A series of mega dams is being built as a central part of Brazil’s Accelerated Growth Programme, which aims to stimulate the country’s economic growth by building a huge infrastructure of roads and dams, mainly in the Amazon region.
The size of these projects threatens to harm or destroy vast areas of land, upon which numerous tribal peoples, including several groups of highly vulnerable uncontacted Indians, depend for their survival.
The Jirau and Santo Antonio dams are prominent examples.
This page was created in 2019 and may contain language which is now outdated.
If the dam is built, what will happen to the Indians’ way of life? Will anybody bring us food? No. Nobody will bring us anything. We are very worried.
Valmir Parintintin, Indian leader
Valmir Parintintin, leader of a Parintintin Indian community, stated, ‘The government has still not come and spoken to us about what impacts the dam will have. The market, the supermarket of the Indians is the river.
‘If the dam is built, what will happen to the Indians’ way of life? Will anybody bring us food? No. Nobody will bring us anything. We are very worried’.
Domingos Parintintin said, ‘We hope that the project will be stopped, because it is our children who will suffer the consequences. They will no longer have enough fish or enough game to feed themselves’
Please "write a letter for the tribes":/actnow/writealetter/madeira-dams affected by the Madeira River dams. Your letter will get the message to the Brazilian government that tribal peoples' rights must be upheld.h2. From Survival's website
"*About Brazil's Belo Monte dam*":/about/belo-monte-dam
"*About other dam projecs affecting tribal people*":/about/dams
"*More about Brazilian Indians*":/tribes/brazilian
"*More about Uncontacted Indians of Brazil*":/tribes/uncontacted-brazil
"*News: International tribunal tells Brazilian government to halt dam project*":/news/3884
"*_Serious Damage_, Survival's report about the impacts of dams on tribal people*":https://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/373/Serious_Damage_final.pdf
h2. From the web
"*International Rivers*":https://www.internationalrivers.org/en/latin-america/amazon-basin/madeira-river
"*Amazon Watch*":https://amazonwatch.org/amazon/BR/madeira/
"*Friends of the Earth, Brazilian Amazon*":https://ef.amazonia.org.br/
"*Movement of Dam Affected People*":https://www.mabnacional.org.br/english/menu/rio_madeira.html
"*Kanindé Associação de Defesa Etno-Ambiental (in Portuguese)*":https://www.kaninde.org.br/
"*Le Monde article (pdf)*":https://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/271/LeMondeEnglish.pdf
"*NGO info booklet (4.4mb)*":https://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/270/Livreto.pdf
"*GDF Suez correspondence*":https://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/285/GDF_communications.pdf
"*International Rivers map of Madeira dams low-res*":https://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/272/madeira_map_lo_res.jpg
"*International Rivers map hi-res*":https://assets.survival-international.org/documents/273/Madeira_dams_map.pdf
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