Small hydropower dams in the Amazon are being built without consideration of their harmful effects on the river system, including damage to the livelihoods of indigenous people, researchers have concluded.
Evidence-based environmental assessments are needed to mitigate this damage, the scale of which is currently unknown because of deficient policies and planning instruments, according to the team of researchers, who analysed the impacts of small dams in the Amazon basin, the largest and most complex fluvial system on Earth.
Such mini dam projects may threaten ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, and the livelihoods of indigenous and traditional communities who depend on these for fishing, the researchers found.
The team analysed environmental licensing reports relating to small hydropower dam projects in the Cupari river an affluent of the Tapajós river connected to indigenous lands, archaeological sites and protected areas of Brazil. They found that the country does not have policies or instruments capable of properly assessing the potential environmental and social impacts linked to the expansion of small dam projects in the Amazon.
These failings make it difficult to back up the decision-making process and produce policies that protect human and environmental rights, the authors of the study published in Energy Policy warn.
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