Peruvian Indigenous Win Victory for Rainforest

Brazilian construction company Odebrecht is withdrawing plans for a dam that threatened 73,000 hectares of Peruvian rainforest and farmland to "respect the opinion of local populations". To convince the developer to call off the plans, the tribal people invited officials of Odebrecht to meet in traditional community assemblies. Fourteen thousand indigenous people of the Asháninka communities opposed the dams on the Tambo and Ene Rivers. Three other companies confirmed the suspension of the Tambo 60, Mainique 1 and Paquitzapango projects. One of the dams planned by Electrobras, the Brazilian electrical utility company, Inambari, is in development stages and has the support of Peru's government. The dams are being built to supply Brazil burgeoning industrial economy. The four cancelled or suspended dams would have produced about 6,000 megawatts of electricity as part of an energy export agreement between Peru and Brazil signed in June 2010. Most of the energy is expected to come from hydroelectric projects located in the Peruvian Amazon, a region of huge biodiversity.