Over 50,000 dams have been built on more than half of the world’s major rivers in the last century, causing irreversible damage to nature and cultural heritage, as well as the displacement of millions of people. European companies unable to develop mega-dams in their region due to stricter environmental and human rights standards, instead promote large-scale dam projects as a ‘clean’ energy solution to climate change in developing countries.

Conference presentations by the international delegation demonstrate the contribution of mega-dams to climate change, the undemocratic processes excluding local and indigenous communities from decisions, and the irreversible damage to the world’s most important cultural and natural hot spots, such as Amazonia and Mesopotamia.

A keynote speaker is one of Brazil’s most important indigenous leaders in the struggle against the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon, Kayapo Chief Megaron Txucarramae, who travelled to Turkey with his daughter Mayalú Kokometi Waurá Txucarramãe to show solidarity with those struggling against the Ilisu dam in southeast Turkey.

“In the name of economic progress, the dam industry and the Brazilian government want to put an end to our centuries-old way of life. This is being forced upon us, by a government that claims to be democratic.  We are fighting to protect our way of life and our environment, and we will continue to do so. We are here in solidarity with those struggling against the Ilisu dam, where tens of thousands of people are also being forced to leave their homes,” said Kayapo Chief Megaron Txucarramae.

Belo Monte’s two reservoirs and canals will flood a total area of 668 square km in the Amazon Basin. Scientists fear that hundreds of dams including the Belo Monte project planned in the Amazon Basin may cause the extinction of 1,000 fish species, which amount to one third of all fish species in the Amazon. The Belo Monte dam would displace over 40,000 people including indigenous communities.

The Ilisu dam would inflict a similar set of problems, inundating an area that meets nine out of 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites’ criteria and displacing over 35,000 people, explains Dicle Tuba Kilic, River Program Coordinator for Doga (Nature Association). Work on the dam in Turkey continues in defiance of court rulings, and the withdrawal of funding from European Credit Agencies in 2009 when the Turkish government failed to meet almost all the criteria to protect the environment, cultural heritage and local communities.  The Ilisu dam would destroy the 12,000 year-old ancient town of Hasankeyf and affect five key biodiversity areas in Turkey. Its impact would be felt as far as the marshes of Basra in Iraq.

Dr. Azzam Alwash, winner of the prestigious 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize for his work on the regeneration of the Marshes of Basra in Iraq, is among the conference’s keynote speakers. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein who drained the marshes in the 1990s to punish the Marsh Arabs’ alliance with the US in the First Gulf War, Dr Alwash has led a concerted effort to restore the largest wetlands in the Middle East. The marshes now face a new threat: the Ilisu dam on the Tigris River would stem water flow to the marshes in Iraq.

“We should use our water resources in the Middle East to strengthen regional relations and friendship. Water can easily be an instrument for peace. We have to respect the traditional way of life of the communities who rely on the Tigris River, as well as the wildlife that is an integral part of the ecosystem,” said Dr Azzam.

Already strained by water scarcity and political tensions, the arid Middle East region along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is losing water reserves at a rapid pace. A recent NASA study identified the Tigris and Euphrates River Basin as having the second fastest rate of groundwater storage loss in the world. Turkey controls the Tigris and Euphrates headwaters, which dictates how much water flows downstream into Syria and Iraq.

The international delegation will travel to the southeast of Turkey to show solidarity with communities resisting the Ilisu dam. They will meet with Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir and Hasankeyf residents.  Two screenings of the recently launched documentary Damocracy will be held: in Diyarbakir on Monday at 9pm (Aysenur Zarakolu Park) and in Hasankeyf on Tuesday at 8pm (Taziye Evi).

The documentary focuses on debunking the myth of dams as ‘clean’ energy and records the cultural and natural heritage the world stands to lose as the foundations of the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon, and the Ilisu dam in southeast Turkey are being laid despite widespread opposition and resistance. It takes the name of the Damocracy movement formed following the Rio+20 Earth Summit last year when governments failed to recognize the permanent destruction of cultural and natural heritage being caused by large-scale dams.

DAMOCRACY includes 15 national and international organisations. Among them are Doga Dernegi, Amazon Watch, International Rivers, RiverWatch, Gota D’água (Drop of Water), Instituto Socioambiental and Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre.

I’m heading to the Tigris River next week with a bundle of recent news articles under my arm that sets the context for an upcoming international gathering of river defenders in Turkey.

Last week the New York Times reported on China reviving dam construction on the Nu River, one of Asia’s last unregulated rivers, which flows through China’s biodiversity hotspot in Yunnan Province and the Three Parallel Rivers World Heritage site (before draining the Burma/Thailand border under the name Salween River). In the illuminating and well-researched article, Chinese environmentalist Wang Yongchen’s question has been ringing in my ears: “Why can’t China have just one river that isn’t destroyed by humans?”

Just One River!

Last week the Washington Post reported that the World Bank is making a major push to finance mega-scale hydropower dams (they call them “transformational projects”) on the Congo and Zambezi rivers, in the Himalaya and elsewhere. Reflecting on the past decade, whereby the World Bank avoided lending to destructive dam projects that failed to meet their social and environmental safeguards, World Bank VP Rachel Kyte lamented that the Bank’s reduction in big dam investments “was the wrong message.”

The Wrong Message?

Last week the occupation of the Belo Monte Dam site by indigenous peoples and others threatened by this monster dam in the heart of the Amazon escalated. A Brazilian judge ruled that the military could be deployed to forcibly remove those occupying the dam site. Reporters were barred from the area, but our Amazon Program Director Brent Milliken is in close contact with the river defenders and has forwarded photos of the militarization of the dam site that we’ve posted online. Last month Bianca Jagger posted a thorough expostulation of the militarization of Brazil’s dam sites in a blog that originally appeared in the Huffington Post, where she asks, “Is Brazil returning to the bad old days?”

The Bad Old Days….

It’s with this news and these mantras that I travel to Turkey to participate in the International Rivers Conference in Istanbul. I appreciate the cross-branding with our organization, yet must credit our partners at Birdlife International-Turkey (Doga Dernegi) for hosting and organizing the two-day conference. After plenary talks and a strategy session with partners from India, Kenya, Bolivia, Iraq, Europe and elsewhere, we’ll journey to the Upper Tigris River.

Doga Dernegi has been a leading group fighting the proposed Ilisu Dam on the Tigris, which threatens to flood the ancient city of Hasankeyf, an historic crossroads about 40 miles upstream from the borders with Syria and Iraq. At the invitation of our friends at Doga Dernegi, I’ll be traveling to Hasankeyf to meet with dam-threatened people and hear directly about what’s at stake and how international pressure can best leverage their efforts to stop the Ilisu Dam and spare this city and reach of the Tigris River that qualifies for both cultural and ecological World Heritage status.

The delegation will also be screening Todd Southgate’s excellent film, Damocracy, which was released on Earth Day this year. For a deep, crisp, and visually compelling dive into what’s at stake in Mesopotamia and the Amazon, this 30 minutes film is a must-see.

Somewhere along my journey I hope to piece together the big dam news of the past week, too. The planet – and the people inhabiting it – can’t afford to retreat to the “bad old days” of authoritarian rule and militarism in determining future energy investments.

Trying to square climate destabilization with an attack on rivers is more than “a wrong message”; it signals a flawed analysis of the root causes of planetary destabilization and distracts from the real solutions needed to promote community resilience and shared prosperity in the world.

And, as more and more nations find themselves posing the question, “Just one river?” will that also serve as a rally slogan to unite movements and demonstrate that we’re all in this together? As I prepare for my trip to Mesopotamia and the chaos that’s enveloped the peoples of the Tigris and Euphrates, I’ll hold fast to Yongchen’s query and remain mindful of the simplicity and truth of a chant we sing each autumn during the Maidu Calling Back the Salmon Ceremony on the Yuba: One Earth, One People, One River.

That will be my first message to the people I meet on this journey. I’d welcome the chance to carry a message to the people of Hasankeyf from other River People throughout the world. To send a message of solidarity, support or inspiration, leave a comment in the field below and include your home rivershed and country. I’ll be sure to pass it along. And I’ll report back through this blog next week. Stay tuned, more river news to come.

Despite calls for “sustainable development” in the preparations for Rio+20, the discussions thus far have ignored the social and environmental footprint of existing dam projects and the implications of an unprecedented wave of dam building worldwide. Similarly neglected are fundamental questions about the unfulfilled promises of mega-dam projects as engines of “sustained growth,” the vulnerability of dams in relation to global climate change, and the opportunity costs of the current dam boom on alternative energy strategies.

This look at the inner workings of the contemporary dam industry in Brazil provides an opportunity to analyze the coherence between discourse and reality in debates about “clean energy” and the “green economy.”

Targeting the Amazon

Currently, the rivers of the Amazon basin are being targeted for construction of an unprecedented number of large hydro dams. Up to 40 large dams are planned for construction in the Brazilian Amazon over the next 20 years. Several mega-dams are proceeding rapidly, such as Santo Antônio and Jirau on the Madeira River, and Belo Monte on the Xingu River. In neighboring Peru and Bolivia, new Amazon dam plans are underway, largely as a result of pressure and incentives from the Brazilian government.

Already, the devastating social and environmental consequences of new dam projects in the Amazon are becoming glaringly apparent: uncontrolled migration, land speculation, deforestation, depletion of fish stocks, destruction of traditional communities and livelihoods, child prostitution, overstretched urban services in health, education and sanitation. All these phenomena, caused or intensified by mega-dam projects, are increasingly part of the contemporary Amazonian landscape.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian government and its dam industry partners insist that mega-dams are “clean energy,” ignoring solid critiques of these projects by affected communities, social movements, indigenous peoples, religious leaders, human rights and environmental NGOs, and the scientific community.

What explains this growing “dam fever” in the Amazon despite the glaring contradictions between rhetoric and reality?

First, it is useful to note that today’s dam-building industry in Brazil is based on a “triple alliance” between the federal government (especially the Ministry of Mines and Energy and its parastatal energy conglomerate Eletrobras), political patronage groups that control the Ministry of Mines and Energy (led by Senator and ex-President José Sarney and his political party, PMDB), and private multinational construction companies (such as Odebrecht, Camargo Correa, Andrade Gutierrez and GDF Suez).

The glue that keeps this alliance together is money. All members of this alliance stand to benefit from the lucrative potential of mega-dam projects, which involve the effective privatization of rivers; the externalization of the human and environmental costs of dams, and privileged access to public financing through subsidized loans (especially from the Brazilian National Development Bank – BNDES) and generous fiscal incentives. The potential for carbon credits is “the icing on the cake.” The enormous potential for corruption on large infrastructure projects, combined with the fact that dam construction companies are among the main contributors to electoral campaigns, furthers the strength of this “triple alliance.”

The dam frenzy has benefited from the manipulation of public policies at various levels. First, a pronounced bias toward large dams in national energy policy in Brazil is guaranteed by the absence of public debate and lack of transparency on plans drawn up by the Ministry of Mines and Energy. Official neglect of truly renewable sources of generation such as wind and solar are a striking trait of centralized energy planning, often characterized as a “black box” in Brazil.

River basin inventories to select dam sites involve neither public consultations nor input from environmental agencies. These inventories typically clash with (and predominate over) policies regarding river basin management and protected areas. Inventories are approved unilaterally by the National Electrical Energy Agency (ANEEL).

After dam projects have been politically defined, environmental licensing is a mere formality. In Brazil, there is a recurring tendency for environmental impact assessments carried out by dam proponents to underestimate and externalize their true social and environmental costs, especially in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on biodiversity, and consequences for the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, riverine populations, fishermen, and family farmers. Moreover, national legislation and international agreements regarding free, prior and informed consultations with indigenous and tribal peoples are simply ignored. Public consultations are theatrical exercises, with no impact on the licensing process.

In the interest of fast-tracking dam projects, decision-makers at the highest levels of the Brazilian government have not hesitated to strong-arm federal government agencies responsible for environmental licensing and indigenous peoples, ignoring the opinions of technical staff and occasional protests from dissenting authorities.

Similarly, restraining orders issued by lower-level federal judges in favor of lawsuits regarding gross violations of human rights and environmental legislation on dam projects have been overturned through political intervention by the President’s office in higher-level courts. At present, there are over a dozen lawsuits over Belo Monte awaiting their day in court. Meanwhile, the federal government has engaged in political persecution of public prosecutors critical of mega-dam projects and even confronted the Inter-American Commission over its decision on the need for consultations with indigenous peoples on the Belo Monte project.

Increasingly, the dam-building frontier in the Amazon is expanding into legally protected areas, including environmental conservation units and indigenous territories. As a result, the Dilma government is strong-arming the Brazilian Congress to illegally reduce conservation units and loosen restrictions on exploitation of natural resources on indigenous lands. On May 29, the Brazilian Congress approved the illegal reduction of more than 75,000 hectares in protected areas along the Tapajos River, a major tributary of the Amazon, to open the way for the first two of more than a dozen mega-dams in the sub-basin. In the Tapajos, the dam industry is closely linked to political and economic interests associated with the opening of industrial waterways (hidrovias), energy-intensive mining, logging and export-oriented agribusiness such as soybean production.

Manipulation of public financing for high-risk dam projects, including lack of transparency and accountability, has also characterized the Brazilian dam industry. Financial institutions such as BNDES, the Bank of Brazil, the Bank of Amazônia (BASA) and parastatal pension funds have all been manipulated to fund mega-projects such as Belo Monte and the Madeira dams, with no accountability regarding risk analysis or social and environmental safeguards.

When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected President of Brazil in 2002, there were great hopes that he would fulfill campaign promises to fight corruption and bring “ethics into politics.” Once in office, Lula and his party, the PT, proceeded to form political alliances with many of Brazil’s most backward regional oligarchs. These alliances have reinforced the dam industry in an unprecedented way.

Dam construction consortia led by the Brazilian government are investing heavily in propaganda campaigns to mislead public opinion about the impacts of mega-dam projects in the Amazon. One Orwellian video widely displayed in Brazilian airports cheerfully announces that Belo Monte will have no impacts on indigenous communities living along the 100-km swath of the XIngu River, known as “Big Bend,” despite the diversion of 80% of the river’s flow upstream.

The Brazilian dam industry juggernaut is increasingly extending its scope beyond the country’s borders. Currently, actors such as Eletrobras, Odebrecht and BNDES are deeply involved in the design, finance and construction of large dams in other countries of the Amazon basin and elsewhere in Latin American and in African nations such as Mozambique, Ghana and Angola. Not surprisingly, Brazilian-led dam-building in other countries repeats the same destructive pattern as at home.

In short, the Brazilian dam boom in the Amazon is a startling example of the tremendous gap between discourse and practice that should be informing discussions about “clean energy” and “green economy.”

There can be no “sustainable development” when the development harms human rights and healthy ecosystems or brings political and financial corruption. Clearly, dirty dams founded upon dirty politics are neither “clean energy” nor appropriate for the “green economy” being debated at the Rio+20 conference and beyond.

Slowing the juggernaut of the dam industry in the Amazon and the powerful interests it represents will require a radical democratization of public policy-making (especially with regard to the energy sector); true corporate accountability, and vastly increased mobilization in Brazil and neighboring countries to support the rights and livelihoods of dam-threatened and dam-affected communities.

Approximately 200 indigenous people affected by the construction of large hydroelectric dams in the Amazon launched an occupation yesterday at one of the main construction sites of the Belo Monte Dam complex in the municipality of Victoria de Xingu. They demand that the Brazilian government adopt effective legislation on prior consultations with indigenous peoples regarding projects that affect their lands and livelihoods. Until then, they are demanding the immediate suspension of all construction, technical studies and police operations related to dams along the Xingu, Tapajós and Teles Pires rivers. Shock troops of the Military Police were awaiting the indigenous protestors when they arrived at the Belo Monte Dam site, but they were unable to impede the occupation.

The indigenous protestors include members of the Juruna, Kayapó, Xipaya, Kuruaya, Asurini, Parakanã, and Arara tribes from the Xingu River, as well as warriors of the Munduruku, a large tribe from the neighboring Tapajós River Basin. The indigenous peoples have been joined by fishermen and the local riverine communities from the Xingu. Initial reports indicate that approximately six thousand workers at the main Belo Monte construction site have not only ceased operations as a result of the protest, but according to Antonia Melo, coordinator of the Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre, greeted the occupiers with applause as they arrived. The occupation, according to the indigenous communities, will continue indefinitely or until the federal government meets their demands.

“Our forest and our river are one of the last natural heritages of Brazil. It’s sad to think: why are there so many dams planned on only one river?” Said Saw Exebu, spokesperson for the general chief of the Munduruku.”We don’t want this to happen on our lands. We don’t want dams built in our home, the Tapajós.”

Occupations against the Belo Monte dam complex and mobilizations against other Amazonian dams have become increasingly commonplace. Construction on Belo Monte has been halted on at least seven occasions over the last year due to the efforts of affected indigenous communities and fishermen to call attention to the failures of the Norte Energia dam building consortium and government agencies to comply with the project’s mandated environmental and social conditions. On March 21st, approximately 100 indigenous peoples, riverbank dwellers (ribeirinhos) and small farmers expelled dam workers and occupied the Pimental site, maintained by the Belo Monte Construction Consortium (CCBM).

Additionally, recent strikes and protests by dam workers have created additional unrest at CCBM construction sites. On April 5th, five thousand workers at the Pimental construction site paralyzed operations in protest over poor working conditions and the unjustified firing of 80 employees at the end of last year. Labor unrest increased after the discovery last February that CCBM and the federal government’s intelligence agency, ABIN, have been involved in covert surveillance of social movements opposed to Belo Monte, as well as suspicion that CCBM employees have been organizing workers to press for better working conditions.

The Munduruku indigenous people and other local communities have mobilized against a cascade of over a dozen large dams slated for construction on the neighboring Tapajós River and its major tributaries, the Teles Pires, Juruena and Jamanxim. One of the first major dams under construction, UHE Teles Pires has been the subject of lawsuits by Federal Public Prosecutors for lack of prior consultations with the Kayabi, Apiaká and Munduruku indigenous peoples. In recent weeks, the removal of funeral urns of the Munduruku people by dam contractors at the Sete Quedas rapids – considered a sacred site for indigenous tribes – provoked outrage.

In March 2013, President Dilma Rousseff signed Decree no. 7957/2013, allowing the use of the National Guard and other armed forces to ensure that dam construction at places like Belo Monte and technical studies for planned Amazonian dams are not interrupted by indigenous protestors. In April, upon a request from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, approximately 250 Federal and Military Police troops were dispatched to the Tapajós region to ensure continuation of technical studies for the first two large dams scheduled for construction, São Luiz do Tapajós and Jatobá. Known as Operação Tapajós, the military operation came in response to protests from the Munduruku people whose traditional lands would be directly affected by the two large dams.

The Munduruku are especially wary of military operations on their lands. Last November, an armed operation – Operação Eldorado – of the National Guard and Federal Police occupied a Munduruku village on the Teles Pires River, supposedly to combat illegal mining. The operation resulted in the shooting and killing of Adilson Munduruku by a federal police officer, an episode that still awaits a full investigation. According to Munduruku leaders, the two military operations were designed as a means of intimidation against protests over planned dams in the Tapajós Basin. The letter issued yesterday by Munduruku and other indigenous protestors at the Belo Monte Dam site shows that they have not been successful.

“Today’s protest demonstrates the relentless resistance of a growing group of united peoples against Belo Monte, Tapajós and other destructive dams throughout the Amazon,” said Leila Salazar-Lopez, Amazon Watch Program Director. “These are the final moments to change course as construction closes in on the Xingu and other lifeline rivers of the Amazon.”

Tourists flock to the area known as the Cradle of Civilisation in southeast Turkey, where there is rich evidence of settlements dating back 12,000 years.

Half the world away, the Brazilian Amazon has become a must-visit destination for adventure-seekers. In the south of the Amazon Basin, the Kayapo and other indigenous groups have depended on the Xingu River since time immemorial.

Although different in so many ways, these places are united by one unwanted factor: their very existence is under threat.

Hasankeyf: A magnificent bridge from the 12th century, and a main passage way for tradesmen and travellers on the Silk Road at the time.

The world stands to lose some of its most important cultural and natural heritage as the foundations of two controversial large-scale dams are being laid.

The Ilisu dam in southeast Turkey, and the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon, are going ahead despite widespread opposition and resistance both at home and from abroad.

In Turkey, the ancient town of Hasankeyf will be flooded out of existence. Hasankeyf and the surrounding Tigris Valley is the only area in the world that meets nine out of 10 criteria of Unesco World Heritage Sites. But the Turkish Government has refused to apply for World Heritage status – it has other plans.

Visitors to Hasankeyf today can still wonder at its rich biodiversity, 300 medieval monuments and thousands of man-made caves, where the first settlers lived in the Bronze Age, up to 12,000 years ago.
Built on the banks of the Tigris in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, Hasankeyf is thought to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world. Historians estimate at least a third of it has yet to be excavated.

More than 20 cultures have left their mark on the town over the millennia, including the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Ottomans. All will be lost under water, save for relatively few artifacts the Turkish Government has vowed to move before the flood.

Work on the Ilisu dam continues in defiance of court rulings halting the dam, and the withdrawal of funding from European credit agencies in 2009 when the Turkish Government failed to meet almost all the criteria to protect the environment, cultural heritage and local communities

Indigenous marchers. ©Caroline Bennett / Amazon Watch

In Brazil, Belo Monte’s two reservoirs and canals will flood a total area of 668 square kilometres, of which 400 square kilometres are standing forest. Up to 40,000 residents will be displaced, including 25,000 indigenous people. A permanent drought will be caused on the river’s Big Bend.

This is an area rich in biodiversity. Scientists fear that hundreds of dams, including the Belo Monte project planned in the Amazon Basin, may cause the extinction of 1,000 fish species, which amount to one-third of all fish species in the Amazon. This will be the last great wilderness no longer.

Dr Philip Fearnside of the National Amazon Research Institute says forests flooded by Belo Monte’s reservoirs would generate enormous quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂).

An international movement called Damocracy has attempted to unite the campaigns to stop these destructive projects and expose the myth of dams as clean energy. It recently released a short documentary by award-winning filmmaker Todd Southgate, which may be watched here: DAMOCRACY – The Movie

Award-winning filmmaker Todd Southgate travels from the vast Amazon rainforest in Brazil to the mountains and plains of upper Mesopotamia in Hasankeyf, southeast Turkey, and visits communities threatened by the two major dam projects.

By focusing on impacts such as a permanent drought on the Xingu River’s ‘Big Bend’ and the sinking of a city in Turkey that dates back to the Bronze Age, Damocracy exposes the myth of large-scale dams as ‘clean’ energy. It reveals the undemocratic processes forcing these dams onto an unconsenting public, by governments steamrolling national laws and international regulations.

The documentary takes the name of the DAMOCRACY movement formed following the Rio+20 Earth Summit last year when governments failed to recognize the permanent destruction of cultural and natural heritage being caused by large-scale dams.

“All around the world, especially in developing nations, governments continue to offer the false hope that hydroelectric power will address energy needs while ignoring the social and environmental cost of large-scale dams,” said Christian Poirier of human rights and environmental organization Amazon Watch.

The Amazon Basin, set to host the Belo Monte dam, is home to 60 per cent of the planet’s remaining tropical rainforests. Belo Monte’s two reservoirs and canals will flood a total area of 668 square km of which 400 square km is standing forest. Scientists fear that hundreds of dams including the Belo Monte project planned in the Amazon Basin may cause the extinction of 1,000 fish species, which amount to one third of all fish species in the Amazon. The Belo Monte dam will also displace over 40,000 people including indigenous communities.

Damocracy makes the point that such dams are a methane menace. Dr Philip Fearnside of the National Amazon Research Institute (INPA) says forests flooded by Belo Monte’s reservoirs would generate enormous quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Work on the Ilisu dam in Turkey continues in defiance of court rulings halting the dam (1), and the withdrawal of funding from European Credit Agencies in 2009 when the Turkish government failed to meet almost all the criteria to protect the environment, cultural heritage and local communities.  The dam will inundate an area that meets nine out of 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites’ criteria (2). Over 35,000 people will be displaced. The Ilisu dam will affect five key biodiversity areas in southeast Turkey. Its impact will be felt as far as the marshes of Basra in Iraq.

“The price the world is being asked to pay for governments, such as those of Brazil and Turkey, to protect political and corporate interests is insane. Damocracy tells a story of resistance; it should not become a record of the loss the world failed to prevent,” said Engin Yilmaz, Executive Director of BirdLife International partner in Turkey (Doga Dernegi).

Damocracy is produced by Doga Dernegi, in collaboration with other founding members of the Damocracy movement: Amazon Watch, International Rivers, RiverWatch, Gota D’água (Drop of Water) Movement, Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre (MXVPS).

Watch the documentary here.

The Council of State concluded that the Ilisu dam construction on the Tigris River, proceeding without the legally required Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), goes against  Turkish Environment law and EIA regulations.

The massive dam being constructed on the Tigris River has drawn international controversy because it will flood the ancient city of Hasankeyf whose history stretches back over 12,000 years. It is an  area that meets nine out of 10 UNESCO criteria for World Heritage status, but the government is refusing to nominate the site and guarantee its protection because it would stand in the way of plans for the Ilisu dam.

The dam’s project outline was finalised in the 1980s but it prompted strong reaction from local communities, environmental, cultural heritage and human rights groups as well as academics and celebrities in Turkey and abroad. In 2009, three European Credit Agencies withdrew from the project due to the Turkish government’s failure to meet international standards to protect nature, culture and the rights of over 25,000 people who would be displaced.

This is the second time the government lost a case on the Ilisu dam before the State Council. In 2011 the State Council had already ruled against government’s attempt to bypass EIA regulations. Then, the Turkish government introduced new regulation exonerating the project from the required EIA in an attempt to override the ruling. The Office of the Prime Minister had also published a circular order allowing all works related to the infrastructure of the dam including roads, power lines etc. to go ahead without any EIA.

TMMOB countered the Turkish government’s actions again last year by bringing the case before the State Council a second time. The Council’s recent ruling against the government brings hope to the local communities and NGOs that have been trying to stop the ongoing dam construction.

The government can object to the State Council’s ruling within seven days. Alternatively, the government may again choose to pass new legislation to override the court’s ruling.

“It is evident from the actions of government that the Ilisu dam could never be built if the law were observed. The Turkish government has instead been choosing to bypass conservation laws by passing new regulations designed to allow the dam’s construction at whatever cost,” said Engin Yilmaz, Executive Director of Doga Dernegi (BirdLife Turkey).

“This time the world is watching. The ruling must stand, in the interest of protecting our common natural and cultural heritage. The project must be cancelled, and the region designated as a World Heritage Site,” he said.

Film maker Todd Southgate travels from the deepest corners of the vast Amazon rainforest in Brazil to the mountains and plains of fertile upper Mesopotamia in south east Turkey. He meets academics, lawyers, campaigners and local communities whose livelihood is threatened by two monster dam projects; Belo Monte in Brazil and Ilisu in Turkey.

The documentary shows the potential disasters these dams would cause on cultural heritage, wildlife and local communities who rely on the rich natural resources provided by the Tigris and Xingu rivers.

The film also questions the sanity of climate change solutions that depend on the destruction of ‘the lungs of the Earth’ and ‘the cradle of civilization’. It is a call to action to save this priceless natural and cultural heritage being gambled for the interests of a few.

The documentary will be released in February 2013.

Kanadalı yönetmen Todd Southgate, dünyanın en çok tartışılan iki baraj projesi olan Brezilya’daki Belo Monte ve Türkiye’deki Ilısu’yu konu alan bir belgesel hazırladı. Southgate, ilk yolculuğunu Brezilya’nın görkemli Amazon ormanlarına, yerli kabilelerin yaşadığı bölgelere yaptı. Oradan Türkiye’ye gelen yönetmen, Hasankeyf başta olmak üzere Mezopotamya’nın bereketli ovaları ve derin vadilerine giderek yaşamları baraj projeleriyle tehdit altında olan ve bu barajlara karşı mücadele veren yerel halklarla, bunun yanı sıra sivil toplum örgütleri, akademisyenler ve avukatlarla görüştü.

Bu belgesel, Dicle ve Xingu (Şingu) nehirlerinin beslediği topraklarda binlerce yıldır varlığını koruyan yerel halkların, kültürlerin ve yaban hayatının barajlarla nasıl yok edileceğini gözler önüne seriyor. Aynı zamanda, gezegenimizin akciğerleri olan Amazon’u ve medeniyetlerin beşiği olan Mezopotamya’yı yok edecek barajların ‘temiz’ enerji adı altında iklim değişikliğine çözüm olarak sunulmasını da eleştiriyor.

Damocracy belgeseli, Şubat 2013′de gösterime girecek.