Brazil’s Federal Environmental Agency (IBAMA) has officially announced the cancellation of licences for the 8000MW São Luiz do Tapajós dam project in the Amazon over concerns about environmental and social impacts.
The dam project is one of several planned for the Tapajós basin but IBAMA said in a statement that its sponsors had failed to show the socio-economic viability of the project, which would flood indigenous lands and put at risk newly-discovered species of mammals.
The proposed $5.8 billion project is being developed by a consortium of Eletrobras, Engie, EDF, Camargo Correa, Neoenergia, COPEL and Endesa Brasil.
The dam’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) identified eight mammals new to science and endemic to the region, including a new monkey, marsupial, rodents and bats. However it concluded that the 8km-long dam would have no major environmental impacts.
Campaigners refuted the conclusions of the EIA and also said that the project’s impacts should be considered alongside those of at least six others planned for the same area.
IBAMA said it had identified a number of other social and environmental risks associated with the project, including impacts on biodiversity, aquatic ecosystems, migratory fish and fisheries.
