The international and national dam lobbyists have been fast to adapt their discourse to the changing world situation. Given the widespread concern over climate change related to greenhouse gas emissions, dam promoters are now stressing that hydroelectricity is a clean source of energy, thus being the best candidate to substitute fossil fuel-based energy sources. But: is it really clean?
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Many people around the world are preparing an International Day of Action Against Dams and for Rivers, Water and Life, which will take place on March 14th, 2001. Last year, nearly 70 actions took place in 26 countries to celebrate the Day of Action. From Australia to Uganda, tens of thousands of people participated in demonstrations, rallies, educational events and ceremonies. Even more people are expected to participate this year.
Official documents adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) - the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992:
Documents
One of the major myths about tree plantations is that they help to alleviate pressures on forests by providing alternative wood sources. This has been proven false in practically all southern countries, but the myth still prevails in many circles, particularly among professional foresters. Another major myth is that plantations are "planted forests", having the same positive impacts as forests. This has also proven to be absolutely false, but foresters still insist in calling then "forests."
The Heinrich Böll Foundation awarded the Petra Kelly Prize 2000 to two Mapuche women --Berta and Nicolasa Quintremán Calpán-- as a recognition of their struggle to protect the Mapuche Pehuenche's rights against the Spanish ENDESA Company and the Chilean Government over the construction of the RALCO dam.
Dams and Development. A new framework for decision-making. The report of the World Commission on Dams
The World Commission on Dams issued this report, which contains a comprehensive review of dam building and a framework for planning water and energy projects while protecting people from the negative impacts of such development.
The World Bank’s 1991 Indigenous Peoples Policy (Operational Directive 4.20) forms one of ten so-called “safeguard policies” that aim to ensure that Bank-funded operations do not cause adverse environmental and social impacts in borrower countries. OD4.20 seeks to ensure that Bank staff, borrower governments and implementing agencies take positive action to safeguard indigenous rights by: securing land tenure and resource access; mitigating negative development impacts; guaranteeing participation; and assuring receipt of benefits.
Three films related to forest conservation and the problems caused by pulpwood plantations received an award at the 17th International Environmental Film Festival that took place from 18 to 22 October 2000 at the Friedrichsbau-Lichtspiele in Freiburg, Germany.
A recent study of the Tellus Institute and Stockholm Environment Institute-Boston Center concludes "that while the CDM could induce some legitimate lower-emission electricity generation in host countries, it could also give rise to a considerable amount of spurious emissions allowances by crediting non-additional ("free-rider") activities --activities that would have taken place even in the absence of the CDM." The research finds "that under some plausible CDM regimes, the CDM could serve primarily as an instrument for generating spurious credits, and only secondarily as an instrument for e
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), based in Laxenburg, Austria. carried out a detailed study of Russia's biosphere, which contains a fifth of the world's forests. Its report puts in question the whole idea of using carbon sinks as a means of "compensating" for CO2 emissions.
During the climate change discussions, some have argued that, given that old-growth forests are carbon reservoirs --and not carbon sinks-- the world's climate would benefit from cutting them down, converting the wood into durable products and replanting the clearcut area. The existing carbon would be safely stored in wood products and the plantation trees would act as sinks for many years, until they reached maturity. This would enhance --so they say-- the carbon sink capacity of forest ecosystems.
Scientific evidences questioning the effectiveness of tree monocultures as carbon sinks are increasing. In case tree plantations are included in the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol there is the risk that --as has happened in the past and is still happening-- vast areas of forests and grasslands in the South will be substituted by monocultures based on a reduced number of fast-growing tree species. This would mean a dramatic decrease in the biodiversity of such areas, both considering number of species and complexity of fluxes at the interior of the system.