Social mobilization against large hydroelectric dams: A comparison of Ethiopia, Brazil, and Panama

Abstract

Large‐scale hydroelectric dams have—throughout their history—had adverse impacts on local population groups, natural resources, and entire eco‐systems furthering resistance and protest against them. In this paper, we aim to investigate the impact of social mobilization against large‐scale dams by considering political opportunity structures, actor constellations, and frames. We comparatively analyze three case studies in varying political systems, that is, Gibe III in Ethiopia, Belo Monte in Brazil, and Barro Blanco in Panama. Our investigation is based on field research in these countries comprising data collection of governmental reports, newspaper articles, materials published by civil society organizations, and semi‐structured interviews. The analysis reveals that the impact of mobilization against dams is certainly limited in contexts with authoritarian governments. In democratic contexts, the impact depends on the degree of external involvement, as well as the ability of movements to avoid fracture, especially in view of temporal dimensions of large infrastructure projects.

Large dams, norms and Indigenous Peoples

“…Previous research acknowledges that norms play an important role in democratic contexts of dam-building and in relation to an active civil society that is needed to build a strong transnational alliance against questionable governmental decisions (Khagram, 2004). Successful social mobilization can suspend dam-building (Schapper, Unrau, & Killoh, 2019) or even prevent the construction of a dam with a court decision, as in the case of the São Manoel dam in Brazil. A court ruling can be used for further effective social activism (International Rivers, 2013).…”

System for assessing the sustainability conditions of small hydro plants by fuzzy logic

“…Carrera and Mack (2010) believe on the lack of social indicators consideration in the sustainability assessment of energy technologies. Schapper, Unrau, and Killoh (2019) conclude that social mobilization can have an impact on dam‐building, understanding impact as a change in the way dam projects are planned or implemented. Carrera and Mack (2010) attempt to include this aspect, focusing on the social indicators to provide an input for future energy policy strategies, also considering that securing a sustainable energy provision is one of the central political challenges of the present day.…”

“…Despite the expansion of renewables in the past decade, boosted by the various policies and measures, renewable energy sources are still far from full incorporation into the energy markets (Lu et al, 2019). It is known that governmental actors have continuously presented dam projects as policies for sustainable development, modernity, and progress (Baird, Shoemaker, & Manorom, 2015;Schapper et al, 2019), although the negative appreciation of very large number of scientists, environmental activists, and members of public about the negative impacts that outweigh in the SHPs implantation (Abbasi & Abbasi, 2011). The application of this system is advantageous in finding out what can be improved in the enterprise in order to adapt it to what is desired for the hydrographic basin.…”

The Politics of Transnational Advocacy Against Chinese, Indian, and Brazilian Extractive Projects in the Global South

“…On the other hand, state repression of NGOs and Indigenous groups in Ethiopia severely limits the domestic strategies available to resist Indian investments (Schapper et al, 2020). Aside from protesting and vocalizing discontent, affected people have used, in the words of James Scott (1998), “everyday forms of resistance,” such as stealing or damaging the property of investors, grazing cattle on industrial plantations, and strategically deploying development language at public meetings to mollify state officials (Rahmato, 2014; Regassa et al, 2019).…”