Hydroelectric Development on the Bío-Bío River, Chile: Anthropology and Human Rights Advocacy

Johnston, Barbara Rose; Garcia-Downing, Carmen

doi:10.5040/9781350220720.ch-013

Cited by 29 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Nonetheless, critics continued to argue that the Bank's practices, with respect to the environmental and social impacts of the projects they financed, fell short of its promises (Fox and Brown 1998;Goldman 2005). The Bank also found itself under attack by campaigners against the Chilean Ralco Dam, culminating in a public apology by Bank president James Wolfensohn in 1998, a subsequent investigation by the Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC), and compensation payments to some of the indigenous people who had been displaced (Johnston and Garcia-Downing 2004;Nesti 2002).…”

Section: Dam Conflicts In the 1980-1990s: Anti-dam Activists Versus T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing conflict over dams: The inception and establishment of the World Commission on Dams

Schulz

Adams

2022

Water Hist

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The World Commission on Dams (WCD) was active between 1998 and 2000. Despite the Commission’s short life, it left a lasting mark on the global debate on large dams, one of the most intractable and conflicted issues in environmental governance. Existing accounts of the Commission focus chiefly on its recommendations and their influence on dam planners. Another major topic of interest has been the novelty of making global environmental policy through multi-stakeholder dialogue rather than through intergovernmental negotiation. This focus on technicalities, results, and institutional design underplays the Commission’s political significance. It was a bold and innovative attempt to find common ground between promoters and opponents of dams on which a new way of thinking about and planning dams could be built. In this paper, we focus on the emergence of the Commission, in response to the evolving conflict over dams, particularly between the World Bank and its critics. We explore the processes that led to the establishment of the Commission and its role as an attempt to transform conflict into cooperation by bringing together pro- and anti-dam communities.

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Section: Dam Conflicts In the 1980-1990s: Anti-dam Activists Versus T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing conflict over dams: The inception and establishment of the World Commission on Dams

Schulz

Adams

2022

Water Hist

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“…However, an external audit commissioned by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC), conducted by applied anthropologist Theodore Downing (1996), found that the IFC funds were inappropriately used to resettle Pehuenche residents for another, more controversial, Ralco hydroelectric project. ENDESA pressured IFC to censor Downing's audit, but a social movement led by the Chilean environmental organization Grupo de Alto Bío Bío (GABB) and international NGOs—including International Rivers and NRDC—ultimately led to an intervention from the Committee for Human Rights of the American Anthropological Association (Downing and Garcia-Downing 2001; Johnston and Garcia-Downing 2004). Nonetheless, the flooding of 4000 km 2 of forests and subsequent displacement led to widespread depression and suicide among local residents (Del Bene et al 2018).…”

Section: Ethnoecology As Environmental Tactic In Chilean Patagoniamentioning

confidence: 99%

Splintered Hinterlands: Public Anthropology, Environmental Advocacy, and Indigenous Sovereignty

Blair

2019

Journal of Ethnobiology

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This research analyzes the roles of action ethnobiology and public anthropology in “ecological distribution conflicts”—disputes over the benefits and burdens of natural resources—in policy-oriented research and advocacy. It considers the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) international campaigns to protect “frontier landscapes” of the Western hemisphere. Specifically, I examine case studies in Chilean Patagonia and the boreal forest region in the Canadian Northeast. Despite geographical, historical, and cultural differences, NRDC's campaigns in these two regions involved a shared focus on developing advocacy strategies that draw on biocultural knowledge to advance stronger environmental protections. NRDC and its local partners used ethnoecology as an environmental tactic to protect rivers from proposed large hydroelectric dam projects in Chile, and drew upon ethnozoology to preserve caribou threatened by industrial logging in Canada. To consider the synergies and tensions of environmental advocacy and Indigenous sovereignty in these two instances, I analyze partnerships between environmental activists, lawyers, and scientists on the one hand, and Indigenous leaders and local residents on the other. Taking a public anthropological approach, this comparative research sheds light on the role of action ethnobiology as a condition of possibility for advocacy to enhance environmental sustainability and Indigenous sovereignty across the Americas.

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“…Por ejemplo, en el informe de Égré (2007) se menciona su aplicación en las centrales hidroeléctricas de Urrá 1 en Colombia y de Itaipú en Brasil y Paraguay, sin embargo, no considera que ambos casos son fuertemente criticados por sus altos impactos negativos sobre las comunidades indígenas afectadas y porque los BC se implementaron por orden judicial en Urrá 1 y solo después de dos décadas de ejecutado el proyecto en Itaipú. En Chile, la central hidroeléctrica Ralco utilizó algunas formas de BC (compensaciones individuales y financiamiento de programas de desarrollo comunitario), pero Johnston & García-Downing (2004) describen las fallas tanto de la empresa como del gobierno para negociar los acuerdos. Por su parte, Zarsky & Stanley (2011) abordan los beneficios directos e indirectos obtenidos por Guatemala y por las comunidades afectadas de los ingresos de la mina Marlin y concluyen que las comunidades reciben solo un 5% de los ingresos (en gran parte como beneficios indirectos), y el gobierno nacional un 41% del total.…”

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Beneficios compartidos y la gobernanza de la extracción de recursos naturales en territorios indígenas: aportes y limitaciones para Latinoamérica

Bustamante-Rivera

Martin†²

2018

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Los beneficios compartidos corresponden a una modalidad reciente de gobernanza de la extracción de recursos naturales en territorios indígenas en la que las industrias extractivas comparten directamente con las comunidades afectadas una parte de los beneficios obtenidos en sus operaciones. En el centro del debate se encuentra el tema del rol del Estado ante los proyectos extractivos, el carácter asimétrico de las negociaciones directas entre comunidades e industrias extractivas, sus reales resultados para las comunidades y la naturaleza de las negociaciones para acordar los beneficios compartidos. Se discute su aplicabilidad en el contexto latinoamericano.

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Hydroelectric Development on the Bío-Bío River, Chile: Anthropology and Human Rights Advocacy

Cited by 29 publications

References 0 publications

Addressing conflict over dams: The inception and establishment of the World Commission on Dams

Addressing conflict over dams: The inception and establishment of the World Commission on Dams

Splintered Hinterlands: Public Anthropology, Environmental Advocacy, and Indigenous Sovereignty

Beneficios compartidos y la gobernanza de la extracción de recursos naturales en territorios indígenas: aportes y limitaciones para Latinoamérica

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