A group of indigenous, riverside and academic researchers has been analyzing the impacts of the Belo Monte dam since 2013
The Independent Territorial Environmental Monitoring (MATI), a group of indigenous, riverside and academic researchers working in Volta Grande do Xingu (VGX), in Pará, begins this Saturday (08/02) to publish on Instagram the work carried out since 2013 and which consists of collecting data to prove changes in the flow of the Xingu River and its effects on aquatic life and forests.
Read the first post!
MATI's Instagram profile will share information about the origins of the collective of researchers and their fight for environmental monitoring to be recognized by the agencies responsible for licensing works in the region. It will also discuss essential topics, such as the piracemas, the hydrographs adopted by the Belo Monte HPP and the researchers' proposal, in addition to clarifying fundamental aspects about the licensing and operation of the plant.
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The collective has the support of the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), the Amazon + 10 Initiative, the Amazonas State Research Support Foundation (FAPEAM), the Amazon Foundation for Studies and Research Support (Fapespa), the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the University of São Paulo, the Federal University of Pará and the National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA).
Pioneering spirit of the Yudjá/Juruna
Monitoring began in 2013 by the Yudja Muratu Association of Volta Grande do Xingu (AYMIX), an organization that represents the Yudjá/Juruna people of Volta Grande do Xingu and works to defend the rights of indigenous peoples and riverside communities in the region.
Before the construction of the plant, the communities lived in multi-species relationships of intense exchange with the Xingu River and its fish, plants, beaches, insects, turtles and domestic animals. However, in just seven minutes, the time that the Belo Monte HPP auction lasted, the lives of the people of the region changed drastically, thanks to the impacts of the construction and its operating system. Belo Monte killed the pulse of the river by cutting off the flow of the Volta Grande and sequestering most of the water. The drastic changes have caused the death of local ecosystems and serious harm to residents.
About MATI
MATI, as it is today, is the result of the expansion of AYMIX's work in 2020. Its purpose is to record the changes caused by the relationship between the flow of the Xingu River and the environmental impacts caused by Belo Monte, using different data production methods and combining traditional and scientific knowledge, resulting in collaborative and intercultural research.
The project was expanded to three other villages in the Paquiçamba Indigenous Land and six riverside communities, and the information collected is used to raise awareness of problems, support complaints to inspection agencies such as Ibama, Funai and the Public Prosecutor's Office, in addition to subsidizing the construction of economic viability and environmental sustainability plans.
Researchers have been recording the terrible impacts caused by the diversion of 70% to 80% of the waters of the Xingu River to the turbines of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant. The group has been fighting for a “fair” sharing of water and showing that the monitoring carried out by Norte Energia, the Belo Monte concessionaire, is not impartial, since the data collected by MATI shows that the hydrograph used has been causing the death of fish and even the disappearance of species in the Volta Grande do Xingu region.
“Our monitoring is very important for both the indigenous people and the riverside communities living along the VGX, because this way we can show our reality and compare the results with those of the company, which has been claiming that there are no impacts. However, our monitoring shows the social impacts, on fauna, flora and, mainly, on the health of the local population”, says Josiel Juruna, coordinator of MATI.
symbolic date
On February 8, 2023, researchers arrived on the banks of the Xingu River, at a site known as the Odilo spawning grounds, and came across millions of dead fish eggs on the dry banks, unable to hatch and produce new fish. The site was a fish nursery and was transformed into an open-air tomb due to the high water levels (hydrograms A and B) released by the hydroelectric plant after the river was dammed.
Watch the animation and learn more about hydrographs:
MATI research has shown that the monitoring carried out by Norte Energia is insufficient to capture the true extent of the impacts on traditional fishing. Studies indicate that the lack of adequate monitoring contributes to the increase in pests, the reduction and mortality of fish, the difficulty of navigation in the Xingu and the consequent precariousness of the food, health and livelihoods of indigenous populations and traditional communities.
The group has been fighting for the “Piracema Hydrogram” to be applied to ensure the fish reproduction cycle, especially in piracema areas, where the fish migrate during the breeding season. Without this change in the hydrogram, the females of several species will continue to encounter drought, where there should be flooding, and lose their eggs.
About Belo Monte HPP
The history of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Plant is marked by much struggle, resistance and controversy. Since its conception, indigenous peoples and traditional communities have denounced the impacts that were not compensated or properly repaired by the company.
Belo Monte received the Preliminary License in 2010 and began operations in 2015. The construction of the plant caused the displacement of at least 20 people from traditional and indigenous communities, disregarding the right to consultation and preventing the continuity of ways of life that have specialized for centuries in protecting the river and forests.
Read also
Belo Monte: people of Volta Grande demand that Ibama free the Xingu
By altering the course of the Xingu River, Belo Monte is causing a loss of biodiversity in the region, with the death of fish and other aquatic species and the disappearance of floodplain forests. For environmentalists, indigenous people and riverside communities, the negative impacts are so serious that they constitute ecocide. The alleged benefits of the plant do not justify the severity and depth of its socio-environmental costs.
The reduction in fishing and the difficulty in accessing other foods have caused food insecurity in the affected communities and, in 2021, the operating license expired and is awaiting Ibama's analysis of the additional information presented by Norte Energia.
According to an opinion from Ibama, from 2022, the company complied with only 13 of the 47 socio-environmental conditions imposed during the period in which the license was granted.
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