The Brazilian government is planning two huge dams on the Madeira River, principal tributary of the Amazon, and a region of mega-biodiversity, with 750 fish and 800 bird species. The Santo Antônio and Jirau dams would have an installed generating capacity of 6,450 MW.

Independent studies have shown they would also have serious impacts on fish resources and aquatic life, on the health of the local populations, and due to sediment build up could flood rainforests in neighbouring Bolivia.

The dams were granted preliminary approval in July by Brazilian environmental authorities, even after technical experts of the Brazilian environmental protection service Ibama recommended against  licensing the project without new studies being carried out.

This led the Bolivian government to protest the dams, and on August 23rd following several meetings, a decision was made to form three bi-national working groups to study the dams' potential impacts on  Bolivia.

The Bolivian government has handled this matter in an open and  transparent way, consulting with and involving civil society groups (CSOs) and independent technical experts in the process. However,  Brazil has not made any information available to CSOs, and has scheduled an auction on October 30th to offer the project to private  investors and state electric companies.

We need your help to let the Brazilian government know the Madeira  River and its unique that this is a matter of concern to the  international community - please sign the petition which is being organized by Friends of the Earth affiliate IRN and will be sent to the Brazilian government.

Find out more in the PDF publication on Rio Madeira.

Please sign the petition available here.