Belo Monte diverges from Ibama to compensate fishermen and proposes help in three years

The company responsible for operating the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant differs from the recommendation of Ibama (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis) for financial compensation to fishermen on the Xingu River and proposes aid, to be transferred in three annual installments, to development of income generation projects.

Norte Energia’s proposal was described in a document sent to Ibama in early October.

The agency analyzed compliance with the conditions established for the plant’s operating license and recommended that Norte Energia pay compensation to an initial group of 785 fishing families impacted by the project, such as the Sheet showed in an article published on the 8th. Other families need to be compensated, according to Ibama.

The period to which the repair refers is two years and two months, during which time Norte Energia failed to carry out actions to mitigate damage to fishermen, according to Ibama’s technical opinion on June 24 this year.

The Belo Monte operating license expires on November 25, 2021. Renewal depends on meeting Ibama’s recommendations, such as submitting a proposal for reparations to fishermen who suffer from damming, the formation of reservoirs, the control of water flow and mitigation failures pointed out by the environmental agency.

In response to Ibama’s opinion, Norte Energia makes a different proposal.

The company proposes an “individual value contribution per fisherman of the registered universe, to be transferred in three annual installments”. The objective of the contributions is to develop an “income generation project in accordance with the vocations, cultural aspects and socio-economic dynamics of fishermen”.

The fishermen would also have technical assistance over three years. This assistance is already foreseen as a condition for the issuance of the operating license and is included in the recommendations made in the IBAMA report.

The contributions must be made to 1,976 fishermen registered between 2017 and 2019, according to Norte Energia. From the transfer of the first installment, the technical assistance team will carry out an evaluation of the “productive projects”. Only after this analysis will there be payment of the other two installments, according to the company.

Norte Energia said that the proposal will be presented to fishermen at meetings and said it was available to provide more details to Ibama.

In a note, the company said it had not failed to comply with compensation measures. “Norte Energia participated today [quinta, 13] of understanding involving Ibama and leaders of the category of fishermen, in Altamira [PA]an opportunity in which he informed the leaders of a meeting scheduled with Ibama about the proposal for a compensatory measure”, he said.

Compensation proposals were changed based on questions from fishermen about the actions of their own representatives, according to the company. “As soon as a solution is defined, it will be presented to the fishermen themselves.”

IBAMA did not respond to questions.

Report published by Sheet on the 8th, it showed the shortage of fishermen in the region of Volta Grande do Xingu impacted by Belo Monte, six years after the plant started operating and three years after all its generating units began to operate.

There is no more fish breeding, faced with artificial flow control — and insufficient water release.

The hydrograph adopted — the flow of water released from the dam for the operation of the plant — is insufficient for subsistence fishing, and the fishermen have not adapted to other activities, such as cocoa plantation or fish farming in ponds.

The same picture is described in the June Ibama technical report.

“Local fishing, in any of the modalities, has been going through a process of degradation”, say IBAMA technicians in the document. “This phenomenon has been eroding the ability of fishermen to generate satisfactory economic income through their activity, as well as to obtain fish as the main source of animal protein at the table of their families.”

The MPF (Federal Public Ministry) calculates that more than 4,000 fishermen were impacted by the plant, which, in 2021, met only 5% of the national demand for energy generation.

Belo Monte had the first feasibility studies prepared during the military dictatorship, in the 1970s. The Lula government (PT) made the first licenses possible, and the works were carried out under the Dilma Rousseff (PT) government. In the first year of his term, the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government completed the generating units and inaugurated the complete set.

Norte Energia, which has Eletrobras, Petros, Funcef, Neoenergia, Vale, Sinobras, Light, Cemig and J. Malucelli Energia in the shareholding composition, said it considers that the plant’s operating license is in force, under the terms of the law, until IBAMA decides on the renewal request.

Regarding the amount of water destined for the Volta Grande do Xingu, Norte Energia stated that this was the object of study and forecast in the environmental licensing.

The company said that “it strictly complies with the commitments established within the scope of the concession and environmental licensing”. Periodic reports sent to Ibama show this, according to Norte Energia.

Also according to the company, the rate of fish consumption by riverine people is above the national and world averages, and an increase in income led to an elevation of families to the line above poverty.

“Norte Energia provided technical assistance to psychculture projects, strengthening fisheries, cocoa farming and plant extraction,” he said.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}