal Read more Press Clipping \| 19 October 2009 Lula and Uribe promote Amazon country summit The two leaders are pushing for the meeting in hopes that "all countries in the region with Amazon territory arrive at the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen in December of this year with a unified strategy ", explained Lula da Silva. Read more Update \| 19 October 2009 IDB Rush to Increase Capital Fails G-20 Stress Tests Read more Press Clipping \| 16 October 2009 IDB approves $1 billion credit line for Ecuador’s road network A first loan for $350 million to finance investments in key bridge, maintenance work, road safety Read more Press Clipping \| 15 October 2009 Crisis has hurt investment in renewables In Latin America, Brazil is the leader in the development of renewable energies, while nations like Mexico, Peru, Chile and Argentina are taking slow steps to change their energy mix. Read more Press Clipping \| 12 October 2009 Inambari and Transparency The most worrying feature of the proposed Inambari hydroelectric project is the manner in which the central government has made the decision to build the dam, leaving at the margins of the decision making process regional and local authorities, civil society, and in particular, the inhabitants of the planned construction zones. Read more Press Clipping \| 12 October 2009 Catholic Bishops Criticize Amazon Infrastructure Projects At a congress in Manaus new hydroelectric and highway projects were questioned. Clergy members from the Catholic Church rmeeting in Brazil stated that the idea that indigenous peoples hinder economic development is false. Read more Update \| 10 October 2009 From No Man's Land to Land for All Pando on the one year anniversay of the Porvenir Massacre Read more Press Clipping \| 8 October 2009 Eletrobras considering partnership in 800 Mw hydroelectric project in Guyana At a ceremony in Roraima, Lula announced that Minister of Mines and Energy, Edison Lobao and president of the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), Luciano Coutinho will meet in Guyana in October to discuss the matter with Guyanese president Bharrat Jagdeo. Read more Press Clipping \| 8 October 2009 Troy is burning: Who will benefit from the Inambari hydroelectric project? “It's difficult to say whether Inambari or the other dams will represent a benefit to Peru. What is evident is that the construction of large dams on Amazonian rivers will have enormous economic repercussions in terms of foreign debt, and obviously extreme social and environmental impacts. The truth is that we are obligated to reflect on these impacts before embarking on construction”, said Marc Dourojeanni, consultant to the IDB. Read more Press Clipping \| 8 October 2009 AFC: New credit to finance Southern Interoceanic Highway will reach US$200 million "We're working with the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to work out the details of a new credit for the final stage of the project, which will be approved by the end of the year", stated AFC representative Eleonora Silva. Read more Press Clipping \| 7 October 2009 Belo Monte project will cost R$16 billion The estimate, which does not consider transmission, includes the provision of tax exemptions, the cost of training of the Special Purpose Company (SPC) and the cost of insurance. "This was the value quoted to TCU as the result of a study on investment optimization" says Mauricio Tolmasquim, president of EPE. Read more Press Clipping \| 7 October 2009 Belo Monte: little energy for many damages Disregard of environmental impacts, lack of foresight on how to compensate the families who will be impacted by the work, and overestimation of energy and jobs that will be generated. According to investigators, prosecutors and civil society organizations, these are just some of the flaws in the Environmental Impact Assessment of the hydroelectric plant of Belo Monte, planned for construction on the Xingu River. Read more Press Clipping \| 7 October 2009 Large companies eye Belo Monte Companies such as Vale, Votorantim, CSN and Alcoa evaluate possible partnership in the venture. Read more Press Clipping \| 6 October 2009 IMF warns Brazil of risks of unmeasured entry into foreign capital markets The rapid recovery of the Brazilian economy could attract a disproportionate amount of foreign capital and further elevate the value of the real, the IMF warned today, recommending that the Brazilian government consider trimming their stimulus package. Read more Press Release \| 6 October 2009 PRESS RELEASE: IDB Rush to Increase Capital Fails G-20 Stress Tests The IDB must implement crucial reforms before a capital inrease is approved. Read more Update \| 2 October 2009 Open letter to Mr. Luis Alberto Moreno, President of IDB Civil Society outlines their concerns about socio-environmental impacts of the IIRSA project "Road Interconnection: Pucallpa-Cruzeiro do Sul" and demands that the IDB promote more transparency and public consultation in the IIRSA process. Read more Update \| 30 September 2009 Open letter to Mr. Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the IDB In this letter, members of civil society outline the minimum conditions which they feel the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism (ICIM) must meet. Read more Update \| 30 September 2009 Video of the Inambari Info Workshop, Mazuko Read more Update \| 30 September 2009 Info Brief: World Bank Environmental Policy Loan to BNDES In November of 2008, the WB announced a US$ 1.3 billion development policy loan to the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES). The DPL is the first operation in a series of two loans which span the period 2008-2010. In this article, we review the background and concerns associated with development policy lending since 2004, specifically the lack of transparency, accountability, and a clear public consultation plan. We then offer a detailed analysis of the Brazilian Sustainable Environmental Management (SEM) DPL. Civil society firmly believes that until practices of transparency and dialogue between the World Bank, the Brazilian government and civil society organizations are truly adopted, the laudable goals of the SEM DPL will not be achieved. Read more Press Clipping \| 30 September 2009 $ 600 million infrastructure fund created "The fund will be for cost-effective infrastructure projects. In Peru we have a deficit of between 7 and 10 billion dollars in infrastructure”, IDB director for Peru, Ana María Rodríguez told reporters. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 September 2009 Guyana: Brazil Opens Gateway to Wider Caribbean Earlier this month, Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula DaSilva flew more than 1,600 kilometres from his base in Brasilia to a remote state on the Guyanese frontier to formally commission a border river bridge with his country's English-speaking neighbour. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 September 2009 Desertification - a Macroeconomic Problem Understanding desertification as a macroeconomic problem, with financial, productive, environmental and civil society aspects, is a major concern for Christian Mersmann, the managing director of the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Read more Press Clipping \| 28 September 2009 Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela to increase their contributions to the Bank of the South Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela will raise their contribution levels to the Bank of the South to 4 billion dollars each. The bank's incorporation charter was signed yesterday by seven South American governors. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 September 2009 Spain, Mexico and Argentina request capital increase of IDB at G-20 summit According to Spanish government officials, this was one of the primary conclusions of the meeting held at UN headquarters in New York, where they met to coordinate their positions before the G-20 summit which begins this afternoon in Pittsburgh. Read more Press Clipping \| 23 September 2009 Manifest Destiny in the Amazon Basin In this article from Americas Quarterly, Bruce Babbit questions the economic benefits of the Interoceanic Corridor as purported by the Brazilian government, noting that the project will essentially be financed by the Peruvian government. He highlights the disastrous environmental and social impacts the project will have on the Amazon Basin, calling for a plan for climate change mitigation as ambitious as the plan for regional integration. Read more Press Clipping \| 21 September 2009 Altamira hoping for progress Last year's termination of many logging activities in the region of Altamira of western Pará caused an estimated loss of 30 thousand jobs in an area where the number of inhabitants is less than 350 thousand. In a place with many prospects for job creation, many see the Belo Monte hydroelectric project as the solution to their problems. Read more Press Clipping \| 21 September 2009 Belo Monte to be site of Xingu River bypass and two worksites The bypass will reduce the volume of water in this part of the river considerably, having a large impact on the fauna and flora. There is also some concern that the forest will dry as well. Local leader José Carlos Arara says the environmental impact studies do not make clear how this project will affect the lives of Indians. Read more Press Clipping \| 18 September 2009 Lula to ask for reform of the UN, IMF and World Bank at General Assembly President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at the General Assembly of the United Nations, will ask for reform of the UN itself, as well as of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, a government spokesperson said. Read more Update \| 17 September 2009 IDB begins consultation on Ninth Global Capital Increase Read more Update \| 16 September 2009 Conpes: “Highway Development of Southern Colombia” project vital to regional integration Colombia's Department of Planning announces a pledge of 796 billion pesos to finance a highway that would connect the cities of Tumaco, Pasto, Mocoa and Puerto Asís, part of the Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA). The projects will be completed between 2010 and 2016. Read more Press Clipping \| 16 September 2009 Economic viability of Inambari hydroelectric dam will not be determined until June 2010 Because the Eletrobras-OAS and Furnas consortium of Brazil has not yet completed the feasability study for the project, Minister of Energy and Mining Pedro Sánchez, announced today that it will be June 2010 before the economic viability of construction of the Inambari hydroelectric center is determined. Read more Press Clipping \| 16 September 2009 Peru and Brazil working on legal framework for energy integration that benefits both countries Peruvian and Brazilian authorities made progress on the design of a legal framework which would help solidify an energy integration agreement that benefits both countries and not just one, said Mining and Energy Minister Pedro Sánchez. Read more Update \| 16 September 2009 BNDES looking for new sources of financing The National Development Bank of Brazil (BNDES) nearly quintupled its loan volume between 1997 and 2008, making it one of the largest development banks in the world. Last year, it disbursed loans in the amount of R$ 92.2 billion; as of July this year, it has already disbursed R$ 75.1 billion. Total 2009 loans could reach R$ 131 billion. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 September 2009 Amazon peoples call for civil war against Inambari Native assembly denounces the construction of the Inambari hydroelectric dam, amid fears of being displaced from their land. They threatened a repetition of the tragic events of Bagua, where police and civilians were killed. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 September 2009 Jirau labor contractor keeps workers in slavelike conditions In a joint action by the Ministry of Labor (MPT) and the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) in Rondonia, and with support from the federal police, 38 people registered in the State of Maranhão (in Parnarama) to work for Construtora BS in Jacy Paraná were rescued and have had their employment contracts terminated. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 September 2009 Electrobras will compensate Inambari impacts Read more Update \| 10 September 2009 The Inambari River Basin invaded by illegal gold miners Read more Update \| 10 September 2009 Position of the Peruvian College of Engineers on Inambari The College expressed its profound surprise at the disinterest shown by the Minister of Environment upon failing to attend the Forum, and urged the Minister of Energy and Mining to publicly release the Concession Contract and its outcomes, regarding both the economic and social effects as well as mitigation measures for the environmental impact of the reservoir. Read more Press Clipping \| 10 September 2009 Hydroelectric Projects in the Peruvian Amazon This article provides an overview of a bi-national agreement between Brazil and Peru to construct six hyrdoelecrtric dams in Peruvian territory. Specifically, it compares the proposed Inambari project to a strikingly similar deal signed in 1973 between Brazil and Paraguay, which has since had disastrous consequences for Paraguay. Read more Update \| 10 September 2009 New CAF Loan for Southern Interoceanic Highway in early 2010 The Andean Finance Corporation (CAF) is evaluating a new line of credit to finance the Southern Interoceanic Highway, which is to be approved early next year, CAF representative Elenora Silva reported today. Read more Press Clipping \| 10 September 2009 Inambari: A Policy of Having no Policy Jorge Molina, of the Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology of Bolivia, during the Symposium “Sustainable Hydroelectric Development in the Amazon and the Madeira River Basin Case". He criticized the current policy of Amazon countries concerning hydroelectric activity, allowing the implementation of mega projects in areas where the social and environmental impacts outweigh the possible benefits of such projects. Read more Update \| 9 September 2009 Brazil and BNDES: The Threat of Development for the Amazon In this month's bulletin, we examine some of the concerns about whether the Bank’s and the Brazilian government’s policies address climate change issues and the social and environmental impacts of these projects. Read more Update \| 9 September 2009 World Bank DPL to Brazil: Moving Money or Mainstreaming Environmental Sustainability? This article discusses the changing relationship between the Bank and Brazil within the context of a new $1.3 billion Development Policy Loan. It includes a review of the background and concerns associated with development policy lending since 2004, and then offers a detailed analysis of the Brazilian Sustainable Environmental Management (SEM) DPL. Read more Update \| 9 September 2009 Amazon Dieback Recent evidence suggests that there will be irreversible loss of up to 85% of the Amazon forests by 2100. Still, the prospect of Amazon die-back remains a somewhat misunderstood threat due to perceived uncertainty with the climate models, but also because of the lack of visibility by development institutions. Read more Update \| 9 September 2009 Amazon in Peril: Dams Threaten Rainforest Biodiversity With most of Brazil's future hydroelectric potential in the Amazon, the government is pressing for scores of dams to be built over the next 20 years. However, these dams could disturb the fragile water balance of the Amazon, accelerating the drying of the forest, and expelling thousands of river-bank dwellers from their lands. Read more Update \| 9 September 2009 Economic Efficiency: Environmental Risks and Costs of the Reconstruction of Rodovia BR-319. Executive Summary Read more Press Clipping \| 8 September 2009 Lula: "Brazil will not behave like new money" in spending petroleum income "We will not repeat the mistakes of other countries", because "we know that wealth from petroleum is a double-edged sword" said the Head of State. Read more Press Clipping \| 7 September 2009 Brazil Interested in Investing $500 million in Interoceanic Highway Regional president of Áncash, César Álvarez Aguilar, confirmed that the Brazilian government is interested in investing US$500 million in the construction of the Interoceanic Highway which will link the regions of Áncash, Huánuco and Ucayali. Read more Update \| 4 September 2009 Southern Interoceanic Highway Impacts: Better to know it now Read more Update \| 4 September 2009 Lula's Veto of PM 458 Considered by many to be a significant step towards protecting the Amazon forest, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently vetoed parts of one of the most important and controversial environmental bills in years. Read more Press Clipping \| 4 September 2009 Environmental Minister questions the construction of two hydroelectric projects in the jungle Peruvian Environmental Minister Antonio Brack recommended cancelling the construction of two hydroelectric plants in Paquitzapango and Inambari. Read more Press Clipping \| 4 September 2009 Inambari: “If the negative impacts are too severe, the project will not go ahead" Evandro Roberto Miguel, president of the Inambari Project directive, Empresa de Generación Eléctrica Amazonas Sur of Brazil quoted at a recent event in Puno, discussing the pros and cons of the Inambari Hydroelectric Dam. Read more Update \| 4 September 2009 Regarding the Inambari Dam We continue our dicussion on energy; this time with a few lines about Inambari and the energy deal with Brazil. Read more Press Clipping \| 4 September 2009 BNDES will need to be recapitalized after Petrobras capital increase says Energy Minister Brazil's national development bank BNDES will need to be recapitalized in order to be able to keep up other investments and lending activities, after it joins in on new pre-salt oil production and the capital increase for federal energy company Petrobras. Read more Press Clipping \| 4 September 2009 PERÚ - Against Inambari and Paquitzapango Dams Read more Press Clipping \| 3 September 2009 Nixon and the Interoceanic Highway In secret conversations between Nixon and Garrastazú a old Brazilian imperialist plan surfaces that directly affects us and remains one of Brazil's geopolitical projects. Read more Press Clipping \| 3 September 2009 Paying not to suffer We continue to pay for a Brazilian project which will end up submerged by another Brazilian project. All part of a deal that ensures certain Brazilian companies will not suffer. Read more Press Clipping \| 1 September 2009 Union halts construction of the Santo Antonio plant for 4 hours On Monday morning, from 5 to 9, representatives of the Union of Construction Workers of the State of Rondônia (Sticcero) blocked the gate of the construction site of the Santo Antônio plant, causing more than three miles of line on the access road in order to promote deliberative assembly with indications of a general strike. Read more Press Clipping \| 31 August 2009 19 schools will be flooded by Inambari hydroelectric dam- Puno Regional Education Director issues a strong warning Read more Press Clipping \| 31 August 2009 Lula inks deal with Morales on transnational corridor, discusses gas imports Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over the weekend signed an agreement with his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales to embark on a bilateral project to construct a freeway between Bolivia's Villa Tunari and San Ignacio de Moxos cities as part of a plan to create a corridor between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Read more Press Clipping \| 31 August 2009 Animal Droppings can replace "Jirau" Waste, particularly manure, can also generate income for farmers, FAO study shows. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 August 2009 Brazil to provide $300 million financing for Bolivian highway Brazil will provide financing worth $300 million to the Bolivian government for construction of a highway critical for regional trade, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday. Read more Press Clipping \| 27 August 2009 BNDES Portfolio for South America Totals $US 15.6 Billion A significant increase in the number and value of projects approved or under analysis by BNDES for the South American region will bring a commensurate increase in the purchase of Brazlian goods and services over the next four years, says BNDES President Luciano Coutinho. Read more Update \| 27 August 2009 New Study Estimates Large Carbon Impact of the Inambari Dam The Inambari Hydroelectric Project, with a reservoir projected at 46,000 ha of tropical forest, would be an important source of greenhouse gas emissions to the extent that total emissions for Peru could increase by 5.8% Read more Update \| 21 August 2009 The Madeira dams: impacts and actions in Bolivian territory Jirau and Santo Antonio promise to cost much more than the stated financial value of their construction: deforestation, disease, damage to fish population just to name a few. These and other costs, however, will not be paid only by Brazilians; Bolivians are also facing some of the costs of this venture. Read more Press Clipping \| 21 August 2009 Puno citizens question Inambari Hydroelectric Dam After watching a report by Foro TV about the ecological damage that would be caused by the construction of the Inambari dam to the areas around Puno, citizens expressed their concern and demanded that local officials assume a responsible position to confront this threat. Read more Update \| 21 August 2009 Puno regional government rejects proposed Inambari Dam Read more Press Clipping \| 20 August 2009 The Madeira hydroelectric complex can negatively affect the environment Brazil is building hydroelectric dams in the Amazon that some technicians and economists applaud while several environmentalists regret. It is worth the risk and investment? Read more Press Clipping \| 20 August 2009 Construction of Jirau and San Antonio dams change the life of the region An examination of how the hydroelectric plants of Jirau and Santo Antônio will impact the environment and the lives of Amazonian communities. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 August 2009 Unasur to create IIRSA division The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) will create a division to coordinate the South American infrastructure integration initiative IIRSA. A document regarding the structure of the division is expected to be signed at the next Unasur meeting to be held in Ecuadorian capital Quito on September 7. Read more Press Clipping \| 17 August 2009 Beyond the world creditors’ cartel In Latin America and elsewhere, the IMF may be re–emerging—but in a changed landscape. Read more Press Clipping \| 13 August 2009 Brazil concedes on Itaipú Energy Deal, Signals Commitment to “Good Neighbor” Policy The agreement, signed in Asunción, finally resolved a decade long disagreement between the two governments regarding the Itaipú dam. The revisions in the Itaipú treaty had far reaching implications for the national standing of Paraguay’s President Fernando Lugo and Brazil’s President Luíz Inacio Lula da Silva as well for Brazil’s leadership role in Latin America. Read more Update \| 13 August 2009 MAB Organizes protest encampment at Madeira San Antonio site Read more Press Clipping \| 13 August 2009 Brazil, Peru mull new hydroelectric ventures Peru hopes the hydroelectric project will push the Amazon region into the 21st century, despite strong misgivings of conservationists and environmentalist groups. In that sense Peru's aspirations are similar to the hopes of Paraguay, which is already sharing an electricity generation project with Brazil. Read more Update \| 13 August 2009 Inambari: the Brazilian Hydroelectric Dam Read more Press Clipping \| 13 August 2009 Oil Exploration in Northern La Paz Divides Indigenous Organizations Read more Press Clipping \| 13 August 2009 Inambari impacts on Bahuaja Sonene assessed Read more Press Clipping \| 13 August 2009 Peru Ministry of Transport Comunications (MTC) approves changes to IOS concession Read more Press Clipping \| 13 August 2009 Peru begins annual payments for Section 5 of Interoceanica Sur Read more Press Clipping \| 13 August 2009 Brasilian condiciones in Itaipu accord criticized Critics have pointed out that the agreement to increase Paraguay's share of electricity revenues will be conditioned on protections for Brazilians living in Paraguay and contract guarantees for BNDES among other concessions. Read more Press Clipping \| 13 August 2009 Advantages and disadvantages of Inambari Hydro Project analyzed Read more Press Clipping \| 9 August 2009 Legal Counsel demanded for communities affected by Inambari Dam Read more Press Clipping \| 9 August 2009 Huepetuhe, the land of sexual trafficking Puerto Maldonaldo, Madre de Dios, in heart of the Peruvian jungle, is the home to some of the worst offenses of sexual trafficking of minors. Read more Press Clipping \| 9 August 2009 Baseline study for Peru Southern Interoceanic Highway presented Read more Press Clipping \| 7 August 2009 Discontent with construction of the Inambari Hydroelectric Project The project of constructing the Inambari mega-hydroelectric dam is generating discontent in the various affected communities in the province of Carabaya, who demand respect for the lands dedicated to agriculture. Read more Press Clipping \| 29 July 2009 Leader says that isolated indigenous people will be harmed by hydroelectic dams of Madeira The first indigenous woman elected leader and educator of the people Sagarana in Rondônia, Eva Canoe, said the construction of hydroelectric dams in the Madeira river, in Rondônia, will affect at least four indigenous peoples that still live in voluntary isolation in the region. Read more Press Clipping \| 29 July 2009 Lula to announce PAC II in 2010 The government is currently preparing the new project portfolio that will be offered to domestic and foreign investors; and it will prioritize investments in sectors such as energy, transport, sanitation, housing, rail, waterways and urban logistics. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 July 2009 The Manta-Manaos project is going to Singapore On August 12, an Ecuadorian's government delegation will go to Singapore on an official visit with the intention to promote the Manta Manaus Corridor. The cornerstone projects in the portfolio are the Manta port, an airport and the Manta-Manaus route through the Napo river. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 July 2009 Continued resilience: Regional Report Latin America One way to stem this rising tide, said ministers, would be for Latin American countries to "increase public infrastructure integration to reduce transport and energy costs in order to make their economies more competitive." Read more Update \| 28 July 2009 The assertion that the Madeira Complex will not have impacts in Bolivia is only a Brazilian speech While the hydroelectric plants of Jirau and Santo Antonio in the Madeira river begin their construction, Bolivian organizations and institutes following the projects say that the negative impacts generated by the two dams will be felt not only in Brazilian territory, but also in Bolivia. Read more Update \| 28 July 2009 Environmental licenses for San Antonio and Jirau hydroelectric dams open discussions Environmental organizations have mobilized against licensing of Santo Antônio and Jirau hydroelectric dams Read more Press Clipping \| 28 July 2009 Energy deal with Brazil gives boost to Paraguay For decades Paraguayans have protested the raw deal they got when their dictatorship-era government decided to build the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant with Brazil along their shared border. Read more Press Clipping \| 28 July 2009 Manta port authority resumes control of Manta port The government of Ecuador has come to an agreement with Hong-Kong based Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) to resume the administration of Manta port in Manabí province, local press reported. Read more Press Clipping \| 23 July 2009 Government announces creation of businesses in the Bolivian Amazon Bolivian government announced the creation of a 100 million dollars fund for four state businesses in the Amazon. for a lumber company, tropical frutes, and rubber. The government's hope is that, with these new businesses the people in the north of Bolivia will have more opportunities to work and earn higher wages. Read more Press Clipping \| 22 July 2009 Fobomade study warns of Madeira dam effect on dengue and malaria "Under the current" (“Bajo el caudal…”) is a report by Fobomade that details the possible impacts of the construction of two hydroelectric dams over the Madeira river on the Bolivian northern border with Brazil. Read more Press Clipping \| 22 July 2009 Bolivian government did not consult Indigenous peoples regarding oil exploration Indigenous peoples organizations emphasize that the government did not consult with them on various oil explorations. Because they were not consulted, there is no established forum for their complaints. Read more Press Clipping \| 21 July 2009 Group claims that inhabitants are being forced from area of Santo Antonio Groups claim that, because of the construction taking place for the Rio Madera Complex, the area's inhabitants are being forced unwillingly from their homes. Read more Press Clipping \| 21 July 2009 Lethem road (IIRSA) could lead to big forest loss unless REDD framework in place The Linden to Lethem road will have one of the biggest impacts on the forest and figures show that about two million hectares of forest will be lost through the project unless there is a framework to pay for and provide alternative development to what would traditionally occur along such a road. Read more Update \| 20 July 2009 IDB & IIRSA: Continuity in Question Within the current context of a global capital increase proposal by the Inter-American Development Bank that would permit the Bank to triple its current annual lending volume, 20 civil society organizations from 10 countries demanded that the IDB not renew its mandate to participate in the Technical Coordination Committee (CCT) of IIRSA based on the inconsistency of IIRSA practices with Bank safeguard and operating policies. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 July 2009 Brazil interest in Colombia infrastructure and hydrocarbons Brazilian investors are interested in the western zones of Colombia where they envision new ethanol and biofuel projects. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 July 2009 Bolivian governent creates infrastructure fund to acelerate projects Read more Press Clipping \| 20 July 2009 The government of Bolivia announces railroad master plan, launches Mutún tender The new rail development plan consists of rail connections between the east and west, and a rail corridor from the border with Brazil. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 July 2009 Increased costs delay Coca-Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project Negotiations between Ecuador and Chinese Consortium focus on cost Read more Update \| 20 July 2009 Peru Interoceanica Sur Highway has deforested 90,000 hectares Specialist warns of more deforestation from increased migration Read more Press Clipping \| 16 July 2009 President should clarify position on the construction of the Inambari Dam Read more Update \| 16 July 2009 Evaluating CAF/INRENA I and the future of the Interoceanica highway BICECA Bulletin 2009 Read more Update \| 15 July 2009 Amazonas governor criticizes decision to reject EIS for BR-319 highway Ibama, the national environment authority in Brazil rejected DNIT's (the national transport infrastructure department) call for an environmental impact study of a 875km highway that became impassable in the 1980s. Read more Press Clipping \| 10 July 2009 Ashaninka communities of the Peru Ene Valley resist Pakitzapango Dam The Ashaninka communities of the Ene Valley, in the districts of Rio Tambo and Pango, Province of Satipo, Junin, Peru, gathered together to celebrate the XIII ordinary Congress of their representative organisation, Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene (CARE), in the community of Pichiquia on the 24th-26th of April 2009 in order to debate the threat of the current project for the construction of the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam. Read more Update \| 10 July 2009 Ichilo – Mamoré Industrial Waterway Read more Press Clipping \| 10 July 2009 Ucayali- Acre (Brazil-Peru) trade mission is set Read more Press Clipping \| 10 July 2009 5o Brazilian firms awaiting green light Hydroelectric dams, Biofuels, Hydrocarbons top the list. A business delegation is programmed for the second semester of 2009 to explore biofuel investment opportunities. Read more Press Clipping \| 10 July 2009 CAF to disburse an additional $270 million for Southern Interoceanic Highway in Peru Cost overruns could push the total for the highway to over $2 billion Read more Press Clipping \| 9 July 2009 Concession of IIRSA center highway in Peru to be awarded by December Read more Press Clipping \| 9 July 2009 Environmental lawsuits filed against Madeira dam projects Civil lawsuits have been filed against Brazil’s environment institute for ignoring environmental concerns when issuing licences to allow the construction of two dams on the Amazon’s Madeira River. Read more Press Clipping \| 6 July 2009 Complex geopolitics: Brazil y Venezuela In the midst of a blending of strategy, pragmatism and ideology, the enigmatic relationship between Brazil and Venezuela evolves through a series of complicated gambles. Read more Press Clipping \| 6 July 2009 Suez acclerates Jirau works and negotiates the exit of Camargo Correa Brazilian firm has six months to sell its 9.99% share of the project. Read more Press Clipping \| 6 July 2009 Call for Inambari Hydroelectric Project to be reinitiated Affected communities of the proposed Inambari hydroelectric project from Puno argue that the project will bring more costs than benefits; the Andean Southern Natural Gas Pipeline is neither a guaranteed for the Southern Peruvian department. Read more Press Clipping \| 6 July 2009 Congressional Deputy Susana Vilca: Inambari should not damage the environment Puno Congressional leader, Susana Vilca Achata, stated that the Inambari Hydroelectric Project will negatively affect that Southern Interoceanic Highway and native peoples, and therefore the private Brazilian contractor, Amazonas Sur, should reformulate the design of the project. Read more Press Clipping \| 6 July 2009 Brazil/Bolivia/Chile inter-oceanic corridor ready for 2011 Bolivia, Brazil and Chile have announced that the inter-oceanic corridor, from the Atlantic to the Pacific will be finished by 2011. The announcement was made following an assessment of the different legs of the corridor during a meeting in La Paz, Bolivia between the Public Works ministers of the three countries. Read more Press Clipping \| 6 July 2009 Ministers to inspect progress on bi-oceanic corridor The bi-oceanic highway will run from Brazil's largest port, Santos, through Bolivian departments Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and Oruro, and on to northern Chile's Pacific coast cities of Arica and Iquique. Read more Press Clipping \| 3 July 2009 Hydroelectric Inambari in Peru faces judicial investigations in Bolivia and Ecuador The companies given the concessions for the Inambari hydroelectric dam have a history of violations currently under investigation. Read more Press Clipping \| 3 July 2009 Pucallpa and Cruzeiro do Sul to set an agenda for trade Authorities from the region of Ucayali in Peru and the State of Acre in Brazil set an agenda to initiate a trade agreement between both regions Read more Update \| 3 July 2009 Brazil Transport Agency (DNIT) protests against delays in environmental permits Rehabilitation works are stalled in Brazil due to delaying in the granting of environmental permits. Read more Update \| 2 July 2009 IIRSA forum of strategic reflection - chronicle of a death foretold Reflections about the conference on IIRSA Read more Update \| 2 July 2009 20 Civil Society Organizations and networks call on IDB to withdraw from IIRSA In the context of a 9th Global Capital Increase request, for which the IDB is designing a new institutional strategy anchored by sustainability, equity and development goals, IIRSA has not demostrated compatibility with these goals and should be abandoned by the Bank. Read more Update \| 2 July 2009 Integration and Sustainable Development in Times of Crisis An intensive short seminar in Lima, Peru (July 22nd, 23rd, 24th) to address the current situation of regional integration in Latin America, the impacts of the global crisis and the options for advancing sustainable development is being convened by CLAES (Centro Sostenibilidad Ambiental, Uruguay) and the Universidad Peruana C. Heredia Read more Press Clipping \| 2 July 2009 Rehabilitation of Puerto Suarez - Puerto Busch-Mutun roads begin Indian Ore Concessionaire Jindal Steel has financed the $16 million rehabilitation of 100 km roadway between the Mutun iron ore mine and Puerto Busch Read more Update \| 1 July 2009 Civil society demands suspension of Madeira Dams Numerous irregularities cited in environmental licensing process for the San Antonio & Jirau dams Read more Update \| 30 June 2009 Civil society organizations challenge IDB commitments to development results and sustainability As member countries assess the 9th replenishment proposal advanced by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on July 2 in Santiago, Chile, eight civil society organizations submitted recommendations on leadership steps the IDB should take in several critical areas before qualifying for any capital increase. These recommendations focus on two core areas of the IDB’s comparative advantage as a development bank in Latin America, Sustainability and Management for Development Results. Read more Update \| 28 June 2009 IFC & Climate: When the learning curve is long After an abrupt about-face, an agency frets about its footprint Read more Update \| 27 June 2009 REDD:Peru-ving REDD: Lessons from Peru for Combating Deforestation One of the key issues in Copenhagen climate change negotiations in December will be the creation of an international superstructure to provide incentives, and ultimately payments, to combat deforestation in tropical countries. As delegates from around the world gathered in Bonn last week to discuss the so-called "REDD issue" (e.g., reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation), violence erupted in the rainforests of Peru between indigenous groups and the government about plans to step up oil and gas exploration, mining, and logging in the Amazon. Read more Update \| 25 June 2009 Amazon bill controversy in Brazil Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is due this week to make one of the most keenly awaited decisions about land ownership in the Amazon rainforest. Read more Update \| 22 June 2009 An indecent barter The terms of reference for the Jirau dam, signed by several Brazilians, spells out the concession but with several worrisome red-flags given the history of the project and the environmental legislation of Brazil. Read more Update \| 22 June 2009 BNDES becomes principal financier for PAC BNDES approves R$ 59.3 billion in loans for PAC projects. Read more Update \| 22 June 2009 The End of the Amazon? Brazil can save its rain forest. The question is, does it want to? Read more Update \| 22 June 2009 Understanding Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) The increasingly important topic of Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) was recently discussed among civil society organizations in Bogota, Colombia. Participants in the event discussed the ways in which the SEAs can be most effective and how to overcome certain challenges in applying the SEAs to certain projects. Infrastructure and sustainable development topics are also covered in this SEA bulletin. Read more Press Clipping \| 17 June 2009 Eletrobrás introduces hydroelectric projects to indigenous in Peru Read more Update \| 16 June 2009 IFC withdraws loan from Brazilian cattle corporation, Bertin Just two weeks after the publication of Greenpeace's report "Slaughtering the Amazon" the IFC halts a $30 million payment to the Bertin corporation which was using the IFC loan to expand further into the Amazon. Read more Update \| 16 June 2009 Questions on hydroelectric power plants in the Peruvian Amazon Region Negotiations are underway for the construction of six hydroelectric power plants in the Peruvian Amazon Region in a joint initiative of Alan Garcia and Lula da Silva. Serious inquires about the nature of the intiative and its implications for the region are not resolved which signals further problems. Read more Update \| 4 June 2009 Interoceanic Highways Forum will present investment opportunities for Brazil Read more Update \| 23 May 2009 The Ecuadorian Government pushes the idea of Manta-Manaus Corridor The country is thinking again about the project that has been discussed for several years. The goal is to link the Pacific and Atlantic. Read more Update \| 22 June 2009 New resources on Peruvian dams Communities of the Ene Valley in Peru got together to celebrate their representative Congress's 13th meeting and to discuss the currnet Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam. Read more Update \| 22 June 2009 The Amazon Rainforest is More Important than Electric Cars Someone should contact Neil Young and tell him to stop making albums about electric cars and start writing songs about the Amazon. While I write this in jest, the boringness of someone pulling your ear about the devastation of deforestation should still be as important as talking about topics such as the duel between San Francisco and Portland for electric car supremacy. Read more Update \| 2 June 2009 Globalization Continues Destruction of the Amazon Rainforest The debate surrounding carbon markets and REDD is polarizing and multi-faceted, especially for the Amazonian populations. Read more Update \| 1 June 2009 Chávez: Venezuela, Brazil to create billion dollar investment fund Along with Brazil, Venezuela promises to create a fund to make "billions of dollars" available for investment. Read more Update \| 1 June 2009 Brazil ambassador to Guyana Interview ‘The Lethem road would only make economic sense if it was complemented by a deep water harbour’ Read more Update \| 1 June 2009 Ignorance on the Periphery The indigenous people of the Guianas are largely ignorant of their governments’ intentions for the environment and of their inalienable rights. They want to know more about matters that affect their land and their livelihood. Read more Press Clipping \| 29 May 2009 Belo Monte dam could displace 19,000 persons Brasilian Mega-dam EIA under review Read more Update \| 28 May 2009 Rio Madeira - Hydroelectric Dam will impact the Northern Bolivian Amazon (part two) Crown jewel of the IIRSA project portfolio under scrutiny in Bolivia and Brazil Read more Update \| 27 May 2009 Rio Madeira - Hydroelectric Dam will impact the Northern Bolivian Amazon Crown Jewel of the IIRSA Project Portfolio Under Scrutiny in Bolivia and Brazil Read more Press Clipping \| 25 May 2009 IDB funded Brazilian Thermal-Electric Plant to use Carbon Capture Technology The new plant should start operating in 2012. It should have a capacity for generation of 720 megawatts (MW) of energy. The project also counts on financial investment by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), equivalent to 1 billion reais (US$ 490 million). Read more Press Clipping \| 25 May 2009 Peru seeks US$300mn World Bank loan for transport sector The loan would support an overall US$1.08bn transport infrastructure development program, of which another US$630mn is to be covered by the state and US$150mn by IDB. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 May 2009 Peru IIRSA Centro highway concession to be awarded in March 2010 The project consists of upgrading and expanding an 867km highway. The initial investment amount was estimated at US$88.4mn, but the new studies will have to confirm this. Read more Press Clipping \| 25 May 2009 PetroPeru says Indigenous protests causing fuel shortages in Peru State-owned oil company Petroperu said Sunday protests organized by Indians in Peru’s Amazon region were causing fuel shortages in several jungle cities. Read more Press Clipping \| 24 May 2009 Peru gets $120m to protect 212,000 sq mi of Amazon rainforest Peru has historically had one of the lowest annual deforestation rates in the Amazon basin, but forest loss has been increasing in recent years due to illegal logging, mining, agriculture, and expansion of road networks, including the paving of a highway that provides access to a remote and biologically-rich region in southeastern part of the country. In 2005 — the most recent year for which data is available — at least 150,000 hectares of forest was lost, while a similar area was degraded through logging and other activitie Read more Update \| 23 May 2009 Ecuadorean Hydroelectric Project: Coca Codo Sinclair Opens Review Period Comment period on draft EIA between May 30 and June 3 Read more Press Clipping \| 23 May 2009 Peru Southern Interoceanic Highway - News Peruvian Congress Approves Report Says No Irregularities in the Southern Inter-oceanic Highway, Opposition Legislators Question the Integrity of the Procedure, Doubts Remain; Brazilian delegation from Rondonia visits Puno; 130 km of highway in Madre de Dios inaugurated; Transport Sector calls for further investigation of construction problems. Read more Update \| 22 May 2009 Scientists agree on the need for energy alternatives in Amazon Two day conference underscores the need for improvements in the quality of social, environmental and economic evaluation, as well as the search for energy alternatives. Read more Press Clipping \| 22 May 2009 Indigenous Amazonian Threaten Peru's Jugular The native Amazonian peoples are showing themselves to be harder and more battle ready in their demands summarized in the Ishpingo platform, which include the derogation of various legislative decrees promulgated by Peruvian President, Alan Garcia, that threaten indigenous rights in the extraction of natural resources. Read more Update \| 22 May 2009 Modernizing the ports in Peru for 2013 Read more Update \| 22 May 2009 Odebrecht Concessionaire Inaugurates 130 km of Southern Interoceanic Highway President Alan Garcia, Dr. Ernesto Cornejo and the Odebrecht led concessionaire CONIRSA inaugurated on May 14, 130 km of Section 3 of the Southern Interoceanic Highway between Tampopata and Iberia. Read more Press Clipping \| 21 May 2009 Jirau dam cost overruns predicted to be 60% Unexplained revisions by the Consortium building the Jirau hydroelectric dam (part of the Rio Madeira complex) to the design of the initial project that was auctioned one year ago are expected to increase the overall project costs by 60% Read more Press Clipping \| 21 May 2009 Studies for Cachuela Esperanza dam ready in five months Consultant Tecsult-Aecom along with ENDE, Bolivia's National Electricity Company, are in the final phases of the feasibility and design process for the proposed hydroelectric project, Cachuela Esperanza, which is expected to conclude in October, 2009 Read more Press Clipping \| 21 May 2009 IIRSA Norte Peru difficulties being resolved by concessionaire Read more Update \| 20 May 2009 Indigenous mobilizations in Peru While one legislative decree has been repealed by the Constitution Commission in Peru's Congress, indigenous groups continue their protests demanding that the other nine decrees also be repealed. AIDESEP leader, Alberto Pizango, who was recently charged with sedition and disturbing the peace, approves of the small step forward. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 May 2009 Electrobras offers $US 16 bn to build six dams in Peruvian Amazon Lula and Garcia advance plans to expand hydroelectric integration. Read more Update \| 18 May 2009 Brazilian Observatory - looking at the impacts of companies in Latin America An annoucement about a new online observatory to share information and ideas about the impacts of Brazilian companies in Latin America, especially focusing on their impact on sustainable development efforts. Read more Press Clipping \| 16 May 2009 Amazon Indians declare `insurgency' against Peru: Garcia declares defense of indigenous rights Amazon Indians who have been blocking roads, waterways and a state oil pipeline since April are declaring an "insurgency" against Peru's government for refusing to repeal laws that the protesters say make it easier for foreign companies to take their lands, a national Indian representative said Friday. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 May 2009 Odebrecht rejects US$250mn lawsuit - Brazil, Ecuador The Brazilian construction firm, Odebrecht, rejects Ecuador's US $250 million lawsuit which claims that the Brazilian company constructed a hydroelectric plant with serious defects. Read more Update \| 13 May 2009 Guiana Shield Meeting Recap The recent April meeting among indigenous leaders of the Guiana Shield revealed their concerns about the IIRSA project and the lack of clarity around REDD and climate change. The indigenous leaders and their political counterparts agreed that there would be more participation and joint decision-making processes in the future about topics affecting the indigenous groups' land. Read more Press Clipping \| 11 May 2009 Bloodletting in Narino - Ties to IIRSA Amazonas Corridor Read more Press Clipping \| 10 May 2009 Energy conflict and cooperation in South America Despite widespread cross-border problems, South America has more than its fair share of major bilateral hydro schemes. Itaipu remains one of the region’s largest hydro ventures, but what other schemes are on the cards? Read more Update \| 8 May 2009 Scenario II - IIRSA Transfer to UNASUR Read more Update \| 7 May 2009 Peru holds public hearings on 2,000 MW Inambari dam Peru is rushing to hold superficial public meetings to inform the public about plans to build the fifth largest hydroelectric dam in Latin America. Read more Update \| 6 May 2009 Interoceanica Sur Highway advances Brazil Peru regional integration Read more Update \| 3 May 2009 Rio Madeira Hydrolectric Complex - video resources Read more Update \| 3 May 2009 Interoceanic Highway: video reporting Read more Update \| 3 May 2009 Video reporting on Pasto Mocoa Highway Read more Press Clipping \| 2 May 2009 Inambari hydroelectric dam will be 5th largest in Latin America The feasibility study for Peru's largest hydroelectric dam nears completion and public hearings will begin in 2009. Brazilian financing for the dam will likely result the first in a series of jointly funded hydroelectric projects in Peru that provide energy to Brazil Read more Update \| 1 May 2009 Indigenous peoples of Guiana Shield agree on action plan Read more Press Clipping \| 1 May 2009 Indigenous leaders of the Guianas meet in Georgetown Read more Press Clipping \| 1 May 2009 BNDES looks at the possibility of financing the construction of hydroelectric projects in Peru The president of BNDES, Luciano Coutinho, said that it is possible that the bank will offer financial support for the construction of six hydroelectric projects in Peru. Read more Press Clipping \| 29 April 2009 Lula and Alan García agree to the construction of six hydroelectric projects in the Amazon After a meeting between the two leaders, Lula and Garcia agreed to the construction of six hydroelectric projects which symbolizes stronger relations between the two countries. Read more Press Clipping \| 27 April 2009 The FI-FGTS will become a shareholder of the Madeira river complex In a time when the financial market is lacking credit, the fund for investment in infrastructure which derives its resources from the FGTS (FI-FGTS) will contribute R$ 1,640 billion in financing to the construction of the San Antonio hydroelectric plant in the Madeira river, and become a shareholder of the consortium. Read more Press Clipping \| 27 April 2009 Santander sells part of its share in the consortium of the Madeira river Complex Santander sold half of its shares in the consortium building the San Antonio Hydroelectric Plant in the Madeira River to the FI-FGTS (Investment Fund FGTS) Read more Press Clipping \| 18 April 2009 New rules for environmental licensing will benefit PAC's highways Criticized by the Ministry of Environment, a streamlined licensing process should reach 40% of the roads listed in the federal program Read more Press Clipping \| 18 April 2009 IDB evaluates a re capitalization of US$ 180 billion The IDB looks to recapitalize their resources according to the recommendations in the report written by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, former Finance minister of Peru. Read more Press Clipping \| 18 April 2009 Brazil and Peru will sign an agreement for energy integration during presidential meeting The energy interconnection agreement will be signed between Electro Peru and Eletrobrás, which will be responsible for the technical assistance on the construction of hydroelectric and teh operations of the electrical systems. The initial project has six hydroelectric plants in Peruvian territory; however, the main custumer will be the Brazilian market, according Belaúnde. Read more Press Clipping \| 18 April 2009 PAC is the target of criticism in the report of the World Economic Forum The Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) became the main target of criticism in a report of the organization of the World Economic Forum and the Fundação Dom Cabral, based in Belo Horizonte. "The PAC will not speed up anything, is the rehabilitation program of growth," said the director of Fundação Dom Cabral Paulo Resende, a specialist in transport and logistics, responsible for examining the question infrastructure for Brazil in the report of the forum. Read more Press Clipping \| 18 April 2009 World Bank fails to combat fraud The World Bank's procedures for detecting fraud in its main program of assistance to poor countries were classified as a "structural weakness" in an internal report, increasing the bank's problems in dealing with issues of corruption. Read more Press Clipping \| 18 April 2009 We must go beyond an agreement between Banks and the Ministry of Environment The Ministry of Environment announced an agreement with the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban) incorporating environmental criteria and guidelines for the release of credits to companies and ventures. While representing an improvement regarding to the enviromental impacts made by some investments, the coordinator of the Eco-Project Finance and the organization Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazon, Roland Widmer, warns that for the agreement to be effective, more it needs to be done. Read more Update \| 17 April 2009 Indigenous of Peru block river traffic to repeal new laws Indigineour from Amazon of Preu blocked river traffic from two major rivers in jungle protest against laws they consider prejudicial to the integrity of its territories. Read more Press Clipping \| 17 April 2009 NGOs oppose licensing to pave roads in the Amazon Civil society organizations have written a letter expressing their opposition to a measure that would allow the paving of roads through the Amazon. Read more Update \| 16 April 2009 World Bank to lend US$14bn to Latin America in FY09 The World Bank plans to increase lending to Latin America to suplement decreasing levels of foreign direct investment in the region. Read more Update \| 16 April 2009 ProInversión seeks to re-launch IIRSA Centro concession tender by year-end ProInversion, Peru's state agency for the promotion of private investment, will likely launch a tender to concession the IIRSA highway. Read more Press Clipping \| 16 April 2009 Amazon could shrink by 85% due to climate change, scientists say Scientists say 4°C rise would kill 85% of the Amazon rainforest. Even modest temperature rise would see 20-40% loss within 100 years Read more Press Clipping \| 16 April 2009 Bolivia ratified its concern about the impact of dams being built by Brazil Read more Press Clipping \| 16 April 2009 The paradox of the Amazon On the one hand, Brazil made some improvements reducing the rate of deforestation. On the other hand, IIRSA prevents the country from achieving its national environmental goals while deforestation puts the survival of the entire planet at risk. Deforestation is the cause of 20% of the world's global warming - more than the effects of all automobiles. Read more Press Clipping \| 14 April 2009 Bolivian organizations reject threats posed by Amazon infrastructure megaprojects Read more Update \| 14 April 2009 Interoceanica Sur Highway in Peru faces new cost overuns Read more Update \| 2 April 2009 Not one, but two global crises Read more Update \| 2 April 2009 Ibama issues preliminary licenses for second-stage Transnordestina rail works - Brazil Brazil's environmental regulator Ibama has issued the last three preliminary licenses needed to start second-stage works on the 5.4bn-real (US$2.36bn) Transnordestina railroad initiative. Read more Press Clipping \| 2 April 2009 More work needed on Interoceánica Sur highway - Peru Brazilian concessionaires will carry out additional works on the Interoceanica Sur highway, which may result in further delays in the construction of the project - already close to $400 million over budget. Read more Update \| 23 March 2009 2009 IDB Annual Meeting All the latest news from the IDB Annual Meetings taking place from March 27-31, 2009 Read more Update \| 22 March 2009 IDB financial losses and glaring lack of accountability invalidate replenishment request The Inter-American Development Bank should not receive public funding unless it becomes fully accountable to member governments and the public. Read more Update \| 20 March 2009 Accountability and Participation at the World Bank & IDB New study by BIC shows that IFIs have fallen far short of matching project design with discourse when it comes to promoting a culture of accountability through their own project loans. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 March 2009 Brazil's BNDES signs $1 billion IDB finance deal, seeks $3 billion more The Brazilian National Development Bank, BNDES, receives the third installment of a loan to provide credit for businesses to modernize and expand operations. Read more Press Clipping \| 20 March 2009 Amazon could shrink by 85% due to climate change scientists say A new study shows that even modest temperature increases will shrink the Amazon substantially. Read more Press Clipping \| 19 March 2009 Bolivia worries about the impact of Brazilian dams Bolivians worry about potential flooding and health problems that will result from two dams which are part of the Rio Madeira project. Read more Press Clipping \| 19 March 2009 Bolivians and Brazilians oppose the privatization of Rio Madeira Both Bolivians and Brazilians do not agree with the privatization of the Rio Madeira. For different reasons but the same objective, the Bolivians and Brazilians join forces to oppose the privatization. Read more Update \| 19 March 2009 Brazil and Bolivia discuss hydroelectric dams of Rio Madeira Bolivians fear negative impacts from two dams (part of the Rio Madeira) in Bolivian territory. The Brazilian Minister, Celso Amorim assures the Bolivian government that the construction of the dams will not have these negative impacts. Read more Press Clipping \| 18 March 2009 Madeira's dams and the new constitution For only the last two years has the Bolivian government paid attention to the impacts of dams in indigenous territory. Read more Update \| 18 March 2009 Respecting communal land The leaders of hundreds of indigneous groups of Peru demanded that the government reject a proposal to give Petrobras (Brazilian) a large area in which to operate. The groups' leaders argue that Petrobras will bring contamination and the unnecessary exploitation of a protected area of the Amazon. Read more Update \| 18 March 2009 COICA analyzes the role of IIRSA in Quito Members of the COICA indigneous group held a meeting in Quito, Ecuador in order to discuss the role of the indigenous communities as it relates to the Amazon. Read more Update \| 13 March 2009 Four Bolivians arrested during demonstration in Brazil Read more Update \| 13 March 2009 Distance training course offered on the fundamentals of IIRSA From March 30 - April 8 several experts on IIRSA will conduct a distance class about the fundamentals of IIRSA in order to capacitate community leaders. Read more Update \| 10 March 2009 Citizen observatory for Manta-Manaos project is created Read more Update \| 10 March 2009 The economic crisis frustrates Latin America's efforts to establish the Bank of the South Only a year ago many governments in Latin America expressed their desire to separate themselves from the World Bank and IMF loans. But, because of pressing financial needs, many Latin American governments have been forced to consider accepting funds from multilateral banks. In many ways this change has hindered the creation of the Bank of the South. Read more Update \| 13 March 2009 GTI Update: World Bank to review transparency standards As the World Bank launches a review of its policy on access to information, the Global Transparency Initiative will track the review process and provide analytical support to civil society groups concerned with transparency standards at the Bank. Read more Update \| 5 March 2009 Brazilian NGOs urge World Bank not to approve $1.3 billion loan for environment Several organizations and social networks have asked the World Bank to postpone a decision on a $1.3 billion project in Brazil. The groups argue that prior loans have not adequately addressed environmental concerns and that the pending project-loan has the potential to continue this trend. Moreover, the groups see attractive alternatives. Read more Update \| 27 February 2009 Challenging IIRSA Mega-Projects for Regional Integration: Priorities, Strategies and Lessons Learned BICECA Boletín Mensual 2009 Read more Update \| 25 February 2009 IDB prepares its first capitalization since 1995 In light of the current financial crisis and future needs in Latin America, the Inter-American Development Bank makes plans for capitalization. The proposed amount for the capitalization will be determined according to the recommendations of an IDB advisory group on the issue. Read more Update \| 23 February 2009 BNDES approves largest loan ever $3 bn for 3.3 GW Jirau dam Brazil's national development bank BNDES has approved 7.2bn reais (US$3.1bn) in financing to build the 3.3GW Jirau hydro plant, the bank said in a statement. Jirau is one of two mega hydro projects on the Madeira river in Rondônia state that will be connected to the national grid. The loan will go to the ESBR consortium and includes support for the transmission system that will link the plant to the city of Porto Velho, according to the statement. The financing, which will cover 68.5% of the required investment, is one of the largest loans ever granted by the bank for a single project. In December 2008, BNDES authorized 6.1bn reais in funding for the 3.15GW Santo Antônio hydro project. Read more Press Clipping \| 17 February 2009 Forum declares Manta, Ecuador as an entry port to South America Various participants at the forum raise their points of view regarding the integration of South America and the Manta-Manaus corridor as the entry point to the region. Read more Update \| 12 February 2009 Manta Port Concession Dispute Chinese controlled Port Concessionaire Hutchinson Holdings TIDE withdraws from Manta port concession - Ecuador Read more Update \| 10 February 2009 Declaration of the Coordinator of the Amazon Basin Indigenous Peoples Organization (COICA) The Amazon Basin Indigenous Peoples Organization (COICA) with our worldview, diversity of languages, history, cultures, spirituality, territory, economy, have existed since before recorded time. We have adopted different forms of organization and identity under the framework of the nation states which have established laws and regulations according to their own interests, not recognizing the ancestral rights of the first inhabitants of the amazon region. Read more Update \| 4 February 2009 BNDES plans $43 billion in investments for Brazil Read more Update \| 4 February 2009 SOS Amazon! As world leaders focus on severe economic crisis in their homelands, an estimated 100,000 activists traveled from all over the world to attend the World Social Forum in Brazil. Led by Indigenous people from all across Latin America, over 1000 participants formed a human banner, using their bodies, to draw attention to the increasingly precarious situation of the Amazon rainforest. Read more Update \| 3 February 2009 World Social Forum 2009 For the 2009 World Social Forum (WSF), a group composed of various organizations is organizing a two day workshop for updates and strategy building to inform, discuss, plan and act in defense of the rights of affected populations and the environment. The organizations are working to prevent and/or mitigate any type of social and environmental negative impacts caused by the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) and other harmful development strategies. Read more Update \| 21 January 2009 Case study: Corredor Norte BICECA Monthly Bulletin 2009 Read more Press Clipping \| 1 January 2009 Land conflicts continue in Rondonia The state of Rondonia, Brazil is subject to ongoing land conflicts between large land owners, small farmers and the state. The proposed hydroelectric dams on the Madeira River and the promise of jobs will only accelerate uncontrolled migration to the region. Weak governance results in frequent, violent confrontations over natural resource use. Read more Update \| 31 December 2008 Bachelet: Unasur to create infrastructure council in April - Regional Government representatives from the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) plan to establish an infrastructure council in April 2009, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet told BNamericas. The council is expected to be created at the next Unasur meeting, scheduled for April 20 next year, when Bachelet will also leave her post as the organization's pro tempore president. Read more Press Clipping \| 29 December 2008 CAF lends $US 300 mn. for Peru Southern Interoceanic Highway Read more Press Clipping \| 29 December 2008 World Bank to train Brazilian state governments to capture FDI A new agreement between Brazil, the World Bank and the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies is intended to train Brazilian state governments on reforms to local regulatory and licensing frameworks to facilitate great foreign direct investment in infrastructure projects. Read more Update \| 29 December 2008 New book by INESC - Financing for Megaprojects A new book of articles edited by Ricardo Verdum of the Brazilian Instituto de Estudio Socioeconomicos (Inesc) explores the trends in financing for megaprojects in South America. The book highlights the shifting balance between IFIs such as the World Bank, the IDB and CAF toward new institutions such as BNDES, as well as the competition between IIRSA and UNASUR. The book emphasizes the urgency for greater transparency and accountability in information and decision making about large, high risk infrastructure in the region. Read more Update \| 27 December 2008 IDB finances Meerzog-Albina highway in Suriname Read more Press Clipping \| 24 December 2008 Madeira dam operator responsible for massive fish kill The Madeira Energy S/A (Mesa) business consortium, responsible for the construction of the Santo Antônio 3,100 MW hydroelectric dam, the first of several mega-dams planned for the Madeira in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, was fined R$ 7,7 million ($US 3.3 million) by the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (Ibama) as a penalty for their responsibility in the ecological accidente that resulted in the death of 11 tons of fish. Read more Press Clipping \| 24 December 2008 IHT: Guyana lacks funds for important roads to Brazil, Venezuela The Inter American Development Bank set aside more than $900,000 to conduct a feasibility study into the road linking Guyana with Brazil. Read more Update \| 23 December 2008 Update on Oct. 30 Madeira bilateral technical commission meeting The October meeting between the Brazilian and Bolivian bilerateral technical commission on the Madeira Hydroelectric Dam and related projects focused on new technical research related to the cross-border health effects of the project. Read more Press Clipping \| 23 December 2008 CAF approves US$300mn for Interoceánica Sur highway - Peru The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) has approved a US$300mn loan to Peru for additional works on the Interoceánica Sur highway, the financial entity reported in a release. Read more Update \| 22 December 2008 Banks step back from two hydroelectric projects in Madeira River The financial crisis and environmental risks have affected the willingness of banks to finance the mega-hydroelectric project which would cost R$21 billion. Santander and Banif are facing difficulties in attaining funds for San Antonio Dam; and Itau has already given up on Jirau and San Antonio. Read more Update \| 22 December 2008 IDB Increases Infrastructure Integration Subsidy IDB replenishment of a popular subsidy for the preparation of high risk infrastructure projects in Latin America anticipates the increased funding of infrastructure to stimulate the economy. Read more Update \| 4 May 2009 Lula and Alan Garcia meet in Acre to discuss integration Read more Update \| 22 December 2008 Hydroelectric projects in Chile and Brazil Read more Update \| 15 December 2008 Andean Indigenous proposal on IIRSA Open letter regarding the South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA), to the politicians in charge (South American governments) and its financiers (CAF, BNDES, European Union, Fonplata, Santander) Read more Update \| 25 November 2008 Civil Society and IDB workshop: Strategic Environmental Assessments and sustainable development Civil society organizations (CSOs) from 10 South American countries have invited the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to engage in dialogue about the use and misuse of Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) in a two-day workshop to be held in Bogota, Colombia (Dec. 2 and 3, 2008). The workshop will feature presentations on the IDB's progress in developing a strategic decision making system that includes clearer rules for SEAs. CSOs will present lessons learned and recommendations for more effective use of SEAs drawn from a decade of experience with high risk infrastructure projects. Read more Update \| 21 November 2008 Directors of IIRSA reject petition for participation of civil society The President of the Directors of IIRSA and current Director of the Ministry of Planning of Colombia, Carolina Renteria, reported on Monday, November 10 the decision to reject a hearing on IIRSA requested by 20 civil society organizations from 8 countries. The CSOs submitted a proposal to create mechanisms to ensure the participation of civil society in the planning process of integration within the framework of IIRSA, in addition to other potential integration processes as well as for the implementation of Strategic Environmental Studies (SEA) for groups of IIRSA projects. Read more Update \| 14 November 2008 Colombia: Pasto-Mocoa Highway; Indigenous people's rights in Peru; Manta-Manaos in Ecuador BICECA Monthly Bulletin 2008 Read more Update \| 29 September 2008 IIRSA CCT Meeting on Infrastructure and the Amazon: IIRSA’s future in doubt On Sept. 4, the Technical Coordinating Committee of IIRSA (CCT) hosted a small day-long meeting to discuss infrastructure and the Amazon. The meeting was motivated by a growing perception that IIRSA and related investment trends in the Amazon region are inducing perverse and unsustainable effects that are undermining the legitimacy of the infrastructure integration initiative. Read more Update \| 10 September 2008 Brazil welcomes foreign money for Amazon Brazil's environment minister fought off charges that a new international Amazon conservation fund set to receive a large contribution from Norway could threaten the nation's sovereignty. Read more Update \| 11 July 2008 Countries take action to boost IIRSA through private investment promotion Regional government authorities are taking action to boost the South American infrastructure integration initiative (IIRSA) Read more Update \| 22 June 2008 “Aguas Turvas”: new book that explains the never ending socio-environmental problems of the Madeira Complex The launching will take place on June 25th in Porto Velho, Brazil. There will be a roundtable with experts and affected communities who will share the conclusions. Read more Update \| 20 June 2008 Brazil:Legal block on Estreito river diversion work River diversion work for the Estreito project in Brazil has been stopped by a court in Maranhao state but the rest of the construction activity is unaffected, IWP&DC has learned. Read more Update \| 8 June 2008 Twilight for the Forest People The world is closing in on the few remaining people who live in such remote isolation as to seem not of this world. Read more Update \| 28 May 2008 "Systemic" Human Rights Abuses Dominate Chevron Annual General Meeting Chevron’s Victims from Burma, Ecuador and Nigeria Confront CEO David O’Reilly at Shareholder Meeting Read more Update \| 27 May 2008 Minc steps into Brazil deforestation controversy Brazil’s new environment minister takes office on Tuesday in the middle of a spat over an apparent recent increase in deforestation in the Amazon region Read more Update \| 27 May 2008 Brazil's building spree in Amazon draws protests The Belo Monte dam will swallow thick rain forest and harm rare fish, as well as the livelihoods and homes of roughly 15,000 people who live in this remote area of northeastern Para state, critics say. Read more Update \| 19 May 2008 Brazil: Suez consortium wins Jirau auction with US$43.30/MWh bid The Consórcio Energia Sustentável do Brasil (CESB) group led by France's Suez has presented the winning bid to build and operate Brazil's 3.3GW Jirau hydro plant on the Madeira river. Read more Update \| 22 May 2008 Tax reform seen as priority for Latin America Latin America should be looking to European-style tax reform rather than subsidies or export bans to help manage the inflationary threat posed by the global food crisis Read more Update \| 21 May 2008 Brazil: Tensions Boil Over at Altamira I was on the panel discussing the impacts of Belo Monte Dam, when about eight Kayapó Indians incensed at the defense of the project by state company Eletrobrás' project manager Read more Update \| 19 May 2008 European Banks Financing Damaging Agrofuels in Latin America Many major European banks are funding the rapid expansion of agrofuel production in Latin America, leading to large scale deforestation, increasing human right abuses and threatening food sovereignty, according to a new report Read more Update \| 14 May 2008 Brazil's environment minister quits in protest Marina Silva's resignation is linked to her opposition to many of the major megaprojects planned and underway in the Brazilian Amazon, including two large hydroelectric dams on the Madeira River Read more Update \| 25 April 2008 Brazil to rein in foreign groups in Amazon Brazil's military will regulate environmental, religious and other foreign groups working in the Amazon region under a law. Read more Update \| 26 April 2008 Brazil "soy king" sees Amazon as food solution More of the Amazon rain forest should be cut down to make way for farmland to help ease the global food crisis, the governor of a big Brazilian farming state was quoted on Friday as saying. Read more Update \| 21 April 2008 With Guns and Fines, Brazil Takes On Loggers Brazilian agents have caught loggers in Alta Floresta, in central Brazil. Read more Update \| 25 March 2008 China's Hunger; Latin America's Commodities With China’s commodity demand on the rise, analysts see a buffer for Latin America economies from a U.S. downturn through Chinese hunger for products ranging from soya to copper to gas. Read more Update \| 3 March 2008 Brazil: going it alone in biofuels In a nod to Brazil, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said the expansion of the ethanol market could contribute to fighting climate change if trade barriers are minimized. Read more Update \| 5 February 2008 Terna CEO says group to take part in 3 Brazilian bids this year Terna SpA CEO Flavio Cattaneo said the group will take part in at least three bids for grid operations in Brazil in 2008. Read more Update \| 5 February 2008 Free Trade in the agenda for IDB Spring Annual Meeting The Inter-American Development Bank will be hosting its Annual Meeting in Miami and the issue of Free Trade Agreements will be at the top of the list. Read more Update \| 31 January 2008 Latin America Banks on Independence: Bank of the South On December 9, standing before the flags of their countries, the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela, along with a representative from Uruguay, gathered in Buenos Aires and signed the founding charter of the Banco del Sur, or Bank of the South. Read more Update \| 20 December 2007 Troubled Amazon corner - Interoceanica Highway and Complejo Madeira Marcos Chambilla Copari recalls arriving in the of village of San Lorenzo, in the southwestern Peruvian rainforest, in 1986, a refugee from flooding around Lake Titicaca in Peru’s southern highlands. “There was no road to get our products to market,” he said. “Everything rotted in the field.” Read more Update \| 18 December 2007 Pueblos campesinos de la Amazonía boliviana demandan al Gobierno de Brasil Read more Update \| 17 December 2007 Lula's visit to La Paz provokes the detention of Rio Madeira defenders Five persons were arrested in the breakup of a peaceful protest by a group of activists against the construction of hydroelectric dams on the Madeira River. The detention was justified with the argument that an act of protest harms of Bolivian-Brazilian relations. Read more Update \| 13 December 2007 Bank of the South launched Seven South American leaders launched the Bank of the South (Banco del Sur) on Sunday, touting it as the continent's alternative to U.S.-backed lenders. Read more Update \| 10 December 2007 Começa leilão da usina de Santo Antônio Começou por volta das 12h35 o leilão da hidrelétrica de Santo Antônio, no Rio Madeira (RO), organizado na sede da Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica (Aneel), em Brasília. Na primeira etapa, os investidores farão uma proposta única para o preço da energia que será produzida pela usina. Nenhum dos três consórcios inscritos terá como saber qual foi o lance oferecido pelos demais interessados. Read more Update \| 10 December 2007 Soy in the Amazon The annual destruction of the Amazon rainforest is tallied every August and announced to a world sadly accustomed to the idea that its greatest tropical forest is being wiped off the face of the Earth. Read more Update \| 6 December 2007 Environmentalists go to court to suspend the auction of Rio Madeira Dam Project With the auction for the Rio Madeira Project approaching, civil society is accelerating campaigns against the dams. Read more Update \| 2 December 2007 Mercosur has become “irrelevant” and “too complicated” “Mercosur has become irrelevant and too complicated, and even more when Venezuela is finally incorporated to the block”, said former Brazilian Foreign Finance minister Mailson da Nobrega. Read more Update \| 3 December 2007 A rumble over valuable jungle Destruction and exploitation of rain forests spark an idea: Paying to preserve them. Read more Update \| 3 December 2007 Second Latin American Congress of National Parks and Protected Areas The second Latin American Congress of National Parks and Protected Areas held in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina was the largest gathering of environmental organizations working in Latin America since the last Congress in 1997, held in Santa Marta. Read more Update \| 29 November 2007 Bank of the South Eight countries are planning to inaugurate the Bank of the South on December 5, 2007 in Caracas. Joining ALBA countries (Venezuela, Bolivia), Ecuador Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, Colombia decided two weeks ago that it too would join the initiative. Peru and Chile have so far remained silent. Read more Update \| 20 November 2007 European Commission and Inter-American Development Bank sign Memorandum of Understanding The European Commission and Inter-American Development Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding on November 19th in Brussels to strengthen their cooperation in the Latin American region. Read more Update \| 19 November 2007 Human rights organization in Brasil investigates human right violations from Madeira project The National Report plans a mission to Rondonia to investigate the human rights violations from the Madeira Complex. Read more Update \| 7 January 2007 Brazil's Lula rules out energy and gas shortages Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sought on Wednesday to play down gas shortages in Rio de Janeiro, saying that the country's energy supplies were guaranteed until 2012. Read more Update \| 3 November 2007 Water as private property Transnational companies tighten their grip on region’s water resources. Read more Update \| 30 October 2007 Inter-American Development Bank to increase infrastructure investment Announcement shows the growing internal pressure at the institution to push lending for major energy initiatives. Read more <