Project
Foto: Andrés ÁngelStopping the spread of fracking in Latin America
“Fracking” is short for hydraulic fracturing, a process used to extract oil and natural gas from historically inaccessible reservoirs.
Fracking is already widespread in the global North, but in Latin America, it is just beginning. Governments are opening their doors to fracking without understanding its impacts and risks, and without consulting affected communities. Many communities are organizing to prevent or stop the impacts of fracking, which affect their fundamental human rights. But in many cases they require legal and technical support.
What exactly is fracking, and what are its impacts?
A straight hole is drilled deep into the earth. Then the drill curves and bores horizontally, making an L-shaped hole. Fracking fluid—a mixture of water, chemicals, and sand—is pumped into the hole at high pressure, fracturing layers of shale rock above and below the hole. Gas or oil trapped in the rock rises to the surface along with the fracking fluid.
The chemical soup—now also contaminated with heavy metals and even radioactive elements from underground—is frequently dumped into unlined ponds. It may seep into aquifers and overflow into streams, poisoning water sources for people, agriculture, and livestock. Gas may also seep from fractured rock or from the well into aquifers; as a result, water flowing from household taps can be lit on fire. Other documented harms include exhausted freshwater supplies (for all that fracking fluid), air pollution from drill and pump rigs, large methane emissions that aggravate global warming, earthquakes, and health harms including cancer and birth defects.
AIDA’s report on fracking (available in Spanish) analyzes the viability of applying the precautionary principle as an institutional tool to prevent, avoid or stop hydraulic fracturing operations in Latin America.
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Human Rights Council addresses the water crisis and environmental defenders protection
The 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council is the first to be held entirely online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It runs until March 23. The virtual format of this HRC session enabled AIDA to make our first participation ever in the HRC and join the discussions on two of the topics that are at the core of its human rights work: the right to a healthy environment and the protection of environmental human rights defenders. On 03 March, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, David Boyd, presented his report “Human Rights and the Global Water Crisis” to the Human Rights Council. In it, Boyd highlighted the severe impacts of water pollution, water scarcity and water-related disasters on the rights to life, health, education, food, development and the right to a healthy environment. He also emphasized that climate change is a risk-multiplier, exacerbating water-related human rights issues. The Special Rapporteur called on States to incorporate a rights-based approach in both their climate strategies and water plans. Finally, Boyd reiterated his call for the Human Rights Council to support the initiative for a resolution to recognize that everyone everywhere has the right to live in a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. In the Interactive Dialogue that followed Boyd’s presentation, AIDA Attorney Rosa Peña denounced the negative impacts of mega-dams, coal mining and fracking on human rights and water access in Latin America. She noted that these projects not only threaten the human rights of local communities but also exacerbate the climate crisis. She called the attention of the Special Rapporteur to the communities affected by the Belo Monte mega-dam in the Brazilian Amazon. Currently, implementation of the so-called ‘Consensus Hydrogram’ in the Xingu River threatens the lives of local communities, pollutes the water, dries up the river and causes food insecurity and severe biodiversity loss. On March 4, it was the turn of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, to engage in an Interactive Dialogue on ”Final warning: death threats and killings of human rights defenders” She concluded that lack of political will is one of the reasons why various States fail in their moral and legal obligation to protect Human Rights Defenders, and therefore called for more effective responses to the threats against them. Representing AIDA in the Interactive Dialogue, Attorney Marcella Torres highlighted that Latin America is the most dangerous region in the world for environmental human rights defenders and urged all States to actively protect them. She turned the spotlight on the situation of environmental defenders in Brazil, Guatemala and Colombia, where the invasion of indigenous lands, mega-dams and fracking are closely related to the increase in violence against defenders. She concluded by reminding States that the protection of environmental defenders should promote the recognition of the right to a healthy environment, and provide guarantees so that all people are free to exercise their right to defend human rights. See AIDA’s contributions in the Interactive Dialogues in full:
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Legal resistance to the expansion of salmon farming in Chile
By Claudia Arancibia (AIDA), Victoria Belemmi (FIMA) y Estefanía González (Greenpeace Chile) In the Magallanes Region of Southern Patagonia, one of Chile’s most pristine natural areas, the indigenous communities who have lived amongst these awe-inspiring fjords and channels for six thousand years are now fighting to project them. A coalition of Kawésqar communities – organized as Kawésqar Atap, As Wal Lajep, Grupos Familiares Nómades del Mar, Residentes Río Primero e Inés Caro – are defending their land and seas from the expansion of the salmon industry into their ancestral territory. In February, they won an important legal victory. Chile’s Supreme Court ruled in their favor, repealing an environmental permit that had authorized the construction of a salmon farm in Lake Balmaceda, citing the project’s failure to consider the observations of local communities. The ruling overturns a 2018 decision of the Third Environment Court that had rejected the communities’ claims. This case sets an important precedent—the nation’s highest court recognized the value of indigenous participation in the environmental evaluation process of projects that could affect ancestral territories. It also reaffirmed the State's obligation to respect the indigenous consultation process and to comply with the provisions of national environmental law and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, ratified by Chile. The Supreme Court's ruling represents progress toward understanding that the participation of indigenous, local and traditional communities—in addition to being a right—is a valuable input for decision-making. In November 2020, another important legal development acknowledged the damages caused by these salmon farming operations. The Third Environmental Court recognized that the lack of oxygen in the waters of Chilean Patagonia is directly related to the operation of salmon farms. Despite being informed of the situation, the Environmental Superintendent had previously ignored the causal relationship between salmon farming and environmental damages, arguing that, often, the decrease of oxygen was due to natural causes such as marine currents, the geography of the area, or climate change. The Court’s ruling also constitutes a key precedent, as it associates industrial salmon production with the dangerous percentage of areas with low oxygen levels in the seas of Chilean Patagonia. Known as anaerobism, this condition is caused by the large amount of organic matter (uneaten food and feces) that the salmon industry discharges into the sea, inadequate handling of dead fish, and the amount of farmed fish per square meter, which exceeds the carrying capacity of the waters. What about sanctions? Despite the progress described above, Chilean authorities still face serious problems in adequately controlling salmon farming and preventing the damages the industry’s expansion is causing. It’s clear that the sanctions imposed on offending companies have not been sufficiently exemplary or dissuasive. In spite of multiple sanctioning procedures against several companies, no efforts have been made to improve sanitary and environmental standards, neither of which is considered by the environmental authorities when granting operating permits. For a revelatory case study, we need look no farther than a Magallanes scandal known as “Salmon Leaks.” In 2019, a journalistic investigation uncovered that the company Nova Austral was hiding the amount of fish that died daily in their farms in the Alberto de Agostini National Park. A subsequent report revealed that the company also adulterated the seabed with heavy machinery (until it was basically dead), in order to hide its anaerobic condition and obtain permission to continue farming salmon in biologically deteriorated marine areas. In response, the Court of Appeals of Punta Arenas sanctioned the company with the maximum fine and the suspension of a productive cycle. In 2020, the State Defense Council sued the company for possible fraud because it was collecting tax benefits under the Navarino Law in breach of its obligation to "make rational use of the natural resources of the Magallanes region, preserving nature and the environment." Then, General Treasury of the Republic withheld four payments covering up to four months of subsidies under the law. Despite the multiple scandals and sanctions imposed, the company continues to advertise the "sustainability" of its salmon. The future of the Kawésqar Reserve Now, Nova Austral is seeking to relocate four of its aquaculture concessions to Kawésqar National Reserve, with prior approval from the Environmental Evaluation Service. Six other projects are currently undergoing environmental evaluation for the same purpose. This is alarming for many reasons, but principal among them is the fact that the Reserve lacks an adequate management plan to safeguard its conservation objectives. This leaves the area exposed potentially serious impacts to its natural wealth and the ancestral rights of the Kawésqar indigenous communities. It’s urgent that the Reserve’s management plan prohibits salmon farming within its boundaries, due to the outright incompatibility of salmon farming with the reserve’s objectives. We have much to learn from the Kawésqar communities, who reaffirm the protection of the seas of the Patagonian archipelago as the basis for protecting their worldview, their cultural identity and their way of life. What will it take for the rest of the country to defend the Patagonian seas as a natural treasure vital not just for Chile, but for the world?
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Belo Sun: at the worst moment of the pandemic, Brazilian government authorizes in-person meeting between mining company and impacted Indigenous peoples
Brazil’s National Indian Foundation claims lack of internet connection and completion of vaccination of Indigenous people, however, 77% of the Indigenous people received the first vaccine jab in the region, and only 34% the second dose. About 994 indigenous Brazilians have died since the COVID-19 pandemic began last March. Brazil (Altamira, Pará) – In a white paper published on February 10, 2021, the Brazilian National Indian Foundation (Fundação Nacional do Índio–FUNAI) gave details on "health protocols" so that Canadian mining company Belo Sun can hold meetings to present and validate its studies on environmental impact to Indigenous residents from the Indigenous Lands (ILs) located in Pará state - Arara da Volta Grande do Xingu and Paquiçamba - in a mixed format—in-person and virtually. The decision is taken at a time when the country faces the bleakest moment of the coronavirus pandemic, with Indigenous peoples being one of the most impacted and vulnerable groups. Brazil has recorded more than 266,000 deaths and 11 million cases since the pandemic began. About 994 indigenous Brazilians have died since the COVID-19 pandemic began last March, according to a tally by APIB, Brazil’s largest indigenous association. Altamira, a reference city for both ILs, has recorded 19,100 cases so far. Moreover, the regional hospital occupancy rate has exceeded 90%. It is expected that, after validation of the indigenous component of the Environmental Impact Study (EIA), the Installation License, suspended by the courts since 2017, will be re-issued by the Pará State Environment Secretariat (Secretaria de Meio Ambiente–SEMA). The Federal Public Defender's Office (DPU) addressed FUNAI on Wednesday (10) recommending that the agency do not authorize or participate in in-person meetings while the Covid-19 pandemic poses a threat to the Indigenous peoples of the region. According to the document, the proposal presented by the company "does not guarantee health security and the preservation of the lives of participants, and is based on information that is not compatible with the situation of the pandemic in the Altamira region." According to FUNAI, “different meetings are being planned for each IL, on consecutive dates (...), and the talks, at least partially in-person, are desirable, maintaining the format adopted throughout the process and which ensured a very fruitful consultation and dialogue process.” The company is intent on becoming the largest open pit gold miner in Brazil, and intends to operate out of Volta Grande do Xingu, one of the most biodiverse sites in the world that already experiences the impacts of the diversion of the Xingu River by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant. In addition to the Juruna (Yudjá) and Arara ethnicities, the region is home to other non-villagers and several riverside communities. Contrary to what the company claims, the Indigenous peoples of Volta Grande have not yet been properly consulted. “Volta Grande do Xingu has already been dealing with the impacts of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant. At this time, the Brazilian authorities should guarantee the protection of Indigenous peoples and address the serious technical shortcomings in the project. Authorizing in-person meetings makes it clear which side both FUNAI and the Brazilian government are on: that of the big mining companies,” notes Rosana Miranda of Amazon Watch, the organization is part of the group of institutions that have been denouncing the socio-environmental unfeasibility of Belo Sun’s project. FUNAI's decision is based on the assumption that the indigenous population would have been vaccinated by the end of January 2021. By early March, however, 77% of the Indigenous people served by the Altamira Special Indigenous Health District (Distrito Sanitário Especial Indígena–DSEI) received the first vaccine jab, and only 34% the second dose. According to data from the federal government surveyed by G1, on February 17, 71% of Indigenous people living in the Amazon had not been vaccinated against Covid. At the time, Brazil should have immunized 431,983 Indigenous people against the virus, however, only 164,592 had been vaccinated. The low vaccination coverage of Indigenous peoples is yet another chapter in the neglect of the federal government’s management of the pandemic. This is made clear by the increase in the number of deaths by Covid-19 among Indigenous populations by more than 108%, according to data from the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB). Nearly 50,000 Indigenous people were infected and 988 died, according to APIB. The mining company expects to extract 74 tons of gold in 20 years of operation, one of the largest in Latin America. It has been striving to deny the potential impacts on Indigenous peoples, traditional communities and the environment since the project’s announcement in 2012. Three recent expert opinions attest that the project is not viable from a socio-environmental perspective and raise several technical issues regarding the impact studies on the Indigenous component [Access the documents]. Neither FUNAI nor SEMAS have responded to the technical inquiries made by the specialists. [See here the studies: 1,2,3] The expert opinions add up to examinations conducted by the Federal Public Prosecutor and the Pará State Public Defender's Office within the scope of at least six legal challenges against the project. The studies, carried out by independent researchers, are part of the efforts of several civil society organizations that have been denouncing the socio-environmental unfeasibility of the project, such as Rede Xingu +, Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre, Amazon Watch, Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), International Rivers, Above Ground and Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA). Mining companies and the Brazilian government take part in meeting in Canada This Thursday, March 11, marks the end of the convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), an annual gathering where major investors and mining companies from Canada present “new business opportunities in the sector for the next decades.” With a busy schedule, the Brazilian government has among its main sponsors for the event Belo Sun Mining. In a pre-recorded presentation for the event, the Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, stated that the Brazilian government is determined to expand access to mineral resources currently restricted to mining—such as Indigenous Lands and border areas. Belo Sun's CEO Peter Tagliamonte is listed as a speaker on the March 11 session entitled The Brazilian Mineral Exploration & Mining Industry Projects & Opportunities, organized by the Brazilian government. press contacts Camila Rossi, Amazon Watch, [email protected] Anna Miller, AIDA, [email protected]
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