{"id":19411,"date":"2017-03-28T14:53:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T19:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/?p=19411"},"modified":"2017-03-29T13:34:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T18:34:19","slug":"panamas-barro-blanco-dam-begin-operation-indigenous-pleas-refused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/panamas-barro-blanco-dam-begin-operation-indigenous-pleas-refused\/","title":{"rendered":"Panama\u2019s Barro Blanco dam to begin operation, indigenous pleas refused"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/2-barro-blanco-768x450.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-19412\" src=\"http:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/2-barro-blanco-768x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/2-barro-blanco-768x450.jpg 768w, https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/2-barro-blanco-768x450-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Camilo Mejia Giraldo\u00a0reports in MongaBay that Panama will give its Barro Blanco dam an operational green light within weeks, defying decisions by indigenous authorities to block the project\u2019s completion.<\/p>\n<p>For nearly a decade, Panama\u2019s Barro Blanco dam has met with strong opposition from indigenous Ng\u00e4be communities. It has also generated violent suppression from government forces, and attracted criticism from international organizations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An agreement on the dam\u2019s completion, reached by the government and the community\u2019s now-ousted leader, was voted down by the Ng\u00e4be-Bugle General Congress in September 2016. The dam\u2019s surprise deregistration from the UN Clean Development Mechanism in October 2016 did nothing to stop the project.<\/li>\n<li>Now, the General Administrator of Panama\u2019s National Authority for Public Services has declared that the Ng\u00e4be-Bugle General Congress never presented a formal rejection document to the government, meaning dam operations can begin.<\/li>\n<li>Panama\u2019s Supreme Court has ruled against the last two legal actions by indigenous communities impacted by Barro Blanco. The Supreme Court decisions cannot be appealed, so the communities have now exhausted all legal avenues within the country, leaving only international processes.<\/li>\n<li>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194283\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/6-barro-blanco.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-194283\" src=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/6-barro-blanco-768x473.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"473\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ng\u00e4be-Bugle community members canoe on the Tabasar\u00e1 River. Photo by Camilo Mejia Giraldo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"above-article-ad-cont\"><\/div>\n<p>The contentious Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam is set to begin operations within the next few weeks, defying both the relentless opposition by affected communities and the rejection last September by local indigenous authorities of a government proposed project completion agreement.<\/p>\n<p>According to Roberto Meana, General Administrator of Panama\u2019s National Authority for Public Services (ASEP), the 28-megawatt gravity dam in western Panama could begin operation within days once necessary tests are finalized. The reservoir\u2019s waters have been rising since August of last year, gradually flooding Ng\u00e4be communities and land.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can be in five days, or it can be two weeks, but the project is very close to entering its commercial operation,\u201d Meana told Mongabay last Friday.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Controversy from the start<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The hydroelectric project, partly funded by two European development banks, has been at the epicenter of a complex environmental and human rights battle that has raged on for nearly a decade between a handful of indigenous Ng\u00e4be communities and successive Panamanian administrations.<\/p>\n<p>In the last few months alone, the project was removed from the United Nations\u2019 Clean Development Mechanism (UNCDM), a positive result for the indigenous communities; but has also had two pending legal pleas rejected by Panama\u2019s Supreme Court in favor of the government \u2014 potentially opening the door for the forceful expulsion of the affected indigenous people from their lands.<\/p>\n<p>The structurally complete dam on the Tabasar\u00e1 River is set to create a 258-hectare (1 square mile) reservoir within the province of Chiriqui. It will flood 6.7 hectares (16.5 acres) belonging to the Ng\u00e4be-Bugl\u00e9 <em>comarca<\/em> \u2014\u00a0a semi-autonomous region located a few miles upstream of the dam.<\/li>\n<li>The imminent operational status of the project now raises serious questions over the future of the local riverside Ng\u00e4be communities, which have continuously called for the dam\u2019s cancellation since it was given the go ahead in 2007.\u201cIf the government is going to start generating [electricity], then they are confirming the violation of our rights as an affected community,\u201d Weny Bagama, a Ng\u00e4be-Bugle General Congress delegate and a leader of the outspoken M10 (Movimiento 10 de Abril) group opposing the dam, told Mongabay.\n<p>\u201cThey are doing this even though [the Ng\u00e4be-Bugle General] Congress rejected the past agreement,\u201d she said referring to a now defunct accord to allow the dam\u2019s full operation which was reached by the government and the <em>Cacica<\/em> (negotiators) of the Ng\u00e4be-Bugle community in August 2016. That <a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2016\/10\/barro-blanco-dam-in-limbo-after-ngabe-bugle-congress-rejects-agreement\/\">deal was in turn rejected<\/a> by the community in September when the Cacica negotiators were ousted by the Ng\u00e4be-Bugl\u00e9 General Congress, the comarca\u2019s key decision-making body.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe [General] Congress\u2019 decision is the internal decision of the comarca, and if they don\u2019t respect that, then evidently the government just does what it likes and does not respect the jurisdiction established by comarca law,\u201d Bagama said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Meana, however, the Ng\u00e4be-Bugl\u00e9 General Congress\u2019 decision to reject the agreement was not followed by submission of the proper paperwork to the government \u2014 a formal document outlining the community\u2019s decision and the reasons for the dam\u2019s rejection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo date, there is no document in which this agreement is rejected. The [Ng\u00e4be-Bugle] Congress sent it to be revised. If the Congress had rejected it, they wouldn\u2019t have set up a commission to review it,\u201d Meana said referring to a commission created by the indigenous General Congress to formally analyze the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>These conclusions were strongly opposed by Bagama, who stated that although the congress had not filed a legal rejection document, the congress and the special commission had yet to finalize their response.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe commission was not named to revise the document but to analyze the conflict in its entirety,\u201d she said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t give us a time limit or date to present the [legal rejection] document, but the decision of the Congress needs to be free of pressure or conditions, because the comarca has its own procedures and according to our law we have to follow certain procedures.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194285\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/1-Barro-Blanco.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-194285\" src=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/1-Barro-Blanco-768x478.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"478\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Ng\u00e4be-Bugle General Congress meets on September 15, 2016 to debate the Barro Blanco agreement. Photo Courtesy of Weny Bagama<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The vote by the indigenous body last September appeared to place a cloud of uncertainty over the project, as it was thought by both parties that they would renew negotiations to reach a final agreement.<\/p>\n<p>But even before the indigenous Congress\u2019 rejection, the government allowed the dam\u2019s construction company Generadora del Istmo S.A. (GENISA) to begin test flooding the dam\u2019s reservoir in August, 2016 \u2014 a move opposed by the Ng\u00e4be communities that have since lost homes and some of their most fertile land to the rising waters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a community we feel that we are prisoners within our own homes, we can\u2019t move around as we used to, the water levels have dropped slightly [due to the dry season], but all the surrounding land has just turned into mud,\u201d Bagama explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe live in a situation of constant threat because of this reservoir, with what the government has been doing and their economic interests, which are above our livelihoods as indigenous people,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Panama\u2019s Supreme Court weighs in<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As the reservoir\u2019s waters rose toward the end of 2016, there was a series of back-and-forth shifts in the status of the controversial project.<\/p>\n<p>In December, Panama\u2019s Supreme Court ruled in favor of the hydroelectric project on the last two pending legal processes active within the country. The first of these was a Protection of Constitutional Rights action, filed by lawyers in 2015 on behalf of the Ng\u00e4be communities in order to protect their access to water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe company had asked for a certain volume of the river\u2019s flow [required for the dam\u2019s operation], and the government actually gave them more than what they asked for,\u201d explained Susana Serrac\u00edn, an environmental lawyer for Panamanian NGO Alliance for Conservation and Development (ACD), which has been advocating for the affected Ng\u00e4be communities. \u201cThis put the community\u2019s water security seriously under threat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The court rejected this legal action because it was \u201cpresented six years after the start of the project\u201d and not within the required first three months of development, which would have allowed time for estimates of environmental damages, <a href=\"http:\/\/impresa.prensa.com\/panorama\/Niegan-amparo-caso-Barro-Blanco_0_4642035859.html\">stated newspaper La Prensa.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194286\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/1-new-barro-banco-new.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-194286\" src=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/1-new-barro-banco-new-768x456.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"456\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The level of the Tabasar\u00e1 River on the shores of the Ng\u00e4be communities of Kiad, Nuevo Palomar and Quebrada Ca\u00f1a have been rising over the past seven months due to the test flooding of the Barro Blanco dam reservoir. The reservoir has not only flooded homes and crops, but has made the river crossing treacherous. Photo by Camilo Mejia Giraldo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Also in December, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a resolution generated in 2013 by Panama\u2019s National Authority for Public Services (ASEP), declaring the construction of Barro Blanco to be in the \u201cpublic\u2019s interest\u201d and its construction \u201curgent\u201d even though it was challenged by the Ng\u00e4be communities. Additionally, the resolution gave GENISA the authority to enter indigenous land in order to complete the project.<\/p>\n<p>ASEP\u2019s resolution, by declaring the project to be in the national interest, will clear the way for the government to legally expropriate any land needed to move the project to completion, explained Serrac\u00edn. \u201cThe communities have to cede their land in favor of the project. But the government here is obviously not favoring the public interest, because this project has been undertaken by [GENISA] a private company,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The high court\u2019s decision opens the door for the legal forced relocation of the Ng\u00e4be communities now living upstream of Barro Blanco. According to ASEP\u2019s Meana, however, no one to date has been forcibly evicted from their lands despite the reservoirs rising waters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe project [reservoir] has flooded, it\u2019s already working towards normality and the government has not had to undertake any forced evictions of anything or anyone,\u201d Meana explained, adding that the court\u2019s decision also provides transparency when companies undertake a project such as Barro Blanco and cannot reach an agreement with affected stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you see the reality [\u2026] of the two or three people that have been affected by it [the flooding], the state is seeking to compensate them properly. The position of the state is to compensate those that have a rightful claim to the land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Panama\u2019s Supreme Court\u2019s decisions cannot be appealed, so the community has no recourse under Panama\u2019s laws to continue its legal opposition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the cases that have been filed on a national level have been exhausted. The community now has nothing to do. The only processes that are left are the international ones,\u201d ACD\u2019s Serrac\u00edn said.<\/p>\n<p>In March 2016, ACD filed a request for precautionary measures at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in a bid to protect the affected communities. To date, the commission has not responded with a decision, but after a public hearing in Washington <a href=\"http:\/\/laestrella.com.pa\/panama\/nacional\/cidh-pide-informe-gobierno-panameno\/23991354\">last week<\/a>, it has requested a report from the Panamanian government on the situation of the country\u2019s human rights defenders.<\/li>\n<li>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194287\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/4-barro-blanco.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-194287 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/4-barro-blanco-768x492.jpg\" width=\"768\" height=\"492\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former General Cacica Silvia Carrera and Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela sign the Barro Blanco agreement on August 22nd at a ceremony in Llano Tugri, the capital of the Ng\u00e4be-Bugle comarca. The community went on to reject that agreement in September. Photo by Camilo Mejia Giraldo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><strong>CDM withdrawal makes international action uncertain<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>With the dam\u2019s operation about to begin and the IACHR decision still pending, the possibility of a successful international appeal by the indigenous communities seems far from likely. The sudden <a href=\"https:\/\/cdm.unfccc.int\/filestorage\/Q\/T\/X\/QTXEKMWNOC6SLB48JU513VFGA70PRZ\/Untitled%20%28uploaded%2004%20Nov%2016%2012%3A38%3A46%29.pdf?t=bzd8b24xa3JzfDB-MhkldtkHMH1mkYdn1IyN\">request<\/a> for the project\u2019s immediate deregistration from the United Nations CDM made by Panama\u2019s Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente) in October, for example, did nothing to halt the dam or the river\u2019s rising waters.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, Barro Blanco\u2019s CDM registration \u2014 which had allowed the project to earn Certified Emission Reductions, or carbon credits \u2014 had been viewed as a positive development by indigenous community advocates.<\/p>\n<p>In the letter of withdrawal, MiAmbiente stated that Barro Blanco\u2019s CDM registration in 2011 was performed under the guise of an outdated 2008 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which analyzed the dam\u2019s impact based on its initial generating capacity of 19 megawatts.<\/p>\n<p>But in 2010, GENISA, the project\u2019s construction company, received approval from Panama\u2019s former National Authority of Environment to increase the dam\u2019s capacity to 28 megawatts without a new EIA \u2014 a regulatory violation flagged by the indigenous community, national and international NGOs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBarro Blanco has now become a source of embarrassment for the government, as it obviously does not meet the requirement of sustainable development. It violates the territorial rights of the Ng\u00e4be people, and blatantly disrespects human rights,\u201d ACD executive director Osvaldo Jordan told Mongabay days after the deregistration.<\/p>\n<p>According to Jordan, the <a href=\"http:\/\/cdm.unfccc.int\/filestorage\/F\/M\/0\/FM07ILOVK4URYHQA5BJPC9NSX62G3Z\/Barro%20Blanco%20V%20Report%20June2010.pdf?t=Tkd8b2k4aXcyfDAXGqbosHWSYJaxlPySEkpM\">initial CDM validation report<\/a> of Barro Blanco by Spanish company AENOR in 2010, and the project\u2019s subsequent registration in 2011, played a key role in the initial and continued funding of the project by European banks \u2014 the German Investment Corporation (DEG) and the Dutch development bank, FMO.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis [deregistration] is the result of a failed 10-year policy of hydroelectric projects in Panama [\u2026] and it will have an impact on future development projects in the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>These sentiments are echoed by Brussels-based NGO Carbon Market Watch (CMW), an organization working alongside the affected community. CMW had repeatedly called for the cancellation of Barro Blanco\u2019s UNCDM registration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously taking into account the very negative effects of Barro Blanco, we really welcome this move. But at the same time it has to be mentioned that even though this is not a CDM project any more, it will still go on. There will still be a Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam in Panama,\u201d Juliane Voigt, CMW\u2019s Policy Officer for sustainable development said.<\/li>\n<li>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194288\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/3-barro-blanco.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-194288\" src=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/3-barro-blanco-768x465.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"465\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The roof of a flooded house in the Ng\u00e4be community of Quebrada Ca\u00f1a, upstream of the Barro Blanco Dam. Photo by Camilo Mejia Giraldo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The European banks have stayed mostly silent on this issue. According to DEG spokesperson Barbara Schrahe-Timera, both DEG and FMO have not been part of the contentious negotiations between the government and the Ng\u00e4be-Bugle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe repeatedly \u2014 also during the past few months \u2014 took active steps in exchange with various parties concerned, including environmental and social experts on site, to contribute to a mutual solution,\u201d Schrahe-Timera told Mongabay. Despite repeated requests for clarification, the DEG spokesperson failed to say what these steps entailed and did not comment on the project\u2019s withdrawal from the UNCDM.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Rising waters and no easy solution<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>For the Ng\u00e4be communities dotting the shores of the Tabasar\u00e1 River, the tumultuous shifts in the legal battle do not alter their reality on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re in a critical situation,\u201d said Manolo Miranda, a resident from the community of Kiad and a member of the M10 (Movimiento 10 de Abril) group opposing the dam. \u201cMany of our crops, predominantly the banana crops and usable wood, have been lost [to rising waters], and [the dam] has had a heavy impact on the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The dam\u2019s waters have receded marginally due to the country\u2019s dry season, likely to end around April. According to Miranda, 11 houses had been flooded so far and an additional four may need to be evacuated as the reservoir expands and continues flooding the comarca.<\/p>\n<p>The test flooding over the past seven months has demonstrated, the Ng\u00e4be say, the government\u2019s unwillingness to acknowledge the community\u2019s ongoing concerns. \u201cThe government still tries to push forward the project without acknowledging the environmental, social and cultural violations; it doesn\u2019t interest them. And for us it doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d said Miranda.<\/p>\n<p>According to ASEP\u2019s Meana, however, the government has maintained \u201cdaily contact with the affected people\u201d regarding their current situation. This contact, he says, is \u201cfirst to establish the degree of impact, and second to give a specific solution in the long term.\u201d He added that the government also remains in dialogue with representatives of the Ng\u00e4be-Bugle General Congress to resolve the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>The communities and their advocates deny that this continuous dialogue with the government has occurred. However, a government delegation that visited Kiad in February was presented with a document that called for <a href=\"https:\/\/victorianolorenzo.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/02\/propuesta-del-m10-bajar-el-embalse.pdf\">the immediate lowering<\/a> of reservoir levels to the comarca limits, a concession that now seems improbable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have asked the levels to be lowered, in writing. They said that the project [would be] 100 percent outside of the Comarca, so generate your electricity outside it, but don\u2019t allow the reservoir to affect the comarca territory,\u201d Weny Bagama said.<\/p>\n<p>The government has so far made no direct response to this demand, but has also not moved forward on the forced removal of the Ng\u00e4be communities.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194289\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/5-barro-blanco.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-194289\" src=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/03\/5-barro-blanco-768x460.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"460\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tabasar\u00e1 River near the Ng\u00e4be community of Kiad. With the Barro Blanco dam likely to go operational any day now, all appeals within Panama now exhausted, and international processes not looking promising, the Ng\u00e4be-Bugle communities have few options left. Whether the government will relocate the community\\ies, or how it may compensate people for lost homes or crops is unknown. Photo by Camilo Mejia Giraldo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Camilo Mejia Giraldo\u00a0reports in MongaBay that Panama will give its Barro Blanco dam an operational green light within<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[242,10,12,241,39,34,33,62,42,16,219,245,243,7,246,244,44],"class_list":["post-19411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-articles-panama-perpsective","tag-boca-chica-real-estate","tag-bocas-del-toro","tag-boquete","tag-boquete-real-estate","tag-buenaventura","tag-casco-antiguo","tag-casco-viejo","tag-coffee-in-panama","tag-estate-homes-in-panama","tag-estate-planning","tag-move-to-panama","tag-offshore-real-estate-panama","tag-panama-papers","tag-panama-real-estate","tag-relocate-to-panama","tag-rum-in-panama","tag-travel-to-panama"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Panama\u2019s Barro Blanco dam to 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