Xingu River granted protected status

[Lisachromis]

Visitors to the Xingu River Lodge can now be assured of continuing exclusive access to a 30 km stretch of a protected fishery.

Belém, Pará ­ Brazil - June 26th, 2005:


An expanse of river in the vicinity of the Xingu River Lodge, known as Volta Grande do Xingu (The Great Bend of the Xingu), in the region of Belo Monte has been granted protected ecological status by COEMA (State Council on the Environment), in accord with the federal agencies of the Secretary of Science, Technology and Environment (SECTAM) and Secretariat of Agriculture (SAGRI).

Comprising 278 square kilometers, the region designated as the Sítio Pesqueiro Turístico Estadual Volta Grande do Xingu (State Sportfishing Reserve of the Great Bend of the Xingu), will enjoy the preservation of its natural resources through the restriction of use for solely sustainable purposes. Deforestation and pollution are now prohibited in the tract of surrounding land and adjoining river of the newly protected area ­ as well as industrial development, mining, real estate subdivisions, commercial fishing and non-sustainable exploitation of rainforest resources.

In a partnership between SECTAM and SAGRI, oversight of the region will be conducted under the rules established by the national program for the development of sportfishing (PNDPA), promoting the management of the fishery and aiming to establish disciplinary guidelines for its use.

The objective of establishing protected status is intended to provide a commitment to the maintenance of equilibrium of fish stocks and biodiversity in the region. Angling in this protected area will be strictly limited to catch-and-release techniques. An area of the reserve will be set aside for subsistence fishing of certain species of catfish, only outside of the spawning season.

(Source: O Liberal - Belém, Pará and Amigos da Terra ­ Amazônia Brasileira)

[Lisachromis]

Not so sure if this still the case. At any rate, interesting reading.....

About the Rio Xingu dam - Belo Monte - http://internationalrivers.org/en/latin ... ve-summary

Rio Xingu - http://internationalrivers.org/en/node/794

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/24 ... _KEY=24840

[Mike Wise]

I had a map (on a crashed hard drive now ) of eastern Brazil that showed where Brazil proposed to build hydroelectric dam. I got it from a friend who live in Brazil. If all of the dams were built, most of the Tocantins, Xingu, and Tapajos above the first rapids would be flooded. Same with some of the northern tributaries, too, like the Trombetas & Parantin.

[Lisachromis]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8492577.stm

Brazil's government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest.

[Lisachromis]

Update:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD9F3QGD02

Environmentalists aided by "Avatar" director James Cameron celebrated a big win Thursday after a judge suspended bidding on construction and operation of an Amazon dam that would be the planet's third-largest.

The ruling also resulted in the suspension of the hydroelectric project's environmental license. It was reminiscent of 1989, when rock star Sting protested the same dam alongside Indians in an event that helped persuade international lenders not to finance it at a time when Brazil was shuddering under a heavy foreign debt.

[blackghost]

From the same report...

"This dam is going to happen. It's just a matter of when it happens," Garman said.

Brazil has a fragile energy grid that was hit last year by a blackout that darkened much of the nation. Belo Monte would supply 6 percent of the country's electricity needs by 2014, the same year Brazil will host soccer's World Cup and just two years before Rio de Janeiro holds the 2016 Olympics.

Isnt it ironic that 'games' may be a decisive factor in rushing the completion of something that will have such a devastating effect on life?

Games/sport/revenue/kudos versus life...I know there's a lot more to it than this - it is probably a neccessary leap to stay in tune with an ever-expanding human population, but with these 'important' events approaching fast, they may just be the triggers that speed up the final 'go-ahead' of the project.

[Bas Pels]

The argument cited by Mark above is, however, not valid

The Bela Monte dam is projected in an area which is now virgin rainforrest. No concentration of human beings is nearby, and Rio de Janeiro is far, far away (over 2000 km / 1200 miles)

Electricity is costly to transport, due to resitancy of the coppewire. High voltage can reduce these costs, but high voltage equals high risks. No, this whole Bela Monte project is not intended to solve any problem in Rio, it is intended to produce aluminium from rain forest bedrock. The production of aluminium costs a lot of energy - hence the project

[Lisachromis]

To destroy a lot of land for only 6% of their needs seems rather odd to me. I would think they'd be better off to try and find a different source, or find a way to save what they can. Once you destroy it, you cannot reclaim it. It's forever changed by what we do.

[Mark Smith]

I wonder of Mr. Cameron (I really mean this too) can take some of the $2,000,000,000 worth in profits he has generated from his latest movie, Avatar, and put it towards blocking/holding up/offering up alternatives to, etc, to the construction of this dam? I would like to think he is already doing so in some substantial way(s).

[Lisachromis]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8633786.stm

[Bojan Dolenc]

BAD NEWS! Catastrophe
BRASILIA, Brazil 8/27/10 -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has signed the concession contract for the construction of the 11,200-MW Belo Monte hydropower plant in Brazil's Amazon, according to news services.
http://www.hydroworld.com/index/display ... plant.html
That means dying out of hundrets of endemic species, also fishes!
Beside well known Zebra Pleco Hypancistrus zebra here are some Cichlids from Rio Xingu (now endangered):
- Acarichthys heckelii, Acaronia nassa, Aequidens michaeli, Aequidens tetramerus, Apistogramma commbrae, Apistogramma gephyra, Apistogramma regani, Apistogramma sp., Caquetaia spectabilis, Chaetobrancopsis orbicularis, Chaetobrancus flavescens, Cichla ocellaris, Cichla sp. nov. “xingu”, Cichlasoma araguaiense, Crenicichla acutirostris, Crenicichla cametana, Crenicichla inpa, Crenicichla johanna, Crenicichla labrina, Crenicichla lugubris, Crenicichla macrophthalma, Crenicichla marmorata, Crenicichla percna, Crenicichla phaiospilus, Crenicichla cf. regani, Crenicichla reticulata, Crenicichla rosaemariae, Crenicichla saxatilis, Crenicichla cf. ternetzi, Crenicichla sp., Crenicichla sp. “laranja”, Crenicichla sp. “preta”, Crenicichla strigata, Crenicichla vittata, Geophagus altifrons, Geophagus argyrostictus, G. proximus, Heros severus, Hypselecara temporalis, Krobia guianensis, Laetacara sp. “7 bandas”, Mesonauta acora, Mesonauta festivus, Pterophyllum scalare, Retroculus xinguensis, Satanoperca jurupari, Symphysodon sp., Teleocichla centisquama, Teleocichla centrarchus, Teleocichla gephyrogramma, Teleocichla monogramma, Teleocichla sp. nov., Teleocichla proselytus, Teleocichla sp., Teleocichla sp. “LS”, Teleocichla sp. “PR”, Uaru amphiacanthoides.

(Rio Xingu Alenquer Curipera)
http://www.schall-diskus.net/Diskus%20I ... ripera.htm

[Darrell Ullisch]

Bojan, most of the species on your list are found in other Amazon tributaries besides the Xingu; at least one, Heros severus, doesn't even occur in the Amazon basin (it is an Orinoco species). Therefore, claiming that these species will be endangered (which has a specific legal meaning) is misleading, at best. If you wish to list species as potentially endangered, I'd suggest trimming down to the endemics. Also, it is not possible to flood the entire river system by building this dam, though it will take out a much larger percentage than I care to see.

As for how many species are endemic, this is a large part of the tragedy, as a great portion of this system hasn't even been thoroughly investigated yet. However, the idea that it might be in the hundreds (note the plural), I think, is overly optimistic (or pessimistic, given that some may disappear without ever having been discovered).

General comment here: any time you exaggerate your side of an argument, you are potentially giving your opponents the opportunity to present you as a liar. Even if your position is a good one, it comes into question as soon as the other side can prove that you have used some incorrect data. I know the temptation to overdramatize a problem, but if it is that serious, it doesn't need it. Present the verifiable evidence that you have; if that is insufficient to sway hearts and minds, so be it. If you think lying to get somewhere is good, than go into politics.

[Bojan Dolenc]

Thank you, Darrell for your comment, you are right. Indeed, in Rio Xingu actually lives Heros efasciatus Heckel, 1840. I only took those cichlids from this article (and here is the mistake on page 141 ! - Heros severus):
- Mauricio Camargo, Tommaso Giarrizzo & Victoria Isaac (2004): REVIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF FISH FAUNA OF THE XINGU RIVER BASIN, BRAZIL - ECOTROPICA 10: 123–147, 2004 © Society for Tropical Ecology
http://www.gtoe.de/public_html/publicat ... 202004.pdf

"Of all Brazil’s regions, the Amazonian biome has suffered most from political turmoil."
"The Xingu River basin is a classic example of “unplanned development”.
"Fish fauna diversity. In the Xingu River basin 467 fish species, belonging to 14 orders and 47 families, were identified (Appendix 1). (Cichlidae -(57 species))"
"Current knowledge on the biodiversity of the Xingu River fish fauna shows that more efforts should be deployed to provide data on the estimated 600 species (Camargo et al. 2002) that have not yet been properly studied. We have a detailed knowledge of the main channel fish fauna, but studies in small Xingu tributaries are rare."
"Despite great collection efforts in some areas of the Xingu basin, little is known about the fish fauna of small tributaries, which are surely important contributors to the expected diversity."

Critics say the Belo Monte plant will be hugely inefficient, generating less than 10% of its capacity during the three to four months of the year when water levels are low.

[Mike Wise]

I know that none of the Apistogramma species on the list exist in the Rio Xingu (except "Apistogramma sp.", of course. ) There are several undescribed species of Apistogramma in the region of the Bello Monte project: A. sp. Blauspeigel, A. sp. Xingu, A. sp. Parati, and A. sp. Chao. All are endemic to the Xingu and most to the area around the Bello Monte project. All but A. sp. Chao are found in streams entering the Xingu and probably will survive by moving farther upstream as their biotopes become flooded. A. sp. Chao, however, has only been found in shallow areas around islands in the Xingu itself. If these are flooded, I doubt that the species will survive.

[Bojan Dolenc]

"It is hard to imagine the extent of the damage building the dam will do when you haven’t stood yourself in the Amazon and seen her beauty and magnitude and seen how the people and the animals live interdependent with her forest’s lush green; words fail to encapsulate it also. Thousands of tiny and large rivers run through the forest and water is a major part of the ecosystem itself which is why if the Belo Monte project is undertaken, it will be a disaster. Building this series of dams is considered to be a key turning point for the Amazon and not in a positive way – it will be the end of life as they know it now for the thousands of people and species living there and the beginning of many more projects like Belo Monte as Brazil tries to meet the energy demands of its country in an economic way. The flooding of the forest to accommodate the dam will provoke a massive release of methane from the vegetation rotting beneath it, millions of years worth of a stored greenhouse gas 25 times more potent thanCO2 and the risk of malaria in surrounding areas will increase also as the insects are attracted to the stagnant water. If past experience of dam projects in the Amazon is any model, Belo Monte will give local people no other choice but to join the many loggers already active in the Amazon, as they can no longer earn income from fishing or their traditional livelihoods like hunting, which will contribute to further large-scale devastating deforestation.

This development cannot be considered sustainable if you add to this the introduction of electricity grids, transmission lines and access roads that will put further pressure on this precious rainforest."

Is Brazil’s Sustainable Development Really Sustainable?
By Clare Raybould, special to mongabay.com September 26, 2010
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0926-rayb ... Sanalytics

[Bojan Dolenc]

Great news from Brazil!
Brazil judge blocks Amazon Belo Monte dam


Kaiapo Indians protests against the Belo Monte dam in Brasilia, 8 February 2011 The ruling follows protests by local indigenous groups

A Brazilian judge has blocked plans to build a huge hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest because of environmental concerns.

[Bas Pels]

Good news, but an earlier similar ruling faced appeal - and within a few day the appeal court allowed the building to continue

The very fact an appeal court comes to a conlusion in a few days is wrong, I think. The matter is far to complicated for that - so that ruling stinked

I do hope the appeal in this matter will be taken seriously - and granted its time

[Bojan Dolenc]

A glut of new fish species have been described in the past week, one of which is Baryancistrus xanthellus, native to parts of the rio Xingu basin, Brazil. This is the 'gold nugget plec' known for years in the hobby as L018, L085, L177 and probably L081 as well.
Lúcia Rapp Py-Daniel, Jansen Zuanon and Renildo Ribeiro de Oliveira (2011): Two new ornamental loricariid catfishes of Baryancistrus from rio Xingu drainage (Siluriformes: Hypostominae). NEOTROPICAL ICHTHYOLOGY - Volume 9 Number 2, June 30, 2011
http://www.ufrgs.br/ni/vol9num2/v09n2a01.pdf
L-081= “Gold Nugget Pleco 'Small Spot'”; Rio Xingu is probably the same species, unfortunately this one is not mentioned in paper?

Because they are damming the river, these fish maybe lost in the wild forever!
Actually, the Belo Monte dam threatens L081, the others just have to worry about deforestation, pollution and overfishing. Interesting to note that the one most threatened by the dam is the one not mentioned in the paper. We shall see what the authors say, my guess is it was intentionally left out? Is this fish written off yet?

What can we aquarists do in this tragical event, before our eyes one incredible species is gone to eternity?
Damn Belo Monte!

[JENN457]

Poirier says the Belo Monte will require more land to be unearthed than during the construction of the Panama Canal. In addition, the dam will flood around 66,800 hectares—over half of which is rainforest—and force the removal of somewhere between 16,000 and 40,000 people. The Xingu River's unique species and important fishing grounds will also be impacted.

Experts fear for a number of species that only live in the Xingu River or its floodplains (see photos below), including the slender dwarf pike cichlid (Teleocichla centisquama), a unique species of plant-eating piranha (Ossubtus xinguense), the Xingu dart-poison frog (Allobates crombiei), and two pleco fish, also known as 'suckerfish', who thrive in the Xingu's clear waters: the aptly-named zebra pleco (Hypancistrus zebra) and the sunshine pleco (Scobinancistrus aureatus).

"Cutting off the seasonal floodwaters of the Xingu would lead to the extinction of at least ten species of fish that are endemic to the Big Bend, and have a grave impact upon countless other species," says Poirier. "Other migratory species such as the white-blotched river stingray and numerous turtle species will also lose access to their breeding grounds."

here is an entire article about this http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0615-hance_lcts_xinguriver.html

[Bojan Dolenc]

Dammed