Amazon Dam Projects Are Mapped in New Online Database

A new online database maps more than 140 dams being built or planned in the Amazon basin and documents the impacts these projects are likely to have on human communities and the environment. Using official information from governments and companies, the Argentina-based Fundación PROTEGER and the advocacy group International Rivers developed the site, found at dams-info.org, as a resource to track the impacts of the boom in dam construction. The groups say that the more than 60 dams planned for the Brazilian Amazon will do irreversible damage to the region’s biological diversity and local populations, including indigenous tribes. “If all these projects are built, it would be catastrophic for the Amazon ecosystem and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people and riverbank dwellers who depend on the river for survival,” said Brent Millikan, Amazon Program Director for International Rivers. The interactive database allows users to identify economic and technical factors related to each project and sort results by country, basin, dam capacity, and project status.