You kept dams from being built

2022 saw the completion of a major project in Brazil to ensure Indigenous Peoples' right to free, prior, and informed consent – and now the work continues in Africa

The year 2022 marked the conclusion of an important project in Brazil to help strengthen river movements against the threat of dams in the Amazon basin. Focused on preventing public financing for destructive dams and the adherence to highest environmental and social standards, this broadbased campaign was successful in halting the São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric project in 2016.

FPIC protocols are a valuable tool by which Indigenous communities protect their rights and territories and engage with financiers and developers.

International Rivers worked with the Munduruku to develop these protocols as part of a 6-year project to strengthen dam standards. Since 2016, no major hydroelectric plan financing has gone forward in the Brazilian Amazon.

A key factor in this success was the lack of compliance with the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) protocols established by the Munduruku and other Indigenous communities who would have been displaced and harmed by the dam projects.

Based on this success, we have adapted the approach for use in other regions. In 2022, we held the first FPIC protocol workshop with Indigenous Himba communities from Namibia and Angola who oppose the renewed damming of the transboundary Kunene River, which would flood their villages and ancestral lands.