Projects for the installation of more than 100 hydroelectric plants – small, medium and large scale – in the rivers that make up the plateau of the Paraguay river high basin, pose a threat Pantanal. Recent studies prove that the installation of barriers or dams will alter the flood pulse of the plain, harming the region’s biodiversity, limiting the migration of fish that go up the river for reproduction and maintaining important aquatic organisms for animal feeding. Besides this, the social impact should be considered, taking into account the existence of stream communities along the rivers to be dammed.

For Alcides Faria, executive director of Ecoa, this question of systematic river damming which drain to the pantanal plain, together with the attempts to allow sugar-cane and alcohol plants in Pantanal, are at this moment, the greatest environmental and economical threats to the region and for this we are “campaigning against and activating all means possible.” Remembering the case of the damming of Manso, at Cuiabá river.

At the “Pantanal Communities” meeting, held December 10th im Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, this was the discussion topic. The dimension of the problem worries not only environmentalists, but also researchers and those that extract their living from the pantanal waters. For Armindo Batista dos Santos Filho, president of the Fishing Federation of Mato Grosso do Sul, it is a certainty that the fishing activity will suffer damage: “We need the guarantee that the fishing activity will be protected, because it is a part of the economy that presents itself as social and environmentally sustainable in Pantal.” He was clearly worried about Coxim river.

Scientific studies agree with the president. The document, “Hydroelectric plants Influence on the hydro-ecological functioning of Pantanal” made public during the eighth edition of the International Wet Areas Conference, held in Cuiabá in 2008, brings attention the gravity of the problem and suggests that new postures need to be taken.

The document “Hydroelectric plants Influence on the hydro-ecological functioning of Pantanal” is available for download below.