By: Josh Klemm, Policy Director Originally posted on Mongabay This July represents a critical opportunity to protect rivers and the World Heritage sites that depend on them. Key government leaders will converge on Baku, Azerbaijan for the 43rd annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee this week. Established under the auspices of the United Nations…
By: Maureen Harris, Programs Director This article originally appeared in The Myanmar Times The International Finance Corporation’s Vikram Kumar published a letter in the September 20 Myanmar Times in response to an article on civil society and community boycotts of IFC-sponsored consultations on hydropower in Shan State. The consultations form part of a cumulative impact assessment of…
By: Monti Aquirre, Latin America Program Director A convergence of forces this month around Colombia’s largest hydroelectric dam have demonstrated the extreme threats posed to the environment and human life when rivers are mismanaged in an absence of accountability and governance. The Ituango hydroelectric dam on the Cauca River, now at an estimated cost of…
By: Josh Klemm, Policy Director Last month, after a long-running saga, the World Bank signed away its legal obligation to protect Uganda’s Kalagala Falls, a site of immense spiritual and biodiversity value near the headwaters of the Nile River. By granting Ugandan authorities permission to flood Kalagala, the Bank has harmed thousands of local people…
By: Kate Horner, former Executive Director & Igor Vejnovic This article originally appeared on Open Democracy. This week, activists from across the world are meeting in Tbilisi to share their experiences of resisting hydropower projects and the money that supports them. Free-flowing rivers are often the unsung heroes of the natural world. They support immense biodiversity, as…
By: Maureen Harris, Programs Director “I cannot freely walk on my territory or swim in the sacred river and I am separated from my children because of the threats. I cannot live in peace, I am always thinking about being killed or kidnapped. But I refuse to go into exile. I am a human rights fighter…
By: Peter Bosshard, former Executive Director This commentary first appeared in Mongabay When we learned that Berta Cáceres, a leader of the indigenous Lenca people, was murdered in Honduras, we were shocked but not surprised. A violent death is the all-too-frequent fate of indigenous activists who defend their rivers and lands against dams, logging and other forms of…
By: Amazon Watch – Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact – Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (AIDA) – Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation – Carbon Market Watch – Fondation Danielle Mitterrand (France Libertés) International Rivers – Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement International – Movimiento Rios Vivos – Oxfam International – Rede Latinoamericana contra represas y por…
By: Peter Bosshard, former Executive Director “We find that even before accounting for negative impacts on human society and environment, the actual construction costs of large dams are too high to yield a positive return,” a new report states. “Large dams also take inordinately long periods of time to get built, making them ineffective in resolving urgent energy…
By: Peter Bosshard, former Policy Director The World Bank is eager to re-engage in large dam projects around the world, and other financiers are following in its wake. The US Congress has now poured cold water on these plans. In a landmark decision it has instructed the US government to oppose the construction of large dams…
